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Cruachan – The Living and The Dead
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Whether seen as a compliment or a poisoned chalice, the fact that Irish folk/ Celtic metal-ers Cruachan were recently asked to contribute a song for consideration as Ireland’s entry to the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest (ultimately unsuccessful) tells you they are a band of fiercely Irish note and renown, as well as one of the longest running Irish folk metal bands in history.

However, in 2020, in the middle of the pandemic and with three core members departing, founder and ever-present Keith Fay suddenly found himself as a one-man band; but with a 30th Anniversary on the 2022 horizon he thankfully decided against disbanding Cruachan.

Through fate, circumstance and perhaps a slice of good fortune/ timing Cruachan, suitably kilted and musically booted once again, marched into their thirtieth, and now thirty-first, year of Irish folk metaldom with their best album to date, The Living and The Dead, on the back of one of their strongest ever line-ups.

Nor does it hurt that Keith Fay (lead vocals, various instrumentation), bassist Joe Farrell (a returning member who previously played drums with the band), noted Irish metal drummer Tom Woodlock, guitarist Dave Quinn and folk violinist Audrey Trainor, are augmented on many of the songs by a number of guest musicians and singers including Geoffrey Dell’Aria (bagpipes, tin whistle, low whistle) and backing vocalist Kim Dylla (who is also, on occasion, the band’s female live vocalist).

Opener, the short instrumental 'The Living,' is well named, a full metal-jig that’s alive and kicking up merry Celtic hell (think double-time Riverdance metal, although even the fittest and fastest Irish dancers in the Emerald Isle couldn’t keep up with this one, not with a crate of Red Bull to give them wings on their ankles).

What follows is Cruachan’s bold, sometimes savage and boisterous brand of Irish/ Celtic and oft-times black metal, with the occasional classical influence for good musical measure.

From the Iron Maiden meets Irish folk tale of 'The Queen' and 'Hawthorne' (folk-metal balladeering with a Metallica-esque finale) to the heavy Celtic rock boogie of 'The Witch' (sporting a guitar solo from Venom’s Stu "La Rage" Dixon) and album closer 'The Dead' (the darker and more gutturally intense bookend to 'The Living'), this is heady, hardy and in places, deceptively complex stuff.

Additionally, while there are few songs where Keith Fay’s guttural/ tribal vocal don’t make an appearance (think a growlier James Hetfield) he is no one-dimensional vocalist, as heard to fine effect on, among others, 'The Harvest' and 'The Crow.'
Both those songs are definitive and strong examples of Cruachan’s traditional Irish folk (musically & vocally) melding with thick riffed metal. The latter, which opens traditionally before kicking in to an angrier double time metal jig, deserves special mention for lyrically commemorating the thousands of children who died in the originally unreported atrocities of Ireland’s Mother and Baby Homes from as far back as the 1920s.

One of the album's weightiest numbers (in more ways in one) is 'The Reaper,' which carries some of the heaviest passages of the entire album; such passages (and Keith Fay’s growl vocal) are counter-pointed by a slowly building instrumental section that features Sinead Richards (the 14 year old daughter of the album’s producer Michael Richards) on Euphonium and a guitar power-chord backed violin in full cry.
The instrumental section is particularly poignant given the song is about Keith Fay’s father, who sadly passed in 2020.

Elsewhere you’ll find notable guest contributions on the traditionally arranged (but fully rocked up) 'The Children' (featuring long-time previous band member John Fay on tin whistle), 'The Changeling' (the softer vocal of guest singer Nella contrasting with Keith Fay’s later growl vocal) and the death metal shorn 'The Ghost.'
The latter, which features a lead vocal from guest singer Mathias "Vreth" Lillmåns, is all bludgeoning riffs and incessant beat.    

In summary, The Living and The Dead shows that Keith Fay, in the face of line-up change adversity, is still as passionate and proud of Cruachan (and Irish folk and metal music) as he was three decades and nine albums ago.
Irish folk metal eyes should certainly be smiling.
 
Ross Muir
FabricationsHQ

 
The Living and The Dead will be released on March 24th via Despotz Records.
Formats: Digital/ CD/ Vinyl
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