Waylander struck gold here. While the songs on the albums immediately preceding and following this one tend toward overlong and boring, everything comes together for them on Honour Amongst Chaos. The folk music is well integrated and catchy, the atmosphere is enthralling, and the songs are packed with a wealth of memorable passages. Serious, epic, and thought-provoking, this is the finest mixture of Irish folk music and metal out there.
The first track, ‘As the Deities Clash’, is, without exaggeration, one of the best album openers there’s ever been. Starting with a folky, atmospheric feel, the song builds up into a grandiose main riff that forms the perfect background for Ard Chieftain O’Hagan’s admittedly dime-a-dozen but appropriate bark. Then the song flows back into a sublime interlude with clean chanting, some kind of flute, and Celtic percussion that eventually gives way to a scorching rhythm leading up to the larger-than-life finale. Both the most thoughtful and most entertaining song on the album, this piece perfectly encapsulates what Honour Amongst Chaos is all about and whets the appetite for more.
Several of this album’s subsequent songs follow in the opener’s footsteps, with varied structures that mix folky passages, atmosphere that calls to mind the band's beloved emerald isle, and black metal-inspired riffs, most of which are midpaced. The parts fade beautifully into each other, with no acoustic guitars or mandolins seeming like anything less than the exact thing the song needs at that particular moment. Each passage fits logically with the one that came before it, with none of them, except perhaps the interlude in 'Elemental Chaos' and the intro to 'Bru Na Boinne', ever lasts too long, and they range from calming, catchy folk motifs to metal riffs that scream with heathen fury. Though none of these tracks quite measure up to ‘As the Deities Clash’, a listener will be too enthralled to notice that most of them exceed the six-minute mark.
‘Galloping Gaels’ and ‘Taker of Heads’, are a separate breed of song, though. Not focused nearly as much on atmosphere or the pagan-laced folk flavor of the rest of the album, these pieces are far less varied. Having a thrashier character than the other songs, these two lend the album a bit more diversity without seeming out of place.
One of this album's best aspects is one most people wouldn't think to write about: the order of the tracklist. With numerous lengthy songs inhabiting this disc, it should get tiresome at some point but never does because the songs are so well-placed. The first three are folk metal in the truest sense, distinct from each other, though clearly in the same style. The album's longest song, the excellent epic 'To Dine in the Otherworld', is bookended in the middle of the album by the two thrashier pieces. From there, it's not too tough to get through the remaining two songs even if each one contains a section that's a bit less than thrilling. And if you have a version with the bonus track, 'Reborn to the Fight', a cleverly-titled remake of a song from their first album, provides a rollicking, insanely catchy folk melody that brings the album to a more lighthearted end.
With only a couple of dull spots in this hour-long journey, Honour Amongst Chaos is one of the finest examples of folk metal and certainly the best Ireland has ever produced (theses guys are from Ulster, the part of Ireland that's still under British control, technically making them citizens of the UK). This release is an amazing balancing act, packed with ferocious metal goodness and touches of ancient musical traditions that evoke a somber mood. This is essential for anyone seeking thoughtful, gimmick-free folk metal.
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