Artist: Blades of Folmär
Title: The Endless Descent To Undying Depths
Type: Album
Label: Digital
Apparently this, as opposed to the other two releases I reviewed, is actually the debut full length from bold adventurer and well know goblin botherer Blades Of Folmär and I guess at around sixty minutes in timings full length is amply deserved.
Every journey has a beginning, and ‘The Warmth Of The Tavern’ is the one most of us never get beyond. Warm crackling flames, the background bubble of friendly chat and clinking of glass and mug, a sweet and restful lilting tune meandering through. Not a place to leave for most of us, but ‘Following The Frozen Streams’ the adventurer does. A beautiful, deep sound with the sprinkling of frosted dust and ice reflected in the lighter and sharper sounds. Cold it might be but beautiful it is. That stillness to the music that ice and cold can bring, that quiet.
‘Cauldron Born’ however is not. Darkness takes the music here. Deep and though full of a recognition of the magic at play in the easily captured tune, it creates a sense of wariness. This rises as the pressure builds and the true nature unfolds. ‘Into The Bogs Or Ruin’ is the next milestone, probably following a map by the great Miyazaki.. It’s a slow and dank synth base to the song, like mist resting of thick sucking mud, but the melody over the top might be lights in the gloom.
‘Storm Lashed Banners’ has an almost fog horn push to the synth, other sounds far in the murk. A lighter melody flutters, a slow snap of a snare drum. Maybe guards waiting in the rain, miserable. Cold. Obeying. Then we are ‘Storming The Count’s Castle’. The army moves, paced by drums and the sound of battle horns. It is great dramatic stuff, as though we watch from above, some hill perhaps, as this confrontation, none of our own, begins…
‘Stargazer’ is the moment of contemplation, not so muchh searching for meaning as letting the meaning come to us as the slow, endless path of the heavens drifts on. Notes of light against the gentle and cosmic sounds flowing from the keyboards. It is a place to simply stand and watch, and listen undisturbed. The place we all need to ourselves now and then. Beautiful.
For some reason we take ‘The Alderman’s Quest’. Never a good idea in my experience. The ominous synth wash, the worrying dark notes descending into fear prove me right once more. This feels like no good can come of this. The music is the sound of us stepping on, even as the darkness closes and the secrets begin to cralw out of the shadows in the downbeat notes. In a strange contrast, ‘Navigating The Tombs Of Karak Varn’ seems almost fresh. Perhaps though it is now a place to tread with care it is a place we know? The steady drum beats might be above us, lost in their own concerns, as like thieves the light and confident notes lead us safely through the depths to our treasure.
‘Prayer Of Enchantment’ has a wash like the drone of voices, words intoned over some object and a craftsman taps the final runes with the light notes. Its is strange how the music brings such a glow to my mind, a golden light in a dark but magical place.
‘Ruined Citadels’ uses the rising sound to evoke time and memory, a time lost. There is no fear here, simply the mournful melody of what once was as you walk through its halls and towers, alleyways and streets accompanied by dust and feint remembrances. In a strangely similar way ‘A Wounded King’ is that slow funereal procession, a mounrful and quite exquisite tune on strings that swells with the synths as though slowly the word spreads through the fading court that this is a moment of passing and a great man is breathing his last. We receive his last words too, a man seeing his legacy being nothing but dust…
‘Crypts Of The Serpent’ begins with a sound that genuinely reminds me of slithering, the rasping of scale on stone but soon we pass into a place that feels safer. Notes glisten and sparkle, jewels in golden cages and lost crowns for a queen no one recalls. It is odd how safe I feel here. Perhaps I have forgotten about the journey out…
‘Starlight And Flame’ offers warmth in the dark synth, the acoustic guitar sound, the odd burst of delicate music as stars twinkle. It feels so safe and pretty here. Maybe a campfire, a close knit group; whatever there is a peace and a calm to it.
Not so ‘In Darkness It Dwells’. From the malevolent sound of deep, dark music like breath and the scrape of something uncoiling this is not a place you want to fight. It feels as though there is something endlessly restless here, just waiting for the unwary. The closer we get, the more the music is drowned by the gargling snarl of whatever it is here…
Last stop is ‘Wytch-Hyre’. A gentle but swift ticking over a swell of synth that pulses and bubbles with life. It has a soft sense of almost euphoria; the moment when the work is done and you can, at last, think of the rewards coming your way. It steps slightly but almost defiantly into the realm of synthwave in a way and yet still sits as a true part of this album.
Sixteen steps, sixteen encounters for your adventures. Some lead to or from each others, some stand alone. Every one is beuatifully constructed and shows a real development in the direction the Blades point. Whether its for your next tabletop session, a watch party for The Black Cauldron or just because you want to be taken to another world by music this would be a perfect choice.
Gizmo
Walking The Liminal Space 