MORRIGAN

I was on my third spin of this album when I thought I should actually check out who this group is. So I was surprised to find out they are essentially a duo of male and female from France with guests filling out their sound. The female vocals and the band's sound had been bringing PAATOS to my mind, and while I heard a couple of the Celtic passages they felt minor overall at that point. I say this because this is a band on a mission with the goal of releasing three connected concept albums relating to Celtic folklore. This is album number two. I'll leave the lyrics and concept to others to talk about as I'm just not into the subject matter.

The music though works for me. Mellow is the word but with a few heavy sections here and there. A very uniform album in sound, and in the fact we have ten songs ranging from just over 4 minutes to under 6 minutes. One of the musicians adds uillean pipes and low whistle but there's also a guy playing the carnyx which is an ancient wind instrument used by the Celts back in the day. Again these sounds are far from being dominant. This is relaxed vocal and guitar driven music that is quite pleasant and enjoyable. The drumming is interesting to me. Sedate and the way they are recorded had me checking to see if they were real or not, they are. Still, I like them, but I also question that opinion at times.

A consistent album where it's tough to pick a top three but I like the opener "Alone" mostly for the bass and electric piano. The guitarist lights it up before 4 minutes. I think the heaviest section is on "I'm Falling" at 3 minutes as we get riffs. There's a four song suite and I really like the "Intro-I Will Follow You". There's a fast paced guitar solo on "Part II" and that bass I liked on the opener is just as impressive on "Part III The Nightmare". It's fairly heavy at 2 1/2 minutes on "In My Mind" but these moments are rare. As far as the Celtic sounds go check out tracks 2, 8 and 10. And like the heaviness, the Celtic vibe is here and there and not the focus.

Such a beautiful cover art as well, and hopefully this duo is inspired enough to get that third record done. It must be a huge undertaking of time and talent to get this done. "Morrigan" is well deserving of the four stars and while I feel they aren't nearly as appealing as PAATOS who I mentioned earlier, I just have a thing for Swedish melancholy.