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Collaborative Review by AK Bergwanderer and GOS
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GOS: Tyler! My man! How are you doing on this fine evening? I, for one am fucking AMPED about this new AULD RIDGE release Folklore from Further Out, as well as other upcoming activity from this artist which will be forthcoming this year.
AKB: Yo! I am doing great! I too am equally pumped about the new AULD RIDGE! A collaborative review is the perfect way to celebrate this.
GOS: I sort of forget which one of us came across AULD RIDGE first. I actually think that it was our Black Metal Daily contributor and cohort Nathan who brought the project to my attention, and then I might have shared it with you somewhere along the way? But at any rate, I know that in 2021 I was introduced to The Hermetic Order of Ytene with AULD RIDGE’s Consanguineous Tales of Bloodshed and Treachery, then the sister album Consanguineous Hymns of Faith and Famine shortly thereafter, then I discovered ALBIONIC HERMETICISM and I was off to the races, so to speak! Since then we have both been following Ytene pretty closely.
AKB: I believe you are correct… I seem to recall Nathan posting about it, then I dove right on into the Hermetic Order rabbit hole. Perhaps you tagged me in a post? It doesn’t matter at this point, but I am glad it happened! Anyway, …Hymns of Faith and Famine and Mítt Ríce is where my AULD RIDGE experience began. I’ve only recently tracked down a copy of …Bloodshed and Treachery, and I could NOT be happier about that. I did get into ALBIONIC HERMETICISM at the same time, starting with Psalms To The Father and the Swēsaz Ambos split with YNKLEUDHERHENAVOGYON (however the hell you pronounce *THAT*). In other words, I tread down a similar path of discovery as you. I have since then been able to obtain all the physical copies I can get, that’s available in my preferred CD format anyway, from each of these projects.
GOS: In an effort to catch readers up with this black metal badassery, what we have here, as far as I know, is one artist who goes by the title O.W.G.A., is from England but is currently living in France, and who runs his own small label called The Hermetic Order of Ytene, with support and distribution from Amor Fati Productions and Dark Adversary Productions. Beneath the Ytene banner he has at least three active projects, which are AULD RIDGE, ALBIONIC HERMETICISM, and SKARE (which, oddly, in some places is listed as a project from Australia). I am familiar with the most recent albums from each project but I think you are more familiar with the discographies as a whole. Since AULD RIDGE is our subject here, how would you describe them as distinct from the other two?
AKB: Well, first off, I would say all of the projects have a very strong second wave foundation. AULD RIDGE perhaps being the most ‘traditional’ of the three, with the additional influence of some really good folk music roots. ALBIONIC HERMETICISM seems to be more raw, and a bit more avante-garde in its approach. SKARE I would describe as being most like your traditional, yet way above average “atmospheric black metal” project. It truly is difficult to figure out how to properly separate them out, as all three projects do have massive amounts of atmosphere that they each create. All three projects revolve around the almighty riff. However, with the onset of both Folklore From Further Out and Nova Nativitas Mundi, the newest ALBIONIC HERMETICISM effort, any of those distinct lines that separated these three specific projects have gotten a bit blurred. Each of these two specific albums borrow elements from the others. But we’ll get deeper into that here in a minute. Though I will say that ALBIONIC HERMETICISM deserves its own dedicated analysis at some point soon. Time to focus on the task at hand!
GOS: Absolutely!
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‘A Pact With Kólumkilli’
GOS: No idea who Kólumkilli is. Wikipedia says: “Independent People: An Epic (Icelandic: Sjálfstætt fólk) is a novel by Nobel laureate Halldór Laxness, originally published in two volumes in 1934 and 1935… The novel is considered among the foremost examples of social realism in Icelandic fiction in the 1930s. It is an indictment of materialism, the cost of the self-reliant spirit to relationships, and capitalism itself. …Independent People is the story of the sheep farmer Guðbjartur Jónsson Bjartur… [who] has recently managed to put down the first payment on his own farm… The land that he buys is said to be cursed by Saint Columba, referred to as ‘the fiend Kolumkilli’ and haunted by an evil woman named Gunnvör, who made a pact with Kólumkilli.”
AKB: Yeah, I have no idea who the players are in this tale, but we do get a glimpse of the premise of what Folklore From Further Out is actually referring to. I had read, I believe on the Dark Adversary website, that each song is a different folktale from the UK and also beyond their borders. Further out from home, as it were.
GOS: Indeed. In this case, I’m not sure if the first track is referring to Iceland or Ireland, however, as Saint Columba is a Catholic Saint mostly involved in Irish lore. At any rate… pressing ‘play’. Standard simple riff at first but I just KNOW this is going to go off into some epic shit. Some atmospheric synth comes in at about 1 minute… pace is picking up by 1:30… here we go…
AKB: The very first thing that jumps out to me is the big step up in production compared to previous efforts. Not that the previous albums sounded horrible by any means, but this is a big step up. That bass guitar is really cutting through!
GOS: Yeah, definitely! Okay, now about 2.5 minutes in and I guess this is a good time to note right off the bat that this dude is a fucking riff machine. I don’t know how he comes up with such amazing guitar work for all three projects! Ahhh, 3:45 it hits! Everything just got dialed up and by 4:10 we are in full, epic swing. That didn’t take long! Fuuuuuuuck. Ugh, I love this so much already.
AKB: Yes! This is, by far, some of his best riff work for any of his prior albums under this particular banner. And we’re not even 6 min into the first song. I should ask if you’re already seeing what I alluded to earlier, about how O.W.G.A. seems to be combining elements from the other projects. A similar move I had felt Roman Saenko pulled in that newest HATE FOREST album, as we heard elements of Drudkh, Windswept, etc. This sounds like an Auld Ridge album, but it is offering SO much more than before. I mean, more than epic, melodic, savage riffwork of course. And… drums sound more live than before, like recorded in a legit studio. To be quite honest, I don’t recall the drums on previous efforts sounding fake per se, but this is another element that has stepped up on top of everything else.
GOS; Absolutely. Although I think I would need more listens to really absorb everything, I certainly recognize some SKARE elements in the keys here. They have that sort of church/medieval/ almost gothic sound to them which I mostly associate with SKARE. The feels in the second half of this track are out of control. Not only can he riff like a madman, but the melodies he creates are sublime, both the fast ones and the slow and acoustic ones.
‘Titchfield Abbey’
AKB: Something about this definitely reminds me of the Mítt Ríce debut…
GOS: I’m not as familiar. Does it have a lot of acoustic material? That’s what this is, quite beautiful. Side note: “Titchfield Abbey is a medieval abbey and later country house, located in the village of Titchfield near Fareham in Hampshire, England. The abbey was founded in 1222 for Premonstratensian canons, an austere order of priests. The abbey was a minor house of its order, and became neither wealthy nor influential during its three centuries of monastic life; the inhabitants were devoted to scholarship, as shown by their very impressive library.” (Wikipedia)
AKB: It’s all acoustic, save for the very last track. And it doesn’t really go “black metal”. Instead, it’s a rather sludgy, doom-y affair. But, yes, this is absolutely the type of material that makes up that first album. And you are right, this is a beautiful track!
‘The Sound Of The Fyrth Begins To Creep’
GOS: This one starts out pretty slow and plodding. Building up to something at 2 minutes… oh, nevermind. More acoustic, but still building… THERE WE GO! Love the second wave-ish riff towards the end of the 3 minute mark, then the double kick ramps up and the keyboard swells, then it chills out a little and does it again… this is awesome.
AKB: Oh man… that acoustic bit… with the slinky bass guitar… building up to that literal EXPLOSION. “Epic” is a term that gets tossed around far too freely, and I am as guilty as anyone of using such a phrase, but holy fuckin’ hell, how else do you describe this when such a simple word suffices? And there we go again with the medieval sounding synth work. The riff work once again proves to be mind boggling. Was that a lead guitar lick we just heard??? I’m looking at the lyrics right now, and I am uncertain of the source. But in a nutshell, it tells the tale of a priest traveling from Ulster towards Meath (Ireland) in the middle of the night, who encounters a hideous beast. This beast explains that a great curse had been placed upon it by an abbot named Natalis, and is wishing for last rites so it can die a ‘Christian Death’. In hopes that others can get their hands on a physical copy themselves, I will offer no spoilers about the tale’s end, but it’s rather scholastic, well written stuff. Ok, MASSIVE is another way to describe this album so far. Another overused phrase, but fuck it. It works.
GOS: The second half of this track is just riff upon riff upon riff… and this song is almost 11 minutes long! I’m hearing symphony, choirs, and that double kick just keeps coming in and fucking it up! Whew! Next level, even for AULD RIDGE!
‘Auld Spurgin Hide’
GOS: I’m noting that this is another acoustic deal, and I’m also seeing that the pattern continues with yet another shorter acoustic track in between the next two longer, presumably black metal tracks. You don’t mind it in this case? I know that that was one of your criticisms of the band STORMRULER (which is fucking great by the way), that they put instrumental interludes between each track…
AKB: My issue with the STORMRULER interludes is that they all sound like symphonic power metal openers, and were total energy killers for me while sandwiched between quite adept melodic black metal tracks. On this album, #1) There’s not 20 tracks to sift through, with ten of each kind of musical selection. #2) The interludes on *this* album fits the vibe and overall aesthetic that the proper black metal tracks establish, and it feels like a cohesive WHOLE, and not filler for the sake of having BLIND GUARDIAN levels of absurd track listings. Something even they themselves have gotten away from. But I digress, with the acoustic moments that have popped up so far in the metallic offerings, the interludes don’t feel all that out of place. And, admittedly, I am quite a neo-folk fan anyway, so this is all in my preferred listening wheelhouse, so to speak.
GOS: Fair enough. For some reason even though on paper STORMRULER is overdoing it, it has never bothered me in listening. And these AULD RIDGE interludes certainly aren’t putting me off. They are quite beautiful.
AKB: I think a big part of my enjoyment of these acoustic tracks, is the fact that you can tell there is the same kind of care and effort into actually constructing a proper *song* out of these tracks, as he’s put in with the proper metal tracks. It’s not just an atypical “black metal band strums an acoustic guitar and calls it an interlude” type of tune that was probably whipped up, on the fly, while recording in the studio. O.W.G.A. approaches these tracks with the mindset of a proper neo-folk artist, in my opinion.
‘An Omen of Death Heralds the Season’
GOS: Well, this one wastes no time… Goddamn.
AKB: Yeah man, I was looking forward to this one. This is one of the three teaser tracks that came out on YouTube. Call it bias from hearing this previously, but this one is probably my favorite track. THE RIIIFFFFSSSSS!!!
GOS: Exactly! It’s just nonstop. And that fast-as-fuck double kick right before the two minute mark was awesome. I am fighting the urge to immediately replay the track before it finishes. Uuuuuuugh. There’s just something so… so… just fucking authentic, pure about this guy’s work. Just unmistakably Black. Fucking. Metal.
AKB: And I’m here trying to determine whether or not it was the change in scenery, moving from the UK to France that inspired this unbridled energy on display… or if someone just royally slighted him in the worst way and he’s making a fucking POINT. As much as I really enjoy the previous efforts, this song just set in stone the top slot for this album in regards to the Auld Ridge discography. OH MY GAWD THIS HALF TIME PART. I’m headbanging and having similar feelings of wanting to start this over. What an exhilarating ride that track was! And I have to point out the BASS GUITAR… man do I LOVE good audible bass playing on a black metal album.
GOS: Man, I wasn’t even paying attention to it at all, I was just getting consumed by those riffs. Fuck, lets play it again?
AKB: Fine by me. Be ready for the 4 string monstrosity on display! Or 5… who knows. I just know dude goes off with it.
GOS: And the keys! AND THE DRUMS. Fuuuuuuuuck! I can’t believe this dude does everything. Just now noticing that extra guitar AND the bass at 2 minutes! Wow.
AKB: Yeah dude. And I keep going back and forth as to whether or not these are live drums, or if they are programmed. I know sound file technology has come a very long way, but man… there’s a feel to this that just screams “live drummer”. There’s a nuance that is REAL hard to replicate if you DON’T have drumming experience. Nothing sounds too over the top. Just unreal. Everything about this track, and album as a whole has been unreal.
GOS: Yeah, it sounds very organic. Everything does. Nothing here is pristine and it is fucking great. Even the synth is kinda murky. We gotta interview this guy and find out. That track is a masterpiece. I feel the same way about the track ‘Beyond The Church Spires’ that he does for SKARE, but this track is much more straight to the point, no-holds-barred.
AKB: Here we go again with that half tempo, almost moshable section before track end. And yes, I agree about the interview. We somehow have to make it happen. But…on the other hand, this air of mystery is pretty cool too. In this modern age it’s pretty hard to keep mostly anonymous, so I have to give props to those who can pull it off.
GOS: It seemed like he was trying to stay under cover with SKARE, but I sniffed that one out on my first listen, way before it appeared in The Hermetic Order of Ytene. It just sounded too close to AULD RIDGE.
AKB: Yeah, I think that was pretty easy to figure out. Between being released on the same label as AULD RIDGE, et al, and then showing up on the AULD RIDGE Bandcamp page, along with the other Hermetic Order projects. And yeah, it sounds A LOT like AULD RIDGE for sure. And on the flip side, I feel this AULD RIDGE album pulls elements from SKARE (the synths…). Again, things are getting a little homogenous with these projects, and I am absolutely here for it.
GOS: Definitely. I don’t really care what he’s calling anything to be honest, I’m buying everything that he offers. In my opinion this family of projects is one of the most exciting *new* developments in black metal.
AKB: I strive to do the same. Well, for sure the ones that get released in my preferred format anyway. But regardless, 100% full support, in any way I can give it. If it has to be digital, then whatever. Full support!
‘Tornedalen’
GOS: This intermission track is beautiful. My favorite of them I think, I like the low key electric guitar towards the end. Finnish folk, represent: “Tornedalians descend from Finnish peasants who arrived from today’s western and eastern Finland. Settlements began during the Middle Ages around the northern end of the Gulf of Bothnia and along the river valleys nearby…” (Wikipedia)
AKB: I’m glad you’re on top of the research for these tracks. And yes, once again, a fully thought out, COMPOSED acoustic/neo-folk song. Part of me is a little bummed we’re getting to the closer now… what a ride this album has been up to this point.
GOS: No kidding! Well… at least we have the new ALBIONIC HERMETICISM to check out still! Haha!
TYL: Hell yes!
‘Where Night’s Black Bird Her Sad Infamy Sings (John Downland)’
GOS: Fifteen seconds in and I love it already. Who the hell is John Downland? “John Dowland (c. 1563 – buried 20 February 1626) was an English Renaissance composer, lutenist, and singer.” (Wikipedia)
AKB: No wasted moments. Everything is firing on all cylinders. This dude is NOT messing around. Have you been noticing the subtle lead work buried in some of the guitar tracks? And once again that bass is keeping right up with it all. I may have to change my mind on what my favorite track has been to this point… but then again, why pick one singular song when EVERY SONG has been nothing short of exquisite.
GOS: You know you are listening to a great album when your favorite track is whichever one you are listening to.
AKB: Definitely a rare feat, especially in this age of oversaturation when every day sees a million new releases, good, bad or otherwise. I’m sitting here thinking about it, and I have to say, it’s a very small list of albums I can bring to mind where there literally was no weak songs. And, think about this: This is full length number four. More often than not in this beloved genre, a band will come out of the gates super hot and then taper off with time. AULD RIDGE has only been IMPROVING with each release.
And man….HOW EPIC HAS THESE LAST COUPLE MINUTES BEEN? WOW! And yes, I did throw out that overused word to describe this. Yet again.
GOS: I wasn’t really expecting this track to slow down in the middle but it almost had an intermission-like acoustic interlude for a bit and then finished up with this slower, really grandiose, majestic finale. Epic seems to be a perfect way to describe it.
TYL: As we go through our final thoughts, I’m totally starting the album over again.
GOS: Same! Man Folklore From Further Out is fucking fantastic! I think we both have this drive to instantly replay the album and figure out which track rocks the hardest and find all of the intricacies. But at the same time, everything seems so… again, organic, or natural, or perfectly integrated, that I’m really not sure that I’m going to be able to pick it apart. And maybe I shouldn’t anyway!
AKB: I WISH more bands could aspire for this kind of a “natural” balanced attack in the production aspect of their albums. Every instrument and vocal part has its place, and everything supports one another. AS IT SHOULD BE. A lot of modern production has a pop sensibility, in the sense that the vocals and drums are more upfront. I absolutely LOVE how not one thing overpowers anything else. Everything has its chance to shine, everything is heard loud and clear, and the end result is absolutely spectacular. Everything is on display for the world to hear. Nothing is hidden behind excessive layers of murk and reverb. Proof that great, smart songwriting and powerful music creates a powerful atmosphere. Simply put, we are truly seeing a genius at work here. WOW what a listening experience this is! This is an album I fully support everyone taking in as a whole, in one sitting. Something I DEFINITELY do not say for all albums.
GOS: Absolutely. I become more and more enthralled with every listen, and that sentiment isn’t limited to just Folklore… any time I listen to any of the albums from any of these projects, my hype intensifies for all of them.
AKB: As you, and others, are fully aware, I definitely hold this project in high regard. Honestly, I could say that for each of the Hermetic Order projects. Anyway, when I saw this album was coming out, along with the new ALBIONIC HERMETICISM, in my mind I already had both in my top 20 of 2023. Even though there’s practically ⅔ of a year still to go, not to mention that at that time I had only heard one track from each thanks to his YouTube channel. But now that we’ve really dug into Folklore From Further Out in depth, I’m proclaiming right now that this is on top of the heap for this year. O.W.G.A. is standing on a castle turret, awaiting all challengers to come and lay claim to the throne he is currently occupying. The gauntlet has been thrown down. If you call yourself a fan of melodic, well composed, expertly executed and MAJESTIC black metal, then you will do what you must to track this album down for your collection.
GOS: … As well as all the rest of the albums from all of the projects we have been referring to!
Folklore from Further Out is available now via Dark Adversary Productions.
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Purchase Folklore From Further Out on CD from the Dark Adversary Productions webstore HERE.
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