Time for not only our final look at Irish metal, but also our last stop on our short voyage through the metal that the four countries featured in this section have to offer. After hitting two for two with the last offerings, I'm sticking with reasonably well-known bands from Ireland, and who could be better known than
Songs of innocence --- U2 --- 2014 (Island)
HA HA HA HA HAAAAA! Oh GOD! Your FACES!!! Oh stop it, my poor sides! Oh that's just too much! Really? U2? Metal? Oh dear god no! Oh hell no! Even I wouldn't try to pass that one off! Oh it's just too funny. I think I'm gonna be ---
Seriously though, all joking aside, for the last Irish band I've managed, quite to my surprise and delight, to track down a band who sing in my native tongue. Not that I could understand a word of Irish --- well, a few --- but it is nice that, as we had bands singing in Portuguese, Spanish and German, we can actually find an Irish heavy metal band who sing in Irish, and more, that we can actually find an album from them we can feature. This is it.
Dair --- Corr Mhona --- 2014 (Independent)
Fronted by two brothers, Stephen and Paul Quinn, on bass and guitar/vocals respectively, and two other brothers, Robert and Martin Farrow, on drums and guitar, Corr Mhona (pronounced “cor voh-na” is Irish for heron, and this is their debut album. You might imagine that as an Irish native I would be able to translate the lyrics, but I somehow doubt my language skills will be up to the task. It's a long time since I was forced to learn “gaeilge” as we call it (pron. “gail-ga” or “gwail-ga”) in school, and little if any of it stuck. My teachers would not be impressed. Nevertheless, it's a refreshing change of pace and a great opportunity to sample the true flavour of indigenous Irish metal.
Sounds like some sort of synth but could be a drum effect I guess as strong chanting voices declaim what I assume to be an Irish call and then sounds like violin which becomes hard guitar, with bass coming in as thunder rolls and we open on “Toirneach” (tor-knock) which marches slowly along on the guitar line in a nearly-but-not-quite doom metal rhythm. In the third minute it stops for a second then picks up again in a much faster tempo, almost running into a reel on the guitar. Halfway through the song now and the vocals come in, clear and understandable but with someone doing a death growl behind the singer. I'm not sure who does the vocals as three of the four are shown as doing “vocals”, with no lead in sight.
Now that it's got going it's a brisk rocker with darker doom-tinged edges and a sense of restrained thrash about it too, a good start to be sure (to be sure!) and the guitars of Paul Quinn and Martin Farrow certainly drive the song along. Perhaps oddly, perhaps not, for an album with only seven tracks three of them are instrumental, and Dearcán (Djar-kawn; seems to translate as “thorn”) opens on thick bass then joined by the two guitars wailing in harmony but with no percussion as yet, or none I can hear. It's a slowish piece, almost anthemish in its way, and quite short, just over two minutes, but brings us into one of the longer ones. “Dealg” (jalg) has a frenetic opening that barrels along on guitar and with Robert Farrow on the drumseat getting back involved again. It slows then on dark bass and reflective guitar before a mad scream cuts in and the vocal has now become very much a black metal one, or a death metal one. Not sure if these guys switch vocals, or if the guy who sang on the opener is the same and just versatile here, but I'd suspect the former.
That would seem to be the case, as the other vocalist can now be heard singing sort of backup vocals as the two guitarists harry the song along until it breaks down into a slow rhythm with low chanting and a nice introspective piece. You might be tempted to think that at just over eight minutes long this is the longest song on the short album, but you wouldn't even be close, as the final track is twice as long. Yeah, I said twice as long. Very passionate singing now from let's say the non-screamer with good backing vocals from someone else who either isn't the screamer, or who again can control and regulate his voice well. I love the dark, chimy bass and guitars here. Very effective. With a lot of anger and resentment the tempo builds until the screamer is yelling out against hammering guitars and trundling drums, and taking us into the second instrumental.
“... Na lamha-sa” (na law-va-sa) rides on a soft gentle acoustic guitar, slightly over the three minute mark, very redolent of a lament with what almost sounds at times like Spanish or classical guitar coming into the tune. The three dots in front of the title show this to be an extract, possibly from a poem or quote, but don't ask me from what. I know “lamha” is hands, but other than that ... it's “the something hands”, and that's as far as I can translate it. Lovely little piece though, never really rises above a murmur from the guitars, and another springy bass launches us into “Dall” (doll) which I think means blind. Punchy guitar kicks its way in and the drums batter their entrance also, the vocal a shared one as two of the guys sing the opening, then the dark screamer roars his bit as the guitars grind a little more. The song's lyric seems to pursue the idea of blind hatred, the unquestioning following of orders that lead to despair and destruction.
Heavy doom metal riff there later --- can't exactly pin down where in the song, as the only place I could find this album was on YouTube, and of course it's all one track --- with a really nice solo coming through, the first I think I've heard either of the guitarists really let themselves go in any sort of show of individual expertise. A big heavy finish takes us to the third, and last instrumental, Dreolín (drow-leen), which seems to have piano but I don't see any mentioned. Hmm. Slow and gentle, with a reflective air about it, bass and guitar combining perfectly and another three minute deal. That takes us to the epic closer, and title track.
With a big romping guitar opening, “Dair” runs for a total of sixteen minutes and thirteen seconds, and seems to celebrate the rebirth of the world as winter comes, goes and spring arrives. Possibly a pagan ritual thing, maybe it's just a metaphor, I don't know. The initial vocal is clean and very uplifting somehow, the guitar complementing it superbly. Now it turns a little darker, slowing down as perhaps winter reaches out with cold dead fingers for the world, turning everything white and trying to squeeze the blood from every living thing. Another chant, a slow lament, suffuses the song with fine vocal harmonies. As expected, the dark screamer makes his entrance as the drama in the song builds, though it fairly quickly slips into a nice, smooth groove as the double-vocal chanting returns.
In about the sixth minute, near as I can figure, the music fades out completely and the boys set up a truly beautiful and heartbreaking
acapella chorus which carries us into the eighth, before the carefully constructed atmosphere is blasted aside as the guitars wind up, drums punch in and the screamer returns. But the mood previously established stays with you, like the faint sound of a dying echo as it ripples away over the mountain, and it's pretty profound. The boys now strive to outdo each other on the guitar as they head into the tenth minute of the song. It's quite power or even progressive metal for a time, until everything is dialled back and with the sound of tolling bells one of the guitars smashes out, the tempo dropping then slowly building back up again on a shimmering guitar line as we cross over into the twelfth minute of this epic song.
Then that Spanish or acoustic guitar makes a welcome return, taking the song solo other than the rumbling, bodhran-like drums from Robert Farrow, electric guitar then joining in as we reach the final three minutes of “Dair”. A soft vocal comes in then, speaking of things reborn and rising, of hope and renewal and resurrection. The guitar perfectly counterpoints this, and we come to an extremely satisfying conclusion to a very special album.
TRACKLISTING
1. Toirneach
2. Dearcán
3. Dealg
4. ...Na Lámha-sa
5. Dall
6. Dreolín
7. Dair
First of all, I have to extend my congratulations to Corr Mhora, for attempting such a daunting prospect as writing a whole album in Irish. I'm not sure whether or not it will be a stumbling block for them --- most people within Ireland can't speak or understand the language, other than those in the more isolated west, and as for outside the island? --- but it certainly shows some courage that they attempted it. They also manage not to just sing heavy metal lyrics in Irish: they've imbued their music here with just the right amount of celtic flavour to enable them to draw us into the traditions of old Ireland, and rather surprisingly, have done so without the use of Irish instruments to help them. Not a fiddle, accordion, uileann pipe or whistle to be found here. It's quite a feat.
I do think however that they're limiting themselves by singing entirely in Irish. Their music is certainly strong enough to overcome any initial reticence you might have to listening to songs sung in gaelic, but at the heart of it is the possibility of success, and while Irish speakers and institutions will no doubt laud them for their efforts, it's hard to see them gaining any mainstream success with this album. Of course, bands have sung in their native tongue before --- we encountered Baron Rojo at the very beginning of this section --- but as a rule, these kinds of bands do not do well outside of their native country. Which is why if they continue to sing in Irish I fear the Farrow and Quinn brothers are destined to remain forever locked to these shores.
Which is a pity, as they really deserve to be heard far beyond them.
And so we finish our short jaunt across the world, having sampled metal from Brazil, then Germany, then Spain and finally ending up back where we started, Ireland. Some of the music we have heard has been good, some very good, some not so good and some bloody awful. But one thing has been evident throughout this series, that no matter where you go, whatever country you visit, however remote or small it may be, there are always guys or girls prepared to strap on guitars, sit behind drumkits or fire up keyboards and form a heavy metal band.
Music is indeed the universal language, understood by all and without any need to study to gain comprehension of it, and anyone can speak it if they want to. But Heavy Metal, as we have seen, and will see further over the coming years, is without question the international language, a medium through which we can all talk, all say what we want to say and all hear and understand the message being sent.
Viva la metallique! Or something.
Slan agus beannacht.*
* “Slan agus beannacht” (Slawn oggus bann-uckt) : old Irish blessing, literally “Health and blessings”, but generally translated as “Goodbye and God bless”.