Artist: Fearlight (Russia)
Album Title: Наш Завет (Our Legacy)
Label: Gardarika Musikk (Russia)
Released: 2007
Although I enjoy folk metal bands from all over Europe (and elsewhere), there's something about Russian bands that tends to resonate with me especially deeply. Over the past few years, I have found many great bands from there, beginning with my discovery of Pagan Reign and Arkona. I make it a point to seek out Russian folk metal bands, so I am always pleased to discover a new one. Fearlight came to my attention through a music video on Youtube, and I was immediately taken with their sound and image. I immediately ordered their debut CD, Our Legacy, and, for a few days, I couldn't listen to anything else.
Like many folk metal bands from Russia, Fearlight is a bit of a mystery to me. Their website doesn't seem to be up anymore, and there is very little information about them online. According to their label, they began in 2005 as a doom metal band, but not much else in the way of band information is given, except that they took their time completing Our Legacy due to their wanting the production and arrangements to be perfect. I was able to listen to their 2005 demo and was surprised at how their style changed between the demo and their debut album. Their early sound is very much rooted in gothic metal, and though a few elements of their sound have survived (the use of both female and male vocals), it might as well be an entirely different band.
Fearlight is a five-piece band from Saint Petersburg, Russia. There are two vocalists in the band, "Elf" (a male, and also the band's guitarist) and "Albinoni" (a female, and the band's keyboardist). Neither of them have particularly strong voices, but they sound fine on this album, especially when singing together. I wouldn't say that they harmonize (this isn't Odroerir); rather they seem to mostly sing in unison. They both have soft voices, which gives the music a bit more of a gentle, folky sound than most bands that call themselves folk metal. Elf also utilizes a harsh vocal style, but very rarely. The band also includes a bassist ("Sin K River") and a drummer ("Makmillan Arfist"), as well as a tin whistle- and bagpipe-player ("Scald").
Our Legacy somewhat alternates between slower, ballad-like songs, and faster ones. Many of the songs (like track 8, "Три девы" or "Three Wise Maids") sound very much like folk songs at their base, rather than metal songs with folk instruments added to the mix. The bagpipes and tin whistles are beautifully intertwined with the traditional metal instruments, and folk melodies (as well as elements of classical music) are all over this album. Those who accuse folk metal of being inauthentic in its relation to folk music should give this CD a listen.
Another feature of Our Legacy is the sheer addictiveness of this album. When I received it, I listened to it for a few hours in the evening, and then throughout the entire next day at work. This is one of those albums that, once I reach the end, I want to go back and listen to the beginning again. It doesn't hurt that the first actual song on the album (after the Intro), "Лес" or "The Wood," features a beautiful chorus that I love to hear again and again. And the fourth song, the title track, is one of those songs I could listen to on repeat all day. Fortunately, the rest of the album maintains a high level of quality, with nothing I would consider "filler." At 36 minutes, it's a brisk listen, but an immensely enjoyable and satisfying one. The one minor criticism I could make is that two of the songs use English lyrics, and they don't make any sense to me. What exactly does the line "Vanishing is me, like a mad in fears" mean? Fortunately, the broken English was not noticeable to me when listening to the album, but I hope that in the future they stick to the Russian lyrics.
The album finishes with an outro that features music by the great composer Modest Moussorgsky and some folk poetry. When it's all done, inevitably I begin at track 1 again and am never tempted to skip any of the tracks on my next listen. I've had the CD for a few weeks now and it continues to delight me, though I have listened to it dozens of times. Therefore, it is very easy for me to recommend it to fans of true folk metal. Fearlight may not be a well-known name in Russian folk metal yet (in comparison to Alkonost, Butterfly Temple, or Arkona), but after an album like this, they deserve to get a lot more recognition than they have gotten so far. Hopefully Gardarika Musikk will get the CD out there so that more people can hear it. Tracking it down on this side of the Atlantic is practically impossible. Fortunately the good folks at Dark Symphonies got in a few copies, though they sold out quickly.
I will do my small part to help spread the word about Fearlight by typing "BUY THIS!" and posting this review on my humble blog that nobody reads.
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