Carved In Stone – Tales of Glory and Tragedy
Ethereal acoustic music with a lyrical and musical affinity for ancient times and forgotten tales. Vocally, Swawa puts me in mind of Andrea “Nebelhex” Haugen with her smooth singing style, but perhaps she’s even a bit better singer than Andrea. As the album forges onward, her delivery gets a bit predictable in the way she follows the underlying motion and harmonic content of the flutes and acoustic passages, but I guess that’s what you get with such minimalist traditional music. Subtle choirs and simplistic synth and flute accompaniment coexist quite comfortably with Swawa’s straight forward guitar work, but to break up the content in the future, I think she’d do well in mixing up her strum patterns and chord selections a bit. Since this is on a metal label, likely being promoted to metal people, I think the metal contingent will see “Tales of Glory and Tragedy” as a bold statement and a lot more magical that it really is. Folks into the traditional folk genre of music on the other hand may likely see it as rather underdeveloped. But for what it is, “Tales of Glory and Tragedy” is a nice change of pace for the quieter nights and those moments when I want my thoughts to roam back to last years Renaissance Fair where I enjoyed Newcastle on tap and $5 turkey legs. –Marty
SCHWARZDORN
Worm Gear 