Folkearth
By The Sword Of My Father

The Folkearth could be considered as an "all-star band" truly promising but unusual, characterized by a rather unstable lineup composed of about 30 members from different countries and musical groups who offer their contribution in a peculiar way; in fact, every song is born from a single person, or even a band (as in the case of Forefather), and is subsequently proposed to others for possible modifications and various orchestrations.

The biggest risk of such choices is, of course, creating an album that feels more like a "compilation" rather than a real CD, as each band participating in the project has its own distinct identity. This is somewhat noticeable in our case but does not affect the success of this excellent CD, which perhaps suffers from too much swagger and confidence in its abilities.

With this, I do not intend to discredit "By the Sword of My Father," but I would just like to express a certain disappointment since, given the quality of the pieces, only a minimal amount of care and self-criticism was needed to make it an authentic masterpiece.

Let me explain. The CD's duration turns out to be far too long with its 16 tracks and 72 minutes of length once we notice the presence of a really long and banal intro, a useless outro (which alone lasts more than 8 minutes...) and various fillers including the insignificant "Elves" and the folk-rock song "Tribute to Viking Gods" that would be perfect on a Flogging Molly album, but here it's really out of place.

A different discussion goes for the cover of Falkenback's "Heathenpride," "Wisdom of Wolves"  and "Sailing a Viking." The first, always welcome, is found in quite an unusual spot in the lineup, or rather, it almost seems placed to separate the real album from the other songs placed there for whatever reason. The second is not bad at all, were it not for the fact that the same leading melody is found in the song that will be the opener of the next album (a sign that probably this version was not very convincing). "Sailing a Viking" finally is an instrumental that as track number 14 is really bland, but in my opinion, as an intro to the CD, it would have been much more convincing.

It's truly a pity because all the other songs are exceptional, starting from "The Lady's Gift" which seems to come out of an album by the aforementioned Forefather, moving through the title track which, among flutes, choruses of bearded Vikings and Luciferian screams, manages to cause more than a chill down the spine. Other notable songs are "Naglfar sets sail", the fantastic "Skaldic Art," the compelling "Instrumental" and the dramatic and melancholic "Return to Walehalle".

The masterpieces are not lacking, therefore, but my judgment is that the tracks present on this CD are indeed magnificent, but decidedly too many! More attention in defining the lineup and perhaps the exclusion of some useless pieces would have made this album a milestone.