Wednesday 6 September 2017

Cardinals Folly - Deranged Pagan Sons (Album Review)


Release date: September 04th 2017. Label: Nine Records. Format: CD/DD/Vinyl

Deranged Pagan Sons - Tracklisting

1.Worship Her Fire 06:23
2.Dionysian 04:10
3.Deranged Pagan Sons 05:28
4.The Island Where Time Stands Still 06:46
5.Three-Bladed Doom 05:15
6.Suicide Commando 05:27
7.I Belong In The Woods 06:02
8.Secret of the Runes 08:29

Members

Mikko Kääriäinen - Lord
Juho Kilpelä - Truth
Joni Takkunen - Saviour

Review

The mighty Cardinals Folly return with their epic new album - Deranged Pagan Sons. As with previous albums, the band play a blistering style of Modern Doom Metal that's bursting with vintage and classic doom sounds as well.

Opening track - Worship Her Fire - is a frantic and very fast-paced offering with the lyrics and vocals being more rooted in classic heavy metal folklore. It's the music that's the main standout here with the instrumental work demanding your attention throughout. The production from the start is clean and crisp but still with a very unforgiving doom based feel.

Second track - Dionysian - carries on the modern sounding heavy metal vibe with the band taking their time in bringing their trademark doom metal riffs to the masses. The sound of the song never feels forced as the band start to weave a doom and gloom atmosphere. The vocals are handled superbly by Mikko. As he's on fine devilish and demonic form right from the start.

The next song is the album's title track - Deranged Pagan Sons and it's perhaps the standout song on the album. As the album finally starts to embrace the more Occult Rock side of Cardinal Folly's music. The song even contains moments of heavy stoner metal sounds at different parts of the song. The lyrics have a very cool classic and historical feel. Which I know is a big aspect of Cardinal Folly's musical identity.

The fourth song - The Island Where Time Stands Still - has a similar approach to Metallica classic song - One. Obviously very different styles of music but they both have a similar approach. Vintage soundclip starting the song with the heavy doomed out guitars making their appearance known. Maybe I'm looking way too much into that song. It's just the overall vibe that I feel with the song. Mikko perhaps plays the albums heaviest bass parts on this song. Brooding and with a sense of purpose.

The second half of the album obviously follows the same path that the first half brilliantly contained. Three Bladed Room, Suicide Commando, I Belong In The Woods and Secret Of The Runes each contain their own individual highlights. As the band play a spectacular heavy style of Doom Metal that may sound theatrically OTT at times. Though that's the overall charm with both the band and album itself. You need OTT theatrical sounds for an album such as this and Cardinals Folly pull this off with huge original style of their own.

With this being their fourth album, it could have easily seen the band ended up stale and uninspired. I'm happy to report this is perhaps the best that Cardinals Folly has sounded in years. Deranged Pagan Sons is a stunning and beautifully well-crafted album that will appeal to both long-time fans of the band and the casual doom metal fan.

This album proves why Cardinals Folly are at the top of their game within the Doom Metal world. Embrace The Doom Metal Madness that the band have created with this album.

Words by Steve Howe

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