Folkstone
Il confine

Fourth studio album for the Italian band Folkstone, a Lombard band (from Bergamo), creators of a folk metal forged by the exhilarating union between classic electric instruments (guitar, bass) and traditional wind instruments (bagpipes, flute, raushpfeife, bombarda), laid on an obvious rhythmic carpet created by drums and percussion, sweetly harmonized by the frequent incursions of the Celtic harp. With this album, the group completely abandons the warlike and medieval atmosphere of the previous "Damnati ad Metalla", as well as the more playful and "tavern-like" feel of their eponymous debut album, to pursue a more careful and thoughtful musical approach (also lyrically), through a more refined sound research, aimed at demonstrating the conscious artistic maturity of the eight Lombards. An intent that is partially successful. Sure, the album starts strong: the first five tracks might suggest a new masterpiece, but unfortunately, this feeling will tend to diminish as "Il confine" flows its musical plots into the ears of all of us. The lyrics (once again in the mother tongue) prove to be less awkward than in the past, although the themes still reveal the same illogical combination of effectiveness and naivety, which has always woven the band's compositions. Despite this, "Il confine" remains an album to be appreciated at least for the "highlight moments" that characterize it, namely through a handful of truly enchanting pieces.

An oriental melody (first acoustic, then electric) introduces the title track, with its very hard bridge (almost US metal) and evocative refrain, where the magical sound of bagpipes bursts in to accompany the solemn singing of Lore. "Nebbie" is monolithic and gloomy, a dark allegorical text embellished by snowy Celtic passages. "Omnia Fert Aetas" is a piece of medieval rock heavily influenced by Blackmore's Night, opened by the pompous sound of drums and percussion, which then becomes a mid-tempo with an arcane and dreamy text. With "Non sarò mai" the band’s polemical and nonconformist side emerges; a folk gallop with a (more or less) committed meaning, where the simplicity of the text suggests a song conceived for a social message aimed at the younger audience. Nevertheless, the song is of incredible adrenaline, and will make many of you jump around. Thus follows "Luna," a Celtic ballad sung in the Bergamasque dialect, where Lombard tradition captivates the listener's heart, throwing it into a nocturnal and relaxed hymnic landscape, amidst the dull green of lonely plains faded by darkness, looming at the feet of rounded hills and sharp mountains, where the northern echoes of this phantasmagoric ode resound.

At this point, after the Celtic intermezzo "Anomalus," the album drops significantly, presenting a series of tracks that, while pleasant, cannot conceal a certain underlying fatigue: "Storia qualunque" and "Lontano dal niente" are of unheard-of flatness; among them is "Frammenti" which is slightly better; although it almost reveals a mimicry of the refrain of "Anime dannate" from the previous album. Same goes for the concluding "Grige maree" that smells too much like filler. Instead, "Ombre di silenzio" is a moving electric ballad on the end of human existence, and "Simone Pianetti," is a folkloric eulogy to the Lombard brigand.

A couple of curiosities: the twelfth track is an aggressive and powerful cover of the famous "C'è un re" by Nomadi. Nice but clearly inferior to the original version, especially from the vocal point of view, considering the extraordinary interpretative skills of Augusto Daolio. Finally, we have an alternative version of "Vortici Scuri," here produced in an acoustic arrangement for harp, flute, guitar, and voice. The result is remarkable, in fact, the epic nature of the original version is replaced by a sorrowful and melancholic hymn to the Muse, evoked by the protagonist of the piece, so that the goddess may stimulate his artistic inspiration. It seems, however, that for this album, the Muse mentioned by Folkstone (in the hidden track of this album), abandoned the group after the fifth song. This is why the tracklist of "Il confine," experiences quality fluctuations akin to the chaotic undulating motion that appears on the electrocardiogram of a cardiac patient. Despite this, it is an album worth listening to, at least for the undisputed beauty of its first part.

Federico "Dragonstar" Passarella.