Hand of Kalliach are a husband and wife duo from Edinburgh who mix melodic death metal and Scottish folk music to great effect. That is the bare basics now onto the wicked mix that Corryvreckan contains in its bubbling pot.
The danger for me when reviewing this kind of music is to get caught up in researching the folklore that surrounds it. With no lyrics or artwork to help me it often leads me into a labyrinth of wiki pages and YouTube clips which distract me from the music that led me there in the first place. SO I will hold my curiosity for a later date and just tell you that the band get their name from the legend of Callieach a winter witch god who lived at the bottom of an enormous whirlpool – Corryvreckan. Every year the legend has it that she would emerge and wash her cloak in the pool to a bright dazzling white which she laid across the earth as snow signalling the rule of winter at Samhain.
Pretty fucking cool sounding hey?
Well it ain’t just the legend that sounds good this album is pretty awesome too. The juxtaposition of the Fraser’s voices works so well and paints a vivid picture of harshness and beauty which you would want in a tale of winter and magick. Sophie’s soft yet powerful lilt carries with it the image of snow drifts and ice crystals forming above glens whilst Johns throaty death metal rasps are the harsh northern wind blasting in over the Irish sea.
Opener “Three Seas” is driven by a relentless pounding drum beat which is preceded by a faery-like vocal by Sophie and some enchanting synths to build the requisite mackical atmosphere. Sophie and John’s voices are blended well here to form light and shade and with the music creates at once a soporific and energising effect. A sonic speedball if you will!
“Fell Reigns” that follows captivates me entirely. Sophie’s vocals seem to soar even higher – I get a Cocteau Twins vibe whilst John and the heavy drums give off an air early Amon Amarth plus some Enslaved. This is music that transports to another place. For me it takes me to “Puck’s Glen” an area near Loch Fyne on the West of Scotland. A place that immediately evokes feelings of lore and magick even for this sceptical old atheist. Hand of Kalliach make music to get lost in and I continue my journey with “Dioghaltas” which begins with rampant brutality like an ambush in a leafy copse. This is so organic you can almost smell the bark and moss and taste the moisture in the air.
It is a bit of a surprise when “Cirein- croin” starts with drum machine and a Slipknot vibe. Made me check that I was listening to the same album. All of a sudden the organic ambience was gone and replaced by a cyber AI copy. There is a lengthy prog-style keyboard solo midway . I gotta say once I got over the jerky transition I kinda dig it which is just as well as “Deathless” has an intro that would sit well on a Papa Roach track from 2001 . Nu Metal riffs mix with the folky DM to create summat which is closer to Within Destruction’s NuMetalcore than the Death faery folk of the openers.
Those influences are less evident in “The Hubris of Prince Bhrecean” although now the mystique is broken and I feel like I am walking through some biomechanical Highland Landscape – Highlander reimagined by Phillip K Dick. The album continues in the same vein – “Unbroken You Remain” moves into “The Cauldron” which has some nice synth backing to a galloping riff whilst final track “Twilight and the Pyre” is a calmer string laden opus that returns to a more “natural” feel.
I am pleased that the album ends in a similar way to its beginning as the strength of Hand of Kalliach appears to me , even in my short amount of time in their company the mysticism and immersion into Scottish folklore which the more synthetic elements of the albums middle detracted me from.
By the end I feel like I have now found an album that I will dip in and out of and will certainly add the opening three tracks into a playlist. As much as I still dug the NuCore elements I found myself longing for something earthier.
(7/10 Matt Mason)
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