Band:	Folkearth
Album:	A Nordic Poem
Style:	Folk metal
Release date:	December 2004

01. Intro (The Pipes Are Calling)
02. Wolfsong In Moonlight (Fenris Unbound)
03. Horned Trolls And Mystical Folk
04. Rhyming With Thunder
05. Eldritch Sorcery And Faery Runes
06. In Odin's Court
07. Storm Ravens Come
08. Gryningssång
09. Gaelic Valor
10. Outro

Folks from all over Europe

This is quite an ambitious project, here's the deal: members from different bands (Forefather, Yggdrasil, Trymheim, Ravenclaw, Eluveitie etc) and from all over Europe (Greece, Lithuania, England, Switzerland, Austria and Sweden) came together with Folk-Viking Metal band named Folkearth. The members never met in a recording studio, they just recorded their parts in studios in their respective countries and sent the recordings to mix them in one spot.

Their debut album "A Nordic Poem" is a prime example of how distance isn't a setback when a good idea is at hand. The music recorded by the 14 members of Folkearth dwells around the Viking-Folk Metal area. So expect a lot of happy melodies and a wide array of instruments (acoustic guitar, Uilleann pipes, tin whistle, bodhran, mouth harp, kulning, keyed fiddle, violin and cello).

When you have such talents reunited is easy to deliver a great album, filled with different influences, atmospheres and feelings. This is not the exception, the album is very varied and every song is a little Folk Metal masterpiece, you have a plenty selection of vocals: harsh, clean, female, spoken etc, instrumentation is top-notch, these guys really know how to play this stuff , each instrument mingle perfect with each song and with the vocals. The opener song (after the intro) "Wolfsong In Moonlight (Fenris Unbound)" is the perfect example to describe the band, vocal variation, change of harmonies, instrumental interludes, this is truly the wet dream of any Folk Metal fan out there.
The layout of the Cd is quite good also, (done by Dragon Design) is simple and concise.

Music is excellent; presentation is also very good; band members, you got plenty to choose your favorite; sadly the only thing bringing the whole experience down is the awful production. To be honest and blunt about it, it sucks big time, I can't believe why a label as Stygian Crypt released such a good album with that major problem. The mix is very poor, you can't tell one instrument from the other, vocals are buried in the mix, and the whole record sounds like it was played off in the distance.

Good album, great musicians, sadly the bad production brings all that down. Still, is a technical problem, because the music here is quite good.
Good news is that seems that the label is going to re-master and re-release the album with proper sound quality. With that error corrected this is a great listen!