Canadian act Geimhre was formed almost fifteen years ago, and currently consists of (former / current) members of e.g. Wolfhammer Division and Fomorii. Their name is Gaelic for ‘Winter’ and that’s what their music stands for too: winter, white as snow and purity, grim and vengeful, angry but proud… After a handful of demos and split-material, Geimhre released their first album, called Mollachd, in 2005 via (sadly defunct) Vinland Winds (it was done on tape too, by the way, though in a very limited edition, via Tanhu Records). In 2008, a second album, called Noidagh, saw the light, but then things seemed to fade away into nothingness. Actually, I am not sure whether they are still active or not.
But anyway, Polish Lower Silesian Stronghold decided to re-release this album, in co-operation with Hammer Of Damnation, and with four bonus tracks, taken from the demos Cogadh and For The Blood Of Hinterland (great idea, for this material did not appear, if I’m not mistaken, on any of the compilation albums before, so it surely is a surplus!). It comes with new artwork, and the whole had been re-mastered by label-master K. And that bonus material, well, actually it’s quite fabulous, and much heavier and more intense than the album. Seriously, this bonus material is oh so heavy and fierce, but unfortunately the sound smell like a fart after a drunken evening based on raw meat and liters of cold beer… (or something like that…)…
Mollachd, and then I am referring to the album, brings rather simplistic and low-profiled (Black / Pagan) Metal with quite some ‘ethnic’ elements. The best example is the very short opening track Mallachd (mind the difference in vowel!), which includes folksy female vocals and flute; the latter being kind of familiar within the East-European scene. The whole is enormously melodious and quite epic and heroic. It sounds nihilistically traditional, totally lacking of originality. I for myself am not looking for originality, but some pieces are truly too predictable and heard-it-before, and that’s a pitiful thing. At the other hand, some excerpts, like the bagpipe-injected outro on Battlefield Vinland or the quasi-ambient-laden piece Ballad Of The Tears, is quite enthralling. Also the punkish and neo-folkish elements give this band that ‘somewhat more’, and that isn’t but a positive thing. Surely, sometimes it sucks, it sucks hard times, but forget about nitpicking infantilism and that stupid narrow-minded, one-directional vision.
Even though this material is ten years of age, it sounds as if it is even older, at least one decade. It’s up to you, dear listener, to decide whether this is a positive or a nasty thing. It lacks of everything that might be distinctive from the overcrowded current scene, but then again one might search, hopelessly and unfortunately, for that little pepper-in-the-ass-effect, which this album lacks of.
Because of the lyrical themes, the album is banned in some countries. I think that’s a sad thing, because the ‘freedom of expression’ is something etc… [no further comment; this site isn’t a political, religious or social medium so my personal opinion does not matter]. You do not need to agree, but keep in mind that such opinion might be part of the whole concept. Try to see through the misty veil, because there might be something revolving / revolutionary / revelationist behind it…
For fans of: Temnozor, Mordaehoth, Nasheim, Satanic Warmaster, Svartsyn, Moloch and the likes…