Aeldaborn – The serpent drum

Aeldaborn is an upcoming German dark folk band. After doing a couple of live shows, they now have created a self-released cd-r with seven tracks showcasing their diverse repertoire.

The title-track of ‘The serpent drum’ consists of a rather sweet synth melody and restrained percussion. After this intro the cd kicks off with ‘All darkness comes’. It’s a typical piece of ‘classic’ apocalyptic folk, based on acoustic guitar, heavy drums and keyboard sounds, with desperate vocals and lyrics, comparable to earlier Sol Invictus work.

Then it’s time for more martial sounding work. ‘Wir weben’ is built on a text by Heinrich Heine (‘Deutschland, wir weben dein Leichentuch / Wir weben hinein den dreifachen Fluch’), in which the working class (the weavers) is disappointed about their fatherland and their king and God, but keeps on working, in hope of a better life. It’s a monotonous song with raw, screamed vocals, powerful though a bit too long.

‘Four crowns of winter’ starts as an atmospheric soundscape, before turning into a fine demanding dark song based on synth, martial drumming and militant vocals. ‘Pagan candelights’ is more restrained, sounding somehere between Sol Invictus and Fire & Ice.

‘Ich glaube’ is an instrumental piece, partly based on a classical string melody by Bizet, with bombastic drums and speech samples added. The disc is closed by a short instrumental outro, ‘the serpent end’.

In my opinion Aeldaborn has created an enjoyable cd, with quite varied tracks. Some of the songs still sound a bit primitive, and the production could of course be more professional. Also the three different vocalists of Aeldaborn are not naturally gifted singers, which gives the music a somewhat raw edge, but that is not such a problem with this type of music. You can hear that Aeldaborn has listened well to influential dark folk and martial artists of the past, and that they enjoy trying to find their own path in this musical field.

artist: Aeldaborn
label: self-released
details: cdr, 7 tracks