It’s taken a year or so, but at last Brazilian Folk Rock/Metal band Tuatha De Danann’s “The Tribes Of Witching Souls” finally gets a proper Worldwide release thanks to the good people at Trollzorn. But let’s be honest right from the off – this is not the kind of stark and mighty Folk Metal you would find elsewhere by myself and many of my fellow scribes on Ave Noctum. Tuatha De Danann base their sound squarely within traditional Celtic folk, nothing Black or Viking here, this is just folkin’ fun right to its core.

So, with that established, the title track is the one to kick things off, which kind of sticks out a little for the wrong reasons as it tries a bit TOO hard to be catchy and memorable in the vocal department. Instead, it’s on second track ‘Turn’, with its Uillean/Bagpipe lead where the band really seem to hit their stride. It could easily be a Troy Donockley fronted Nightwish-tinged track. More so, and a little more niche maybe, if anyone was lucky enough to witness Troy’s first band You Slosh back in the late 80’s, this is probably how they would sound right now! Catchy and memorable, this track hooked me in straight away and sets the scene for a fabulous abundance of traditional instruments taking the lead over hard folk rock/metal throughout the rest of the album. Varied too – the banjo lead with guest female vocals on ‘Warrior Queen’ is another highlight straight away and continues to push the album in all the right directions.

‘Your Wall Shall Fall’ is classic Skyclad, right down to the vocals…performed by the fabulous Martin Walkier, which kind of makes the Skyclad comparison a little more obvious (!), but there is also some well-placed violin to further drive the point home. Whistle, flute and banjo step forward to drive the up-tempo ‘Conjura’ next, which has a great 70’s style psyche chorus into the bargain. There’s echoes of The Levellers in the slightly more introspective ‘Outcry’, but again there’s a healthy nod towards Skyclad in the chorus. The whole thing is then rounded out with the melancholy strains of ‘Tan Pinga ra Tan’, which feature more excellent guest female vocals, this time courtesy of Nita Rodriguez. In a year where I’ve been searching for glimpses of positivity wherever possible (can’t think why…), this album is a timely boost of fantastic optimism. Great to hear Mr. Walkier get the chance to strut his stuff again as well!

(8/10 Andy Barker)

https://www.facebook.com/Tuathadedanannofficial

https://tuathadedanann.bandcamp.com/album/the-tribes-of-witching-souls