CD Odyssey Disc 1903: Courtney Marie Andrews

The streak of albums alternating between obscure metal and indie folk/country is now up to six.

How does that happen, you ask? It’s random. Identifying a pattern is just a thing that makes your brain feel better, and maybe generate a little small talk in the teaser section.

Disc 1903 is… Old Flowers

Artist: Courtney Marie Andrews

Year of Release: 2020

What’s up with the Cover? Courtney looks cold in this picture, and maybe a little miffed. Like the photographer has taken her out to the foothills and over several hours had her pose, trying to get the perfect shot.

So much time has gone by that it’s now dark, and so she’s just said “fine – the next one is it, and let’s go back to town!” as the photographer futzes with some lighting equipment he’s haphazardly pulled out of the back of the Jeep.

Alternative viewers may see a different tale. Perhaps Courtney and her partner have earlier murdered a hitchhiker on a lonely stretch of road. All the hitchhiker had was $23 in loose bills and an iPhone 6 with no minutes on it, and Courtney is pretty upset with the take, not leastwise because she only got $11 of it.

They’ve been digging a grave just off the road since the late afternoon and it has fallen dark. Courtney thinks the hole is deep enough given the isolated location. Her partner has insisted going down a couple more feet just to be sure the coyotes don’t dig him up.

In both scenarios Courtney is cold and would like to go back to town but doing it right – whether it’s a photo shoot or a murder scene – takes time.

How I Came To Know It: I’ve been a fan of Courtney Marie Andrews since she released her 2016 masterpiece, “An Honest Life” (see review back at Disc 1081). When she releases a new album I tend to buy it, and that’s what’s happened here.

How It Stacks Up: I have six Courtney Marie Andrews albums (I just picked up her 2026 record, “Valentine” this weekend). “Old Flowers” ranks at #2.

Ratings: 4 stars

The worst thing about Courtney Marie Andrews’ voice is that you can only experience it for the first time once. “Old Flowers” was my fourth album by her, and that ship had long sailed. However, even after many years and many albums, there is still no way to fully prepare to hear her sing. Each and every time it is revelatory.

After a bit of extra production on “May Your Kindness Remain” “Old Flowers” has a sound closer to “An Honest Life” and this is a good thing. The songs are simple and sparsely arranged, and perfect vehicles for delivering Andrew’s vocals. Soft and sweet, with a controlled quaver and hurt for days, Andrews has a voice that makes you stop what you are doing, turn your ears to the stereo in a slow and deliberate way and fall forward into the experience.

At its heart, the secret is vulnerability. Andrews sings like she’s experiencing heartbreak for the first time. The miracle is that somehow this wholly committed emotional journey has a wisdom in it you would associate with someone much older. She’s a reminder that when life isn’t a thing that washes over you, its something you immerse yourself in – become part of – and that’s a good thing.

The album is aptly named, with the imagery of flowers featuring on many tracks. “Burlap String” starts the record off, situating us in a small west coast town with a moseying country-styled guitar strum. Like a lot of Andrews’ songs, this one is the end of a relationship. It’s a song of reconciliation, though, as she muses:

“If I could go back now
I'd pick you wildflowers
Tie 'em in burlap string
Tell you what you mean to me”

It’s not a rekindling of the relationship – that’s over –it’s regret of the missed opportunities to express love when it was new and fresh.

Fast forward to the title track, and the theme has shifted, but the flowers have remained. The wistful guitar strum is replaced with the purposeful rhythm of heavy piano chords and snare drum. This one is a slow and sorrowful march. The refrain “you can’t water old flowers” reflects the other side of a neglected and unkind relationship which is over. “Burlap String” has a kindness to it. “Old Flowers” isn’t cruel, but it is resolute. It is bags-packed and walking out the door feeling good about something for the first time in years.

These are just two songs, and while you won’t find flowers featuring in every song, you will find a bouquet of hurt and wisdom at every turn. Andrews has a generational voice, and she deploys it with an easy grace. Listening pulls you into yourself, pushes you into the innermost places where your guard is down, and shows you the beauty you’ve been hiding from yourself in there.

“Old Flowers” came out in July 2020, at a time when most of us were locked in our houses, the pandemic deepening, and wondering what would come next. Andrews’ answer is simple – we’ll never know what comes next, or what cruel or capricious turns await us on life’s road, but one thing we do know – there’s always love.

Best tracks: Burlap String, Guilty, If I Told, Old Flowers, Break the Spell, How You Get Hurt

CD Odyssey Disc 1902: Ancient Empire

I seem to be bouncing between indie folk and obscure metal lately. Two of my favourite kinds of music, so not surprising.

Disc 1902 is… Wings of the Fallen

Artist: Ancient Empire

Year of Release: 2019

What’s up with the Cover? Metal albums consistently have the best covers, and this is no exception.

Warrior angels descend to an apocalyptic world, and contemplate the devastation. This angel doesn’t look angry at all the death around him, just disappointed.

Meanwhile, the two angels in the sky behind him are giving off decidedly “can we go now?” vibes as this whole “let’s descend into orbit and check out a planet!” proposal has not lived up to the hype.

How I Came To Know It: About ten years ago I found my love of metal rekindled through a subgenre called NWOTHM, or the “New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal”. One of my early Youtube discoveries in the genre was Ancient Empire’s “Other World”. This led me to their Bandcamp site where I’ve been stalking (and occasionally buying) more records from their back catalogue over the years. The most recent of these is “Wings of the Fallen” which I couldn’t get on CD (yet!) but now have via download.

How It Stacks Up: I have three Ancient Empire albums. Of those, I must reluctantly rank “Wings of the Fallen” at #3.

Ratings: 2 stars but almost 3

I cannot confirm if Ancient Empire play tabletop war games, but if they don’t I feel they’re missing out on a natural outlet to their interests, because these guys love science fiction, particularly of the “epic battle” variety.

“Wings of the Fallen” is no exception, with the band delivering another concept album around lost worlds, endless wars and generally depressing stuff wrapped up in deliciously tasty power chords to help it go down easier.

This one involves angels, or not. The deeper thinking here appears to be the dangers of religious wars rather than anything spiritual. I admit I’ve listened multiple times and never sat down and did a deep dive on what is going on. There are discoveries of ancient weapons, and lots of hopeless “is this our last chance at survival?” conversation, but that’s pretty common stuff for these guys. They tend to tilt toward the bleak in their outlook.

What’s important are the riffs, which are not incredibly imaginative, but are timeless and played with gusto and precision, just as heavy metal riffs should be played. The band is tight and they have a late eighties Iron Maiden vibe to them that features an ever-rising melodic structure and a bit of gallop to keep the blood flowing. Think “Somewhere in Time” or “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son” stylings and you’ll be in the post-apocalyptic ballpark.

Lead singer Joe Liszt is no Bruce Dickinson, but while his range is limited he does have a good tone and delivers the band’s sci fi mayhem with dedicated sincerity. The rest of the band also plays well, capturing the soaring anthemic style critical to Ancient Empire’s sound.

Things generally go poorly for the combatants on an Ancient Empire record, and “Wings of the Fallen” is no exception, with horrific weapons of destruction consuming all life. Somehow, the band always makes their tragic epics sound uplifting. I guess it is hard for power chords to get you down without that minor third.

I enjoyed the guitar work overall, but the mid-record instrumental “Seraph Requiem” lost me. The playing that to this point has been holding down the bones of the record with energized riffs, here becomes unhinged and exposed when soloing.

Fortunately, the band immediately recovers on the next track, “The Last Survivor”, an epic six plus minutes of heavily themed goodness. Mixed in with a bit more structure, the guitar soloing also elevates.

Sure, “The Last Survivor” recounts the end of the human race, but if you are an Ancient Empire devotee (and I am) this is very much par for the course. You will throw your fist in the air, and you will mosh in ecstasy to these riffs, but all the while bad things will be happening to the characters in the story.

Ancient Empire rarely blows me away with innovation, but they are solid players (once again Steve Pelletier’s drums provide a reliably furious thump), and it is always a good time. This record felt a bit “more of the same” when compared to earlier work, but I knew that going in and so - unlike the poor bastards described in the lyrics - I had a good time.

Best tracks: A New Dawn, Wings of the Fallen, the Last Survivor

CD Odyssey Disc 1901: Carolyn Mark

Due to the random nature of my album selection, it’s been almost five years (Disc 1484)  since I reviewed an album by this next artist, but she’s always been in my heart.

Disc 1901 is… Nothing is Free

Artist: Carolyn Mark

Year of Release: 2007

What’s up with the Cover? This is one of the best album covers in my collection, so kudos to artist Kelly Haigh, who is also a singer I plan to learn more about…

Here we have our heroine, chained up on the outskirts of town and apparently intended as an offering for a demonic badger. Badgers don’t usually behave this way, but the skulls in the foreground suggest this one didn’t get the memo.

In the distance we have some industrial development pumping pollution into the dusky sky. Was it some nefarious Captains of Industry, bent on silencing our pesky folk singer by throwing her to the badgers? Will our chanteuse enchant the creature with her guitar playing and narrow-corseted waist, or will she disappear without a trace?

Well, not without a trace. Again, the skulls.

How I Came To Know It: I’ve been a fan of Carolyn Mark for a long time (first introduced to her by my friend Casey). This was a record I found on one of my innumerable searches through the CD stacks. I knew any Carolyn Mark album would be good, but let’s be honest – I would’ve bought this one for the cover alone.

How It Stacks Up: I have five Carolyn Mark albums, and “Nothing is Free” comes in at #1. I know the early stuff will always gain a glory for being first, but this record is simply lovely.

Ratings: 4 stars

A Carolyn Mark record is sure to feature some great folk songs, and likely a few chuckles as well. “Nothing is Free” has plenty of both, with Mark’s songwriting prowess on full display.

The musical structures are pure Canadiana folk, with touches of fiddle and mandolin filling in the space between Mark’s relaxed guitar strumming. The songs lilt along somewhere in the no-man’s land between weary and content. It’s a fine time exploring themes that are heartfelt, with a helping of brazen and a touch of naughty.

Mark’s vocals suit the space well, with a healthy handful of gravel in her tone, but a light sweetness in her high head voice. She deploys the tension well, a girl who’ll give you a sweet smile and then tip your macchiato into your lap for fun. It isn’t cruel or malicious, just playful. Besides you had it coming dragging your macchiato-sipping ass into the imaginary gin joint a Carolyn Mark song calls home.

A great example, these opening lines from “The One That Got Away (with it)”:

“There’s 2 kinds of women you let in your life
Exciting New Mistress and Boring Old Wife
There’s the 1 that got away
And the 1 that’s here to stay
I just want to be the 1 that got away with it.”

To say it is self-deprecating is to miss the point. Yes she plays around with her predilection for sin, but it isn’t with shame, it’s with celebration; a common thread through her many excellent records. Relationships are hard, and rather than feeling sorry for yourself, it’s OK to celebrate the mess of it all.

While I love the song, I do not love the dodgy use of numerals in place of words that is littered throughout the liner notes on this record. I must assume Mark was listening to a lot of Prince at that time.

Mark does not have blow-the-doors-off vocal power, but that’s not necessary for these songs. Successful delivery of tunes so laden with a barrage of clever words, requires air-tight phrasing, and in that department Carolyn Mark has talent to spare. She trills lightly across the top of the instrumentation or fills in the gaps in staccato faction as the song’s structure dictates, never losing musicality or tone through all the gymnastics. You may not notice it, but that feeling like she’s always landing the perfect punchline? – that’s what it does.

Near the end of the record Mark takes a slight detour into Vaudeville with “Poisoned with Hope”. I know the rhymes in this song are designed to be strained, but I didn’t love the effect, intended or otherwise, and missed the musical trill that gives the rest of the record its easygoing charm. A minor quibble, and not enough to knock a star off – just keepin’ it real.

Otherwise, not much to complain about on this record, which showcases an artist at the height of her talent, writing timeless folk songs that make you smile, nod knowingly, and feel small shivers of discomfort in all the good ways.  

Best tracks: The Business End, Happy 2B Flying Away, 1 Thing, Pictures at 5, The 1 that Got Away (with it), Pink Moon and All the Ladies

CD Odyssey Disc 1900: The Lamp of Thoth

Sometimes to know a band, it helps to know the band they were before.

Disc 1900 is… Cauldron of Witchery

Artist: The Lamp of Thoth

Year of Release: 2007

What’s up with the Cover? A creepy, eldritch bit of stylized art of what I presume is a witch (because of the album title).

No cauldron in evidence, but the witch does look she has been doused with water.

How I Came To Know It: I am a big fan of the band Arkham Witch, and The Lamp of Thoth was the precursor to that band. Knowing this, when I saw a used copy last Saturday in my local record store I lost all composure, snatched it out of the miscellaneous “L” section, and carried it, giggling with glee, to the checkout.

How It Stacks Up: This is my only Lamp of Thoth album – and an EP at that – so it can’t stack up.

Ratings: 2 stars but almost 3

How serious can you take a band where the lead singer goes by the moniker “The Overtly Melancholic Lord Strange” and the drummer is “Lady Pentagram”? As serious as you like, I say. If nothing else, Lamp of Thoth is seriously heavy, and in the world of metal that’s a good place to start.

Rounding out the trio is guitarist “Randy Reaper” (who has the least fantastical name in the band) and the amount of noise and thump these three make is impressive. Say what you will about some of the dodgy production value on this record (likely made on the cheap) but these guys manage to land some serious low-end rumble.

The musical style of the Lamp of Thoth is something of a cross between Black Sabbath and Black Flag. These guys love their old school doom metal, but they also have a frantic punk sensibility that gives things a bit of snarl and snap.

The album’s opening track, the eponymous “The Lamp of Thoth” is also the record’s best, and proof that any band starting out that works hard enough has one classic song in them. “The Lamp of Thoth” is that song for this record. This tune has it all, anthemic guitar riffs that make you feel like you’re on an epic adventure, and a deliberate Bill Ward style drum thump from Lady Pentagram that lets you know said adventure will be perilous. “The Lamp of Thoth” is a true headbanger of a tune and shows off Lord Strange’s vocals. Strange (who will go on to make many a killer Arkham Witch record) hints at his future greatness here.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot to recommend on the record beyond their brilliant opener. “Sunshine” shows the band’s fealty to Black Sabbath a bit too much, with an opening devil’s brew of three chords that is two-thirds Black Sabbath’s title track, with the other third not different enough to count as special. Later in the same song they throw in an Ozzie-like “all right now” straight outta “Sweet Leaf”. It’s clearly an homage that is born of love for the original masters of reality, but I found myself wanting more.

The other great song on the record is a cover of Cirith Ungol’s “Frost and Fire” which is anything but derivative. Twice as long and just as nasty, Lamp of Thoth’s cover is an homage to the original, reimagined like it were played on an alternate earth where gravity makes things three times heavier.

Here ends the studio experience on the record, as the final two songs are both live cuts, “Blood on Satan’s Claw” and “Into the Lair of the Gorgon”. These songs land the visceral quality of a punk show, and along with it, the requisite dodgy recording quality.

I am a bit of a production snob, and so while I can’t deny the Thothers 100% committed to their punk sensibility on these tracks, I wanted it to, you know, sound better. It’s not as annoying as someone posting whatever their raised iPhone managed to record while blocking your view (nothing is). However, it does sound a bit like it was recorded through the wall of the venue so you could avoid the cover charge.

For “Blood on Satan’s Claw” in particular, I found myself wishing I had the original studio version which was recorded for their demo record released the previous year (the hilariously named “I Love the Lamp”). Something to search the record store for in future.

Whatever else, you have to love the Lamp of Thoth’s energy. I’m thankful that later they would transform into the more fully developed Arkham Witch I’ve come to know and love, but I’m also happy to have this early effort, uneven though it is, as a keepsake of their early sound.

Best tracks: The Lamp of Thoth, Frost & Fire

The Best Albums of 2025

This is the latest I have ever shared my Top 10 albums. It took longer than I thought to sort through the options, and I’ve been working to avoid – as much as possible – later edits as I rethink my choices as I get to know these records from 2025 better (and discover new ones I missed earlier.

I found 113 albums I enjoyed enough to buy (or put on my purchase list) and I considered every one of them while making this list. 2025 was a good year for music, just like every other year. It is OK to take those old records off the shelf, but finding new ones is also worth your time.

As I’ve done previously, I’ve included a link to albums I previously reviewed that you can read more about it. I’ve also provided a youtube link to a song of note for each record in the Top 10.

10 The Doohickeys – All Hat, No Cattle

-          Yes, these old school throwback country songs can get a bit kitschy, but this record is fun without ever sacrificing clever. Music is supposed to be fun, right?  Here’s “This Town Sucks”

9 Nite – Cult of the Serpent Sun

-          Nite was one of my happier discoveries of 2025, with their old school metal vibe and creepy cultist vibe – these guys get better on every record. Here’s “Crow (Fear the Night)

8 CMAT – Euro-Country

-          In 2022, CMAT first landed on A Creative Maelstrom’s Top 10 list with an honourable mention, but in 2025 she takes the next step. Think Chappel Roan, with a bit more country and you’ll have an idea. Clever and vulnerable with lots to say, here’s an example with “Take a Sexy Picture of Me”

7 Tyler Childers – Snipe Hunter

-          Every Tyler Childers album is different, as he routinely pushes the boundaries of the country genre. “Snipe Hunter” has a very traditional sound, with some sneaky and thoughtful songs nestled like Easter eggs amidst the plain brown packaging. Here’s Oneida

6 Panopticon – Laurentian Blue

-          Long-time Panopticon fans who have grown used to the band’s clever blending of bluegrass and black metal might feel left behind by this record, that doubles down on the bluegrass and leaves behind the double bass drumming and growling. Don’t be fooled, though, as this record has metal sensibility at its heart, and is as moody and black as anything they’ve done to date. My favourite is “An Argument With God” but I’m going to go with the also awesome (and more accessible) “Ever North” in a shameless attempt to get your attention

5 Craig Finn – Always Been

-          I’m a sucker for the hardscrabble stories that Craig Finn spins (he also made the Top 10 in 2022). This year we have a thoughtful collection of songs that once again peer deep and uncompromisingly into the human heart. Here’s The Man I’ve Always Been

4 Geese – Getting Killed

-          Along with CMAT, Geese is a band that this year will get more notice than for their previous releases. While I first encountered Geese through their 2021 album, “Projector” “Getting Killed” takes them to a whole other level. While not my usual scene, it is so innovative and amazing that it can’t be ignored Here’s Au Pays du Cocaine

3 Kora Feder – Some Kind of Truth

-          From my review: Kora Feder is a singer-songwriter with a young heart and an old soul. Listening to her records is like receiving a confessional from a close friend or curling up on the couch with a book of poetry for an afternoon of feeling the feels. Here’s the sad and thoughtful In a Young Person’s Body

2 Julien Baker and TORRES – Send a Prayer My Way

-          When I reviewed this last July I boldly claimed it would be making the Top 10, and here it is. I’ve always been a TORREs fan, and what she does in collaboration with Julien Baker is simply sublime – the whole better than the sum of the already amazing parts. Here’s Bottom of the Bottle

1 Ken Pomeroy – Cruel Joke

-          Ken Pomeroy straddles the line between folk and country, which is the perfect vehicle to deliver songs that are intensely personal, and grounded in natural space and place that puts substance and gravitas to her self-exploration. Like all great works of art, “Cruel Joke” taps into something that makes the personal into the universal. Here’s a live version of Coyote to show that all Pomeroy needs is her voice and a guitar to summon greatness

Honourable Mention – all great, but fell short because I could only pick a top 10. Here are 5 more in no particular order in the event you aren’t sated by the official winners:

• Annahstasia – Tether; Cory Hansen – I Love People; Wet Leg – moisturizer; Lommi – 667788; Master Spy – Maze Runner

And for those new to the Top Ten Experience, click on the year below to get the full from that year (I’ve proved #1 as a teaser):

Best of 2024 (#1 was Amyl and the Sniffers)

Best of 2023 (#1 was Boy Golden)

Best of 2022 (#1 was Grace Cummings)

Best of 2021 (#1 was Lucy Dacus)

Best of 2020 (#1 was Katie Pruitt)

CD Odyssey Disc 1899: Bella White

I usually get two or three playthroughs of a record before I review it, but fate conspired this week to keep this album in my car longer than usual. By the eighth or ninth consecutive listen there was no question whether I liked it or I didn’t. Verdict: I did.

Disc 1899 is… Among Other Things

Artist: Bella White

Year of Release: 2023

What’s up with the Cover? Bella has fallen backwards in her deck chair. Often falling backwards in your deck chair is a moment of hilarity for all concerned, but in this case it looks to be more of a romantic swoon.

How I Came To Know It: I read a review on Americana Highways and thought she sounded pretty good. Good enough to go find the record, in fact.

How It Stacks Up: I have both of the albums that Bella White has released so far. “Among Other Things” is the better one, so #1.

Ratings: 4 stars

I woke up today feeling my age, my back out of alignment, and cankers lining my mouth screaming in rage whenever I dared to eat or drink or speak. I admit my soul was tired too.

Fortunately, I’ve had just the right soundtrack for the moment. Bella White’s twangy folk/country mix is just the tonic for the world-weary. Not because it provides a balm, but because it reminds you that it is OK to feel the feels and encourages you to do some thinkin’ while you’re down there.

Putting on “Amongst Other Things” is a lot like stepping to a too-hot bath; at first a shock to the system, and then relaxing and meditative as you sink into it. White’s vocals are bright and penetrative and jump out at you with a burst of energy like she’s breaking the tension of silence over and over again.

Sounds painful, but it is quite the opposite. Her voice helps the stories she tells penetrate in deep, thoughtful thrusts that heal, rather than hurt. Kind of like the musical equivalent of acupuncture (I could use some of that today…).

White is also a talented guitarist, and her playing is similar to her singing, with deliberate and sometimes heavy picking in a bluegrass style that aligns well with her vocals, taking a back seat, but providing mood and structure back there.

The way she arranges the two instruments together was intriguing, with her vocals having short bursts that often alternate with the guitar, making her voice feel almost a capella in places, and lending itself to very creative phrasing choices that make the songs feel conversational, and full of asides. The effect pulls you in and helps to find the soft and caring content under the sometimes sharp peal of her delivery.

The songs are full of heartache, and a restless wandering quality. Many are about transition and change whether in a shifting or broken relationship, or the broader “what next” we all feel when we’re young. White is young (she made this record when she was 23) but you don’t have to be young to get it – that restless feeling sits inside all of us, all the time. Sometimes we need to access it - not necessarily to wander, but just to remember what it feels like. It’s therapeutic.

Alternating with the folksier tunes are those that fall into line with more traditional country arrangements. Overall I like these ones slightly less, but they are critical to the record (especially if listened to multiple times in succession), offering a different aspect to White’s voice and songwriting.

The record is chock full of great stories, but my two favourites are “Marilyn” and “Rhododendron” (not to be confused with the Hurray for the Riff Raff song of the same name).

“Marilyn” is a character study of a horrible sexist POS character, seen through the titular victim of his casual and not-so-casual cruelty. This song’s walkdowns and minor notes are perfectly matched to White’s mournful warble as she reminds us that out in the world there are women like Marilyn, enduring shitheads in silence behind the closed doors we drive by every day.

The other stand-out is “Rhododendron”, which meets the other main album theme – the inner exploration of the restless soul. The opening two stanzas are sublime – I reprint them here. Note the restless uncertainty created by putting the active verb at the end of the line. Cool, and three times more impactful when delivered by White’s exceptional vocal:

“As I look out my window, all I can see
Is a bush of rhododendron flowers staring back at me
And a mama robin, she is always working
Bringing worms and bugs to feed her young
While the snakes and house cats are lurking”

“All this time I've spent inside my head
Well, I've been hurting, Is the world still turning?
For this weight I bare leaves me so damn scared
I guess we've all been hurting like a little bird I'm learning”

Ever spent an afternoon looking out at the world thinking deep thoughts and feeling the feels (you know you have). Well, this song is for you. You’re not alone – get up, stretch the stiffness out of your neck, and get back to it.

I’m off to take Bella’s advice, and I wish you a pleasant and thoughtful journey, full of cares or free of them, as the day finds you.

Best tracks: Flowers on My Bedside, Marilyn, Rhododendron, The Best of Me, Among Other Things

CD Odyssey Disc 1898: Grendel's Syster

I come refreshed from an evening of music with friends. Since I never listen to the radio, friends is one of the great ways I learn about musicians and bands I have not previously heard of. Other sources include reviews, coworkers and even random people I meet in my day-to-day life. “What kind of music do you like?” is a question I don’t need much prodding to ask.

Disc 1898 is… Katabasis into the Abaton/Abstieg in die Traumkammer

Artist: Grendel’s Syster

Year of Release: 2024

What’s up with the Cover? Cyril is a squirrel not to be messed with. Here he brandishes the femur of some creature, while sounding a barbarous yawp – presumably celebrating finding that tasty acorn in his other paw.

The rest of the animal kingdom should take note. This mighty little bastard appears to have already brained a predator, leaving the skull to bleach in the sun as a warning to others.

As for the bird, she’s having none of it and is beating a fast retreat after realizing Cyril is having one of “those” days. You know how he gets.

How I Came To Know It: As noted above, I discovered this band on Angry Metal Guy and then bought it through Bandcamp.

How It Stacks Up: This is my only album by the band, so it can’t stack up.

Ratings: 3 stars

This ain’t your dad or grandad’s metal music. Your great grandpa didn’t have metal music, but if he did it would probably have sounded like this. Such is the wonderful, unexpected weirdness of Grendel’s Syster.

The strangeness starts with the album title. I think of myself as having a pretty solid vocabulary, so it’s not often that an album title has not one but two words I need to look up. Turns out an abaton is a “sacred, often restricted place” and a katabasis is a “descent into the underworld – like that whole thing with Odysseus and Tiresius, for example.

If you don’t know that last reference, please look it up or maybe read some of the classics – they’re classics for a reason…

‘But what about the music?’ you ask, impatient to learn more about the record and slightly peeved with being upbraided for your reading decisions.

Grendel’s Syster is a German folk metal band, with a healthy dose of staccato almost martial melodic structures. There’s also a bit of math going on. This is metal music with a lot of right angles and sharp, precise playing.

The album consists of 16 songs, which should violate my “14 maximum” rule, except in this case it is 8 songs in English, and then the exact same 8 songs, but sung in German. More on this in a moment.

Lead singer Caro (I don’t know her last name) has that heavily enunciated style common to traditional folk music and she says every word in perfect time. It makes for a deliberate, urgent delivery. A lot of “listen to me very carefully, son” vibe in there.

This would be a better experience if things weren’t so…weird. I didn’t love the poetry here, and it felt more like a download of information – most of it bizarre and fantastical – than a poem set to a melody. I like weird topics – if I didn’t metal wouldn’t be a genre for me to begin with – but it helps when they come with a more emotive delivery that helps transport you to another time and place.

For this reason, the record is immeasurably better in German, where I don’t have to know what Caro is going on about and can just accept that it is some kind of strange folksy tale made even more eldritch and curious because of its mystery. I think the songs are faithfully translated, though, which means if you speak German this method won’t work for you.

Rather than quote anything in either language, I give you the song title names (in English) which include “Boar’s Tusk Helmet”, “Night Owl’s Beak” and “In Praise of Mugwort”. Very specific and very much topics you are unlikely to hear discussed around the water cooler come Monday.

Grendel’s Syster is not for everyone, but I loved the novelty of this record, and while the band’s very deliberate playing style is an acquired taste, you can tell it is by design, not lack of skill. They throw in a few tasty guitar riffs along the way just to remind you they aren’t a novelty act, and like the squirrel on the cover, they are dead serious about their craft.

Best tracks: Eberzahnhelm (Boar’s Tusk Helmet), Die Burde des Schwarzkuntslers (The Plight of a Sorceror), Nachteulenschnabel (Night Owl’s Beak)