Artist: Cnoc An Tursa
Title: A Cry For The Slain
Type: Album
Label: Digital / Apocalyptic Witchcraft
One of the inevitable occurrences in my musical life is being introduced to a band and somehow losing touch. In the case of the fierce Scottish band Cnoc An Tursa I had the pleasure of reviewing their debut album ‘The Giants Of Auld’, but somewhere along the line completely missed the follow up four years later. So when the chance to review this turned up I assumed that I must have missed a lot. Turns out no, just that sophomore album ‘The Forty Five’. It seems that between music with the fine indeed Ruadh and line up changes, this is the first album in…gulp… eight-ish years. Wow. I really am old.
So I decided not to go back and listen to the older albums to prepare, I just wanted to hear what passion had driven them back to Cnoc An Tursa in 2026 and… can I say f’kin cool….
Settle in, settle down, and wrap up warm because this is wild weather we face.
‘Na Fir Ghorma’ is, apparently, Scots Gaelic for Storm Kelpies or ‘The Blue Men Of The Minch’ who are said to inhabit the waters between the mainland Scotland and the Outer Hebrides (sorry, despite half of my recent ancestors having come down from Scotland my Scots Gaelic is entirely Google based…. the shame.) A cold and sormy sound indeed, a shimmer of percussion and a slow, lonely guitar melody rises. We get a beautiful female vocal here; both haunting and wistful. The sound of choral vocals, a gradual chg of the guitar in a deeply evocative, folk tinged way…. ‘The Caoinaeg’ crashes this like a wind against shutters. Fierce black metal riffing, raw but strangely melodic harsh vocals. A lilt, a rise and fall that envelopes and whisks you away to the wild, spirit haunted highlands. The music is that sound that you think black metal but the move the music weaves its way into folk and folklore driven pagan metal. Hairspiltting, yes, but it makes you want to sing with it so strong is the hook. The acoustic passage is superbly woven, a spoken word threaded through with the tale of a haunt, a weeping figure where slaughter stains the land forever.
Passionate and deeply atmospheric; a rich start indeed.
‘Cailleach And The Guardians Of The Seven Stones’ just cranks it higher. This is glorious, rousing music for the Celtic winter goddess. It’s that swell your heart and clench your fist music that will storm any live venue. It is wild and unchained and full of a huge line of melodic hooks. It straddles a strange balance between an unerring Scottish power and that tinge of Viking metal. The drumming here is just so good, bringing that tribal feel as the guitar finds that Scottish folk tinged path and the fantastic vocals roar over the top with such pride. This is going to be monumental if done live.
‘Baobhan Sith’ is a more controlled affair, more threatening (and weirdly the second time in two weeks this vampiric being has crossed my musical path…) It builds storm like, pushing deep and gathering clouds about it. And when the clean female voice reaches out it is all the more frightening; seductive and malevolent in equal measure.
Halfway through and not a foot placed with hesitation, or from this dark folklore haunted land.
‘Am Fear Liath Mor’ is just… oh the beautiful dancing intro and then the howl pulling a fantastic riff and guitar run behind it. The Big Grey Man haunting Ben Macdui (thank you Wikipedia and the beautifully clear vocals), stalking you as you begin to panic. It is just so hard to explain how good this track is; there is the haunting, the fear but also a strange power in it that makes you feel so damned alive. If you sing about the folklore that springs from the land you walk, this is what you want the music to sound like. I get a little note of older Amorphis here, just that way with the harshest vocals and yet the most fluid of melodies without losing the power and wildness.
‘Alba In My Heart’, no surprises, absolutely comes out raging. The highland dancing notes born along by the glorious riff and the bellowing defiance in your face vocals. This is the kind of song that will find even the smallest bit of Scottish blood in your soul and push it shouting with joy to the surface. It somehow gathers you in regardless and allows you to share the pride and join in it and has a tune that simply will not quit and words that could be sung at the top of anyone’s voice. A closing section of tempos shifts and such fluid playing it may grow softer but never loses the emotion, not for a moment. Oh my heart indeed…. Tempestuous, unfettered revelling in their land and lore. Blackened folk metal at its absolute finest.
‘Address To The Devil’ is Robert Burns wrapped up in a gnarly black metal warning of night haunts and horrors, of travellers in peril. Somehow, in the mellow midsection, I see the harbinger of doom fixing a rapt tavern with his warnings. Stay in the warmth, don’t risk the cold and the horrors that lie in wait. Drink a little more, thank your luck you are in the warmth. Once more the clean female vocals are beautifully placed, perfectly used.
The album closes with ‘The Nine Maidens Of Dundee’ (a legend I once heard introduced as ‘a bad example of parenting…’). A short, but dark and doomed instrumental that rounds it off beautifully.
‘A Cry For The Slain’ is that perfect blend of rousing songs and deep love of folklore. The musicianship is superb and the songwriting here is just… oh it makes you want to hear every song live. We get darkness and horror, roaring pride and passion, seductive malevolence and a wild spirit let loose across the album. There are veins leading to older Amorphis, that feel that Forefather bring, but these are just whispers as after eight years Cnoc An Tursa have penned an album full of their own personality, their own folklore and, of course their own land. And they are absolutely here to welcom you in.
Just buy it and let them take you to some wild places indeed.
Gizmo
Cnoc An Tursa – A Cry For The Slain – Limited Edition Digipack CD PRE- – Apocalyptic Witchcraft
Walking The Liminal Space 