TINGARALATINGADUN

This second album of Tuatha De Danann is officially their first full legth CD. It's quite strange as the first was considered an EP and this one is three minutes shorter.

However this is not much different from the debut. This, too, is full of the unusual fusion of Celtic, Metal and Prog but this time the prog element is more relevant at least on a couple of songs.

The album is opened by "The Dance Of The Little Ones". A flute driven folk tune backed by a noisy keyboard turns into heavy rock with drums and guitar but the main theme remains almost celtic. The vocals include a choir which features both clean and growl. The good of this track is that the passages between celtic and metal are so slight that you are transported from one genre to another without realising how. This is a perfect fusion. Add to that the captivating melody.

The bass opens "Battle Song". I don't hesitate in calling it progressive metal with a bit of celtic. I mean that many tracks on Ayreon's The Human Equation have a very similar feeling. This is my favorite song of the album. A good one to start with this band.

Even the following one is a song of the kind that can remain impressed in your memory. Thanks mainly to the flute's work, but the whole song is excellent. Having the flute backed by distorted guitar and heavy drums or by Bodhran and acoustic guitar seems to make no difference. "Behold the Horned King" seems a bit "Satanic" as title but it's just about a celtic legend instead, the one about the Welsh hero Hu Gaddarn (somebody thinks he's the druidic transposition of the story of Jesus Gaddarn=the mighty).

"Tan Pinga Ra Tan" is another great song. This sentence shows what it's about : "Here in the woods the elves dance and sing" Another powerful metal song with clean vocals, choir and celtic melody. Imagine it sung by Heather Findlay and played by Arjen Lucassen.

"Finganfor" may be an ogre or a friendly troll. He's somebody living on a hill. The song doesn't say much more. Musically speaking is excellent passing from a Clannad/Mostly Autumn feeling to just good metal.

The celt hero "Vergingetorix" is celebrated by a more metal oriented song. Probably the hardest and darkest of the album even when it calms down leaving room to acoustic guitar, keyboards and vocals.

"Celtia" is a short instrumental made mainly of 12strings guitar and flute. Totally acoustic and highly energetic.

"Some Tunes To Fly" is the longest track, the most "progressive" in terms of structure but also the weaker in my opinion. I thin the band has attempted something a bit too pretentious. Like YES meeting Dream Theather. They didn't fail, but the outcome is not at the level of the other songs of this album.

Then comes the title track. It's funny and also one of those on which they were used to joke a lot during the live exhibitions. Just two minutes of fun.

Finally a short coda made of acoustic guitar played like a classical. "MacDara" is probably inspired to Steve Hackett who Braia admits being one of his influencers. Very good for closing a very good album.

Just 3 stars, but I'm rounding the rating down. This album deserves to be listened.