REVIEWS

• Review: An English Arcanum (Telling the Bees)8 May 2010Imagine being seduced into the world of Merrie England, as John Michell would say: a quasi-mythical realm of music, craft, magic, the whole rustic tapestry of rural life. A world where animals are wiser than humans, and hedgerows bristle with mystery. No, that isn’t quite the world of Telling the Bees – they’re far too wise to naively devolve into such idealism – but it certainly echoes through every note of their new album, An English Arcanum, and if ever the folk mythology of Merrie England were attested by any kind of evidence, this album would be it.
• Review: Untie the Wind (Telling the Bees)8 May 2010Telling The Bees are a four piece folk band with a strong classical influence and they sing their stories with a poignancy and magic all their own. Oh, and every time I put this album on to play I am immediately, utterly obsessed.
• Review: Where Life Springs Eternal (Celestiial)6 May 2010US nature-loving doom outfit Celestiial are an unusual beast. Where Life Springs Eternal, their second full length album, is a fascinating mix of heavy, droning funeral doom guitars, tortured vocals, and glacial percussion. Somehow they’ve managed to take the usually oppressive and choking tools of the funeral doom metal trade to evoke an almost soothing animistic atmosphere of forests and streams and mist on the air. It’s a strange and impressive achievement.
• Review: Loss (Wodensthrone)4 May 2010Loss is the debut album of UK black metal band Wodensthrone. It was recorded with the assistance of pagan black metal giants Negura Bunget, and sets out to explore the historical and cultural spirit of Europe’s pagan roots...
• Review: Azimuths to the Otherworld (Nechochwen)4 May 2010Nechochwen’s second album, Azimuths to the Otherworld is an unusual and very creative release which takes time for the listener to fully absorb. The effort is worth it
• Review: TYR Volume 325 Apr 2010By now, I would assume most readers spanning these pages have read or at least heard of the journal TYR. Originally conceived as an annual publication that has proven otherwise over time, this third installment is nonetheless well-worth the wait. Dedicated to pre-Christian myth, culture and tradition in an Indo-European context, TYR contains a wealth of articles, music and book reviews with an undeniably anti-modernist slant that maintains a high standard of erudition and scholarship. Anyone looking for mere ideological rants should look elsewhere. As the editors make clear in the editorial preface, the radical traditionalism espoused provides a “nexus where any different number of ideas might intersect.” Echoing Oswald Spengler’s distinction of a “people” as opposed to a “mass” several decades ago, the various authors hardly treat the underlying key themes – "culture" and "civilization" as synonymous.
• Review: Welsh Witches and Wizards (Michael Howard)25 Apr 2010Welsh Witches and Wizards is the first book to appear, in a series of four, focusing on the witchcraft of four regions of the British Isles. Well-researched and drawing mainly on documentary evidence, this initial treatise on the Welsh lore and practice of cunning-folk is carefully hewn into 8 concise chapters.
• Review: A Banishing Ritual (Blood of the Black Owl)17 Apr 2010Blood of the Black Owl have carved a formidable reputation with their characteristic brand of Heathen-inflected “blackened doom metal,” as I am wont to call it. Knowing the impeccable standards to which band leader Chet Scott holds all of his creative projects (Ruhr Hunter, Elemental Chrysalis with Blood of the Black Owl comrade James Woodhead, etc), I was positively bursting at the thought of hearing this new album. And high as they were, my expectations have been completely exceeded.
• Review: Hadewych (Hadewych)17 Apr 2010While many musical artists have tried to draw together naturalistic and industrial influences, few are particularly successful – the delicate synergy of elements required is all too easily missed. This album, however, is a brilliant example of how good a combination of musical genres they can be.
• Review: Georgia Through its Folktales (Michael Berman)13 Apr 2010This book is unlike most compendiums of folktales for two reasons: firstly, the relative obscurity (in the English language at any rate) of the subject matter; and secondly, the unique and fascinating reflective threads with which the stories on offer are bound together.
• Review: Barbarians to Angels: The Dark Ages Reconsidered (Peter S. Wells)6 Apr 2010I’ve always pined for the Dark Ages of Northern Europe, and never been able to justify it – let’s face it, the “barbarian” tribes have been brought into thorough disrepute by the dour Roman commentators of the late Empire. What a pleasure, then, to discover a book that dismantles those jaded opinions with wit and clarity.
• Review: Runes: Theory & Practice (Galina Krasskova)13 Mar 2010I have enjoyed what I have read of Galina Krasskova’s writings, so I was quite excited to review this book. Having devoured it, I have come to the conclusion that, although there are some discordant notes that did not sit comfortably with me, it is on the whole a valuable contribution to contemporary runic lore.
• Review: Visions of Vanaheim (Svartesól)13 Mar 2010It is no secret that the modern Heathen revival has tended to be very Aesir-centric; even the term Asatru refers specifically to Odin, Thor, and their ilk, to the exclusion of their sibling family of gods, the Vanir. Matters are not assisted by Edred Thorsson’s curious attempts to identify Vanir-worship with Wicca!
• Review: Days in Midgard: A Thousand Years On (Steven T. Abell)13 Mar 2010Open The Poetic Edda at a random page – particularly Lee Hollander’s canonical and nigh-unreadable translation – and you might find Norse mythology to be altogether too bizarre and cryptic to connect with. Such a reaction would be very understandable – Icelandic poetry is insanely complex and the stories seem to have been composed for an audience that already knew the background to the situations and characters. How, then, can we moderns find our way in? How can we translate the connection in our hearts into a form that permits speech and words?
• Review: Runic Amulets & Magic Objects (Mindy MacLeod & Bernard Mees)11 Mar 2010This book is essential reading for anyone interested in runes or indeed European cultural history. Macleod and Mees decline to adopt the recent fashion in academic circles for dismissing the idea that the runes had any kind of magical significance, just as they refuse to pretend that different regions were hermetically sealed from one another. They steer a balanced path between emphasising the many mundane applications of the runes and their magical function, and indeed the book focuses on the latter, as may be inferred from the title.
• Review: The Golden Thread: The Ageless Wisdom of the Western Mystery Traditions (Joscelyn Godwin)28 Sep 2009My first encounter with Joscelyn Godwin’s work occurred about 10 years ago while leafing through an issue of the journal Rûna. Godwin’s article, “Polar and Solar Symbolism”, profoundly opened me to an esoteric school of thought that captivates my mind to this very day. Since then, I have read a handful of his other works, including the truly astounding Arktos which provided a foundation for further philosophical and spiritual inquiry. Henceforth, it continues with his latest book, The Golden Thread. For those who are unfamiliar with Godwin, this latest offering is as good a place to start as any. In fact, it may be his most accessible work to date.
• Review: Beowulf & Grendel: The Truth Behind England’s Oldest Legend (John Grigsby)21 Sep 2007The poem known to us today as Beowulf has been something of an enigma since it first began to receive serious scholarly attention almost two hundred years ago. That it survived into the modern era at all is nothing short of miraculous, but many of the allusions contained within the text would seem to suggest that it is the sole surviving component of a much larger tradition.
• Review: Yule (Tor Lundvall)21 Mar 2007Emotional electronica with a mistletoe arrow, this limited edition CD (only 333 originally available), leads us on a city mouse journey through the winter holiday. From entering the station to catch a homebound train, to being awaken on a snowy morning by bells and the promise of mysterious gifts, to the end of Yule and the beginning of the New Year, we are led by Xmas ghosts.
• Review: Blood of the Black Owl (Blood of the Black Owl)21 Mar 2007Consisting of seven tracks, this ambitious metal journey begins by delivering the listener to the heart of the storm immediately upon pressing ‘play.’ A broad range of instrumentation is woven through the heavy rhythm guitar in a unique and entrancing manner. The stark, raw vocals of the opening turn to echoing screams and cavernous growls, surrounded by doom tempo drums and meditative breaks of pure drone.
• Review: Cherries (Agnivolok)21 Mar 2007The sound of Agnivolok is an often uneven, yet masterfully produced fusion of European classical and folk with dark, atmospheric experimentalism. The lyricist and songwriter, Vera Agnivolok, creates some beautiful, warm melodies through the use of guitar, piano, and accordian. Yet her jarring and haunting vocal style, is one of the strong ingredients which sets this band apart form all others.

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