Realm of Embers – Liberator of an Ancient Land
I first became aware of Transatlantic symphonic folk/melodic death metal band Realm of Embers through my Instagram suggestions, where they’d focused a lot of their branding on the fact that they had a bassoon player.
Susanna Hartland
Naturally, singer and bassoon player (as well as pianist, accordion player, and tin whistle player) Susanna Hartland would quickly demonstrate that just having a bassoon in the first place was far from her only skill, but I was initially worried Liberator of an Ancient Land would sell itself just on that.
Luckily, despite what their Instagram would suggest, the instrumentation on Liberator of an Ancient Land ends up being far more substantial, helping to balance the symphonic folk and melodic death styles on the album. The bassoon is of course prominent, often leading melodies in the place of the lead guitar, and it pairs well with other instruments such as the tin whistle and the viola. The guitar work throughout the album, however, also demonstrates technical complexity, with some excellent soaring riffs and exciting solos, demonstrated particularly well on late album highlight ‘Traveller.’ The pairing of clean and harsh vocals in particular help to give these two styles characters that can be exchanged with each other, creating a sound that moves back and forth between Nightwish and Cruachan, with an occasional hint of Dimmu Borgir on the darker tracks, such as ‘Let the Darkness Rule.’ Throughout the album, Realm of Embers demonstrate their ability to convey a good range of tones, from the defiant protest of ‘Was it Enough,’ to the melancholy, folk-driven ‘The Bard’s Tale,’ culminating in the epic climax of ‘This is the End.’
Overall, Liberator of an Ancient Land is a solid heavy metal album with some excellent uses of folk instrumentation. The bassoon isn’t necessarily as central to the album as I’d assumed, but it’s integrated well when it is used, and I suppose one has to bend the truth a fair amount when it comes to marketing. Realm of Embers’ first album is a solid base on which I hope they will be able to build on as the project evolves.
Review written by Charlie Valentine
Charlie is a fan of heavy and experimental music from Liverpool. They enjoy discovering new artists and styles, and are working towards more research in extreme music and its scenes.