FIRST UTTERANCE

The first album from this group of folky weirdos. The music here is 90% acoustic, yet can sometimes have the intensity of metal. Both male and female vocals along with acoustic guitars, percussion, violin, flute and slide guitar are the main things you hear. The male vocals sometimes sound like Roger Chapman of Family. I've never heard the second album but it's not supposed to be as good as First Utterance is. There definately is an ancient, pagan feel to the music. Most of the lyrics are pretty creepy, being about rape and murder and whatnot.

"Diana" has an almost bluesy feel. Great violin during first chorus. Creepy harmony vocals. Nice percussion in the middle. Good bass during second chorus. "The Herald" is the longest song. Starts with a sound(violin?) that I've heard in GYBE songs. Acoustic guitar and female vocals. More instruments come in later. About 3:45 the music fades out. Fades back in with a different section of acoustic guitar. Later violin. About 7:52 music fades out again. Fades back in with the sound at the beginning and wordless vocals. Later more female vocals and some harmony vocals.

The 'chorus' part of "Drip Drip" is good with violin and female vocals. Good violin in the middle. After that, electric bass and percussion which sounds almost like a drum machine. The part that goes "I'll be gentle" is creepy. During "Song To Comus", the last word of most sentences gets repeated. The music picks up and gets more intense. Music stops then verses start again. Then percussion and violin. Later female back up vocals and bass. Near the end some great guitar before all the instruments join in. Music stops and then the beginning part is reprised at the end.

"The Bite" for some reason reminds me of '80s Iron Maiden at the start with the vocals and chords. This part comes back near the end. "Bitten" is instrumental filler. "The Prisoner" has good harmony vocals. You hear "insane...insane" go back and forth in the stereo spectrum at the end. This is a great album, but it's only something I want to listen to when I'm in the mood. I'm no expert in Prog Folk, but I assume this is a lot darker and manic than the majority of music in that genre. 3.5 rounded off to 4 stars.