TROVA DI DANU

When an album is opened by a song like "Bella Natura" it can't be bad. Taking into account that the previous "The Delirium Has Just Begun" was an excellent album, making something even better was surely not easy.

I don't know the lyrics so I can't say why the track title and the chorus have those two Italian words (they mean "Nice Nature"), but the song is excellent. The fusion between metal and celtic is really a fusion, not just a mix or an alternance of the two genres. The folk and the metal instruments work well together and this is another huge different between this band and Epic Metal bands like the HEOL TELWEN just to mention one. The main instrument here is Braia's flute who plays a lot of fast notes and represents the connection, the contact point between the metal fastness and the celtic melody. I have seen on youtube a live performance of this song. They are incredibly funny on stage, too. Unfortunately the movie quality was very low.

What's next? "Lover Of The Queen" is a sort of Irish pub song but with a strong prog-metal influence. The melody can remind to the POGUES but the instrumental parts are very heavy and also the acoustic guitar interludes are closer to AYREON than to the CLANNAD. It's very different from the previous song because it's surely darker and I think more "prog", but it's another excellent one.

"Land Of Youth" starts like it was another pub song. Lighter than the previous has an unexpected middle part that is very similar to the acoustic YES, also because the singer has a very high-pitch not dissimilar from Jon ANDERSON or Chris SQUIRE. Another very good upbeat one.

"De Danaan's Voice" is a short interlude. This is totally celtic this time. Less than one minute of folk with a female vocalist. I don't know who she is but she may be the same who sings in the Braia solo album released in 2007. Short but nice.

After a folk song some prog metal: "The Land's Revenge" with clean vocals, acoustic guitar and metal instrumentation is the kind of melodic songs that metal bands are used to place one for each album. There's another good flute's performance but I suggest giving an ear to the bass. It doesn't do special things but what he does is very good. After a couple of minutes it changes to pure prog-metal, then acoustic again. At this point the facoustic guitar and the flute are reminding of Latimer-Collins of the CAMEL's middle period, then metal again. What a track...and we are not yet at the first half of the album.

Following there's "Spellboundance", that's what we can call a typical song of this band. Acoustic base (with strings, too), a very solar and "smiling" choir and the flute adding a touch of celtic.

"Believe It's True" is another very good song. Started by acoustic guitar, it's a very nice happy song.

On "The Arrival" the flute and also the melody are closer to JETHRO TULL or to CAMEL until the metal part. This can be compared to ARTENSION. There's growling and incredibly speed keyboard. Classical and arabic influences are mixed together. Metal fans this is your pot.

One minute and half of celtic instrumental music. "The Oghma's Reel" is another excellent song in the vein of the early MOSTLY AUTUMN.

Now the title track. The female singer of De Danann's voice is back again. This song is an excellent reason to classify the band into prog-folk. I don't want to describe it. I like the whole album but this track is special. Just listen to it.

Last "The Wheel" is a quite long track for the band's standards. Those who like the folk side of MOSTLY AUTUMN will surely like this closer even though the metal part has few to do with the Lake District's band.

It's really a pity that this excellent album has been the last released by the band. I'm undecided between 4 and five stars. I don't know if it can really be considered an essential masterpiece, but just excellent is not enough.

Let's break (a little) the rules and go for the maximum.

I am a staunch supporter of the "non traditional marriage" of celtic folk with rock music, even hard rock. Over the years, mostly British Isles bands have been the finest proponents of this blend - POGUES, RUNRIG, MEN THEY COULDN'T HANG, WATERBOYS, and OYSTERBAND all come to mind, as much for their political and human interest themes that transcended the usual drunken bar fight lyrics as for their considerable musicality. On the other hand relatively few bands convincingly melded metal to folk. The best of these I have heard is MAGO DE OZ from Spain, to whom TUATHA DE DANANN owes the greatest debt of gratitude. However based on this disk, I doubt that MAGO DE OZ is much flattered by the imitation.

For every poignant RUNRIG anthem there is a tepid WOLFSTONE regurgitation; for every James Joyce rivaling POGUES romp is a warmed over hand me down from TEMPEST. For every well sequenced and executed ballad or metal fest by MAGO DE OZ is a frenetic and soulless ballad or metal fest (both sound pretty much the same anyway) by TUATHA DE DANANN that conveys a failure to assimilate the virtues of the folk genre prior to alloying it. Most of this is a crass and hard to forgive exercise in amplifying and speeding up jigs or reels, or dressing a death growl in a kilt. Songs like "Bella Nature", "Lover of the Queen", "Land's Revenge" and "Arrival" are even worse than that and essentially torturous. Sometimes after a minute or so of tentative intro, they realize they have locked themselves in and the only way out is with a hammer and a groan. The exceptions would be the lighter "Land of Youth", the guttural but rousing "Believe it's True" and the atypical and more traditionally celtic title cut with female vocals. But the damage inflicted by the worst this group has to offer neutralizes these gains many times over.

Perhaps the band's inactivity since 2004 means that it has been offered as a sacrifice to Danu, the water goddess from which the it derives its name, and she has accepted selflessly for the benefit of bands like DANU and DE DANANN, not to mention listeners like me.