Late last year the excellent Green Lung released their monument to the folklore and magic of Albion, This Heathen Land. A landmark to be sure and one that drew in listeners not usually obsessed with the stoner/doom end of things. Now, at the back end of 2024 come another truly remarkable band from the vague land of stoner/doom/metal, Sergeant Thunderhoof and their quest to focus in on one singularly strange but hugely powerful event in the history of Albion; the Battle Of Badon Hill. If you know of it well, then skip to the next two paragraphs. It was a battle that probably did take place and that was somewhere in or around the fifth or sixth century. Possibly. The main record is from a cleric of the time, one Gildas who documented it as happening within his lifetime. It was fought, purportedly, between the Britons and the Saxons, a battle which the Britons won and delayed, somewhat, the sweep of the Saxons towards the West.

And yet despite many scholars being content that it did indeed take place, it’s echoes spun out through more than simply centuries. It became not just legend but also concept. It resonates with so many things; Arthurian myth spread through it, the last stand of the old magic and religion of the land, that strange edge where the old gods and the nascent Church had a mingling for a purpose as one world passed into the next. For some it is also a monument to fighting a battle when you know that the war is lost. Resisting because that is what you have to do. If you follow the Arthurian threads it is, save for Merlin, the last rise of heathen magic in Albion before King Arthur and his knights brought their mixture of the fading ancient world and budding Christian belief to spread. In this world it is the battle where Pagans and Christians had perhaps their last common cause, and willing stood upon that hill, willing to die.

Yeah, it’s a lot to unpack. You weave in what matters to you. The ‘truth’ is no longer relevant, what matters is that this battle is a pivotal moment in the history of Albion and it has become more philosophy and mythic quest than event. The End of the Beginning and the Beginning Of The End and a moment of sacrifice, of waiting to die, being willing to die.

From the title of the album this should be simple and yet hopefully the above gives you an idea of how huge it really is.

‘Badon’ is a delicate beginning. Acoustic, beautifully plucked guitars and gorgeous bass and then those stunningly controlled vocals rise, softly and set our scene. A little bit of martial drums, lyrics calling back to the ghosts as you stand upon the land. Drawing them up, touching them. The slow, mournful melody is huge, a slow sweep of the arm as the ghosts of the dead pass by, to stand, still, and wait. The riffs are heavy, yes but there is a bittersweet softness to them, amplified by the perfect guitar work; intricate but never missing the melody, never smothering the soul. It stirs me deeply, the strange feeling of knowing life may end washing over me, but leaving the feeling that others will remember.

‘Blood Moon’ builds on this. A keener melody, a fine and great heavy doom/stoner riff. This song is an army melding, a powerful heart of drums and of bass building it.  The Blood Moon is all: Echoes of hope from a different song…

‘The Orb Of Octavia’ once more shows how superbly the Sergeant work as a band. The fine guitar refrain with its sharper edge, the bass rising like a slow flush of blood, the drums steady, stopping you from wavering and the voice an almost wistful musing though rich with thought. And when that riff comes in it’s as though all the emotion built up is just smoothly released and the vocals soar. This is magic.

‘Salvation For The Soul’ is a burst of powerful excitement in full blazing stoner style. ‘In the fields we are not alone, we have risen. It’s something in the blood, salvation for the soul’. A genuine hair tingling moment as that feeling crossing the centuries, the energy of a power building and emotion overflowing.

‘Sentinel’. A moment of quiet mostly. When they come for your son with stories so romancing, on this road watch it fall. Fear and reality seem to collide in the most gentle way here. Regret watches on. The music has barbs beneath its flow.

And finally we are led ‘Beyond The Hill’. This is the moment when we are resolute. There is a quiet too, but it is an unyielding quiet suffused with magic and pride. The source blesses those on the hill. And end to what we have known for so many years. It seems, to me, like echoes rippling across the dividing years. It just makes my eyes… ache in that mournful way and my breath catch.

Oh my.

Sorry for the length but some albums need words. If Sergeant Thunderhoof’s last album was a classic collection of songs as the band for me fully came into their magnificent own, The Ghost Of Badon Hill is a rich, absolutely captivating, obsessing tome. The pages are written with music and lyricism that like the event itself spreads out through more than an action to become a deep musing and a quest for understanding oneself and what is around you, how you are placed within it and how it came to be. It takes listening and serious thought. This is not an instant album and nor should it be. This is a work to delve in to. And a reminder that the past is with us. That we came from many kinds of peoples and that hopefully will always be the case. The land will welcome us and will remind us of it’s past.

This Albion will not be cast aside.

(9/10 Gizmo) but likely to increase with time. 

https://www.facebook.com/sergeantthunderhoof

https://sergeantthunderhoof.bandcamp.com/album/the-ghost-of-badon-hill