A Grove of Ashes and Aspens

  • 2025 in Music: The Year of Folk Metal

    Now Playing: Nu Delhi by Bloodywood So as folk metal fans, we got a little bit spoiled this year. A new Bloodywood album, a new Elvenking album and cover (not really a folk metal cover, since it’s a cover of Children of Bodom, but still), a new Tungsten single (they count as folk metal enough…

  • Symphonic Metal Be Like: My Thoughts on the New Blackbriar Album

    Now Playing: Bluebeard’s Chamber by Blackbriar Okay, so Blackbriar is alternative metal, but they have symphonic elements. They still count as symphonic metal. (I know Metal Archives calls them pop in their rules, but that’s bullshit as far as I’m concerned.) For those who aren’t familiar, Blackbriar is a symphonic alt/gothic metal band from the…

  • Another New Album: Moonlight Haze Album “Beyond”

    Now Playing: Beyond by Moonlight Haze So it’s no secret that I enjoy symphonic power metal. I am the kind of person who will happily commit to the bit, and that is the essence of this particular subgenre of metal, a fact which warms my soul. Now, Moonlight Haze in particular is a band I…

  • Just Local Band Things: Lycanthro’s New Album “Remnants of Rapture”

    Now Playing: Iris by Lycanthro As many metalheads tend to do, I enjoy supporting small and local bands. It keeps a place’s culture going and it gives a certain solidarity in the scene and between musicians. (This is something we could always have more of, all the petty in-fighting gets tiring sometimes.) Now, in my…

  • A New Band Emerges: Hans & Valter Debut Album

    Now Playing: The Endless Night by Hans & Valter So I enjoy some good cheesy symphonic power metal. (I am, after all, a Twilight Force fan.) However, I’m also a low baritone singer. So when I was informed (via this Reddit comment and this further reply some months later) that there was a new Twilight…

  • The End of a Trilogy: Reader of the Runes – Luna

    Now Playing: Luna by Elvenking Ok, so quick preface, I have already listened to the three singles an unholy number of times before the album dropped, and this is being written after listening to the album all the way through about a dozen times. (I’m just like that, and the album is just that worth…

  • Collaboration in Music: Important Aspects of Creation in Art

    Now Playing: Nightfall by Blind Guardian So as an artist, there are a few things to consider in one’s approach to creation. (I will make a note here that within the realm of music, my area of expertise, both performance and composition are acts of creation. I will expand on this later.) One aspect, yes,…

  • The Western Myth of Classical Music

    Now Playing: Incantations by Elvenking So I’ve talked about how there’s some elitism in Western classical music in the past. (Go read that mini rant here.) Now, I stand by that. There’s potential for elitism and racism basically everywhere in Western classical music, because a lot of the composers that we play and study were…

  • Language and People: The Constraints of Society Made Manifest

    Now Playing: Gone Epoch by Elvenking Humans trying to put things in near little boxes is nothing new; we’ve been doing it for centuries and we continue to do it to this day. In some cases, this does help us understand the world in some capacity. However. It’s so rare that anything can fully ever…

  • Pagan Invocations in Metal

    Now Playing: A Prayer to Cernunnos by Elvenking As has been previously discussed here, metal can be deeply spiritual. (Yes, I know this applies to music in general, but I’m trying to make a point here.) But does that extend to making actual prayer a part of metal? I argue that yes, it does. Let…