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Mael Mórdha: Damned when dead
06/11/13 || gk
Ireland’s Mael Mórdha is on to their fourth full length and first for Candlelight but this is the first I’m hearing of them. The band came advertised as folk/doom and that was pretty much enough to pique my curiosity.
“Damned when dead” starts with the slow ominous sounds of “Laudabiliter” but the song soon picks up with some mid paced groove a tin whistle melody that enhances the sound and a final, beautifully played lead guitar section. The album gets off to a very promising start with this song and luckily, the band delivers right through these 47 odd minutes. In fact I’d say that the first 5 songs are all high quality heavy metal. “King of the English”, “Dawning of the grey”, “All Eire will quake” and “Bloody alice (of Abergavenny)” make for one hell of a strong first half. The songs are anthemic, heavy and memorable mixing vaguely doomy elements, traditional heavy metal, a little bit of Irish folk music and vocalist Roibéard Ó Bogail’s powerful and dramatic clean singing takes these songs to the next level. All eire will quake is for me the center piece of the album with its ridiculously catchy chorus and epic finale. The title song closes the album and Bogail once again impresses with some really powerful and well executed growls that take an otherwise melancholic and melodic song to a whole new level.
Guitarist Gerry Clince pulls off an impressive showing here too. His solos are always well put together and he never showboats. The rhythm section of Dave Murphy on bass and Shane Cahil on drums are tight and focused but the real stars on “Damned when dead” are the songs.
I guess the comparison to Primordial is inevitable but Mael Mórdha comes from a
much more heavy metal/ doom background on this album. Vocalist Roibéard Ó
Bogail is very similar to Primordial’s Nemtheanga but overall Mael
Mórdha is pretty much its own band with more in common with Viking era
Bathory. Lyrically, the band takes inspiration from Irish history and
occasionally Bogail’s delivery comes across like an angry school teacher
berating his students but once you get used to his dramatic
presentation, the history lessons are quite fun.
Mael Mórdha has delivered a quality album here. “Damned when dead” boasts of excellent artwork and packaging and some really good music that should appeal to fans of heavy metal. There really isn’t any reason not to check this band out.
- Information
- Released: 2013
- Label: Candlelight Records
- Website: Mael Mórdha Facebook
- Band
- Roibéard Ó Bogail: vocals
- Gerry Clince: guitars
- Dave Murphy: bass
- Shane Cahill: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Laudabiliter
- 02. King of the English
- 03. Dawning of the Grey
- 04. All Éire Will Quake
- 05. Bloody Alice (of Abergavenny)
- 06. The Sacking of the Vedrafjord
- 07. A Dirge
- 08. Damned When Dead
