Nuclear Blast

I was part of a discussion some time ago about the musical genres that defined decades. In the 80's there was Thrash and to a lesser extent Glam (I still maintain that "Glam Metal" was just rock music labeled by people who didn't know any better). In the 90's there was the Floridian Death Metal movement, the Swedish Melodic Death Metal craze (Gothenburg et al) and the Norwegian Black Metal lunacy. The 00's has been a bit harder to define, as the only genres that seems to have swept by with any lasting attention was the brainless Metalcore bullshit and the soulless Thrash Metal Revival.

There has been one other genre making waves in recent years and that has been the Folk Metal genre (and the variations of such in Viking and Pagan Metal). It can be argued that the genre may have already run its course, with every band under the sun being snapped up by eager labels. Despite this over saturation (which inevitably occurs in them all), a few bands are still out there with a fresh take on the sound. One such band is Equilibrium.

Equilibrium bills themselves as "Extreme Folk Metal", which is a fairly accurate assessment. Equilibrium owes as much of its sound to Black Metal as it does Folk. The songs found on Sagas are incredibly elaborate, heavily layered with a thousand different sounds and ideas hitting at any given moment. At almost 80 minutes, the band doesn't hold anything back and goes all out in their Blackish Folk Metal assault. The end result is a truly intense listen.

Highlights on the album are many, but I'm gonna focus on the two big ones for me: Unbesiegt and Mana. A friend of mine (who first sang me the praises of this band) referred to Unbesiegt as "The Jungle Beat Song". An amusing thought, but she was somewhat right. The song does have a beat that you'd normally associate with palm trees, coconuts and beaches. "Island Beat Song" would be more appropriate, but close enough. The song infuses this fun danceable rhythm with sharp biting riffs. These heavy parts really remind me of Wintersun's mammoth debut album, which is high praise in my book. Then there's the immense Mana, a 16 minute instrumental that closes out the album. This song is a pure work of art,  weaving together a seemingly endless set of parts that work a glorious magic in its complete form. You aren't going to find a more epic instrumental all year, I can practically guarantee that.

I have no doubt in my mind that Sagas will become the album that every other Folk Metal band aspires to reach. Equilibrium is barely out of the gate (Sagas is only their second album) and they've already knocked this out of the ballpark. Just go get it.


01. Prolog Auf Erden
02. Wurzelbert
03. Blut Im Auge
04. Unbesiegt
05. Verrat
06. Snüffel
07. Heimwärts
08. Heiderauche
09. Die Weide Und Der Fluß
10. Des Sängers Fluch
11. Ruf In Den Wind
12. Dämmerung
13. Mana

Score: 9/10