01	Shelob						03:03
	02	The Brown Bull of Cooley						05:23
	03	Coffin Ships						01:47
	04	The Great Hunger						06:06
	05	The old Lady in the Woods						01:50
	06	Ungoliant						03:55
	07	The Morrigan's Call						01:47
	08	Teir abhail Ru						04:14
	09	Wolfe Tone						02:55
	10	The Verry Wild Rover						04:02
	11	Cuchulainn						06:20
	12	Diarmuid and Grainne						05:17

Release date: 17 November 2006
Style: Celtic Folk metal

Rating:
7.9 | 10 votes


01. Shelob
02. The Brown Bull Of Cooley
03. Coffin Ships
04. The Great Hunger
05. The Old Woman In The Woods
06. Ungoliant
07. The Morrigan's Call
08. Teir Abhail Ru
09. Wolfe Tone
10. The Very Wild Rover
11. CuChulainn
12. Diarmuid And Grainne

Review


Folk Metal
Label: AFM Records
Distribution in France, and to buy the album => http://www.underclass-music.com
Ireland: 2006
Length: 47:52

Line-Up on the CD:
Vocals, percussions: Karen Gilligan
Guitars, vocals, bodhran, mandolin, bouzouki, banjo, percussions: Keith Fay
Bass, vocals: John Clohessy
Drums, percussions: Joe Farrell


Cruachan - The Morrigan’s Call (9/10) - Ireland - 2006

Genre: Folk Metal / Black Metal
Label: AFM Records
Playing time: 47:08
Band homepage: Cruachan

Irish CRUACHAN have been one of the unheralded heroes of Metal for many, many years now. With four excellent albums under their belt the band from Dublin managed to forge a sound of their own, but continuously changing to avoid uniformity, starting out with the pure Folk Black Metal of “Tuatha Na Gael”, continuing through pure Folk Metal to a Blackened variant of Folk Metal, so what would the band around mastermind Keith O’Fathaigh have on offer on album number five, “The Morrigan’s Call”?

Well, they have increased the Black Metal element a bit again, now forming a pretty well balanced union of the two extremes of Folk and Black, but they have not lost an iota of their true strength, the amalgamation of their Celtic roots and Metal and they continue to do so even more varied than before. They basically are taking the best elements of their Black Metal past (they even re-recorded “Cuchulainn” off their legendary debut “Tuatha Na Gael”!) with Keith Fay’s hoarse rasp and the newer Folk Metal with Karen Gilligan’s excellent voice, bringing them into a true union.

And with AFM Records they should finally have found a stable label to back them up long term, too, after their rather unfortunate past in this department. The array of instruments is as impressive as ever, with bouzouki, mandolin, banjo, bodhran, flute, violin and more accompanying the traditional Metal instruments, creating a unique atmosphere, which is showcased off the bat with “Shelob”, which puts the two extremes together, brutal Black Metal on the one hand and Folk Metal with female vocals on the other, a recipe that the Irish folks utilize more than once in the course of this album.

“The Brown Bull Of Cooley” continues in this vein, creating a whirlwind of Metal inevitably drawing you in and unleashing this inimitable energy at the listener, including a very unusually used violin in the heavier parts! “Coffin Ships” is a kind of intro for the VERY intense “The Great Hunger”, where the music perfectly mirrors the story of the song, another trademark of CRUACHAN, taking on a very traditional Irish in many of their lyrics. “The Old Woman In The Woods” right after stands in crass contrast, though, with its very light and merry rhythm, before “Ungoliant” conjures up a very dark atmosphere, so you can see that the Irish are at their best here!

The production is powerful, but still has this certain roughness to it, lending it its own charm and the cover artwork stands in full CRUACHAN tradition as well. “The Morrigan’s Call” has the potential to become CRUACHAN’s best album so far, but with the different approaches that their albums take, I would not want to pick one, but I would advise you to get them all!

(Online December 22, 2006)



CRUACHAN
'The Morrigan's Call' (Candlelight Records)
RATING: 7/10

By RYAN MAVITY

I was fully prepared to dislike The Morrigan’s Call by Cruachan. In the album’s press release, it was labeled as “Irish Metal/Pagan/Folk.” Now just what the fuck does that mean?

So I put the album on and prepared to write one of those juicy, bad reviews I love doing so much. I heard the first track, “Shelob,” and thought, “Ok, now what the fuck is this?” But then a strange thing happened. As the album went on, my thoughts turned to, “This ain’t so fucking bad after all.” It may be impossible to categorize Cruachan, but I suppose I will give it a shot: If a metal band with an Irish folk singer hijacked The Pogues, I think this would be the result. The band mixes metal, Irish folk, odd harmonies and melodies only a fine Irish lad could love.

Some of these songs, in fact, sound like old Irish drinking songs set to heavy metal, like “Teir Abhaile Riu,” “Wolfe Tone” and “The Brown Bull of Cooley.” The songs are lent an authenticity with the voice of Karen Gilligan, who has that classic Irish folk voice. She sings solo on some songs like “The Old Woman in the Woods” and “The Great Hunger.” Other times she duets with the band’s founder/guitarist Keith Fay, like on “Cuchulainn.” Fay’s vocals run the gamut from sneering punk to death metal growl. And despite the overall weird vibe, there are some pretty acoustic guitar parts and ambient sounds mixed in with a touch of thrash and death metal.

The Morrigan’s Call takes a little time to grow on you. It’s such an unusual style of music that it doesn’t quite register. This might not be everybody’s cup of tea, but it will make for a nice change of pace at St. Patrick’s Day or a good soundtrack whenever the make another one of those Leprechaun movies.


Damn lately the chance was not really on the side of Cruachan. When they finally found the way to sign with a good label to release their long awaited album, "The Morrigan's Call", this label found the way to disappear (and by the way, this is one more time a proof that the music market is not so good nowadays). Later and after some delay, the German label AFM records decided to release the album so now, be happy fans of Celtic music, our favorite Irish Metal combo is back and you'll finnaly be able to find their new album.

"The Morrigan's Call" follows the traditional spirit of the music of the band. Don't expect anything really new in this release, Cruachan just follows the road of their previous album, "Pagan". You can expect flute, violin, catchy choruses dancing music and epic melodies. It's good Irish Folk Metal but it's not so surprising too. Cruachan is a good band, the musicians proved it one more time with this release which doesn't suffer of a lot of problems, except maybe that it seems that it is a bit like a routine for them.

But nonetheless the songs are cool, "The Great Hunger" for example is really catchy with a beautiful line of violin, when "Shelob" is fast and full of rhythm. The opposition between the cute voice of Karen and the death one of Keith still works, no it's ok really. We even have a cover of the "drunken" Irish songs "The Very Wild Rover" (I prefer the one that Tyr did this year however). "The Morrigan's Call" is a good album, but I will never say that it's their best release. If we have a majority of good things on this release, some songs are a bit average too and not so catchy.

And here we are with the "The Morrigan's Call the last album of Cruachan… One more time with the band, we're in front of a pleasant release but when you compare it to "Folk-Lore" this is clearly not better. Without any real evolution in its music Cruachan just released a good album which is unfortunately a bit basic on a side. The fans of the band will probably be happy, but the ones who want something new and exceptional will maybe be a bit disappointed.

published 05.01.2007