A Grove of Ashes and Aspens

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Pagan Metal: Music Getting Unexpectedly Spiritual

    Now Playing: Moonchariot by Elvenking Spirituality is nothing new in the realm of music, not by a long shot. (See the Church controlling the composing and production of music for centuries across history for examples of this.) Where it becomes interesting is within the realm of modern pagan music and especially within the realm of…

  • Lore in Metal and the Role of the Lorekeeper

    Now Playing: To The North by Elvenking So many metal bands have stories behind their songs, right? But at what point do those stories stop being stories and become actual lore? (A question pondered by many great philosophers.) Some bands (such as Twilight Force or Hans & Valter) will have an overarching story behind the…

  • Arts and Paganism: How to Connect with the Divine through Creation

    Now Playing: The Wolves Will Be Howling Your Name by Elvenking So I’m a Germanic polytheist and, in more recent times, a Lokean. This means that I follow a (loosely) reconstructed version of the religion from northern Europe, and that I specifically work with the deity Loki. On the surface, this has little to do…

  • Instrumental Desires: The Bass Flute

    Now Playing: Nascence by Austin Wintory Many musicians have various desires concerning specific instruments, usually more high end versions of one they already play. However, things can get fun when a specific song causes someone to want to buy a new instrument. Video game soundtracks can be a really useful way to show off various…

  • Track of the Year: What New Songs Caught My Ear?

    Now Playing: Throes of Atonement by Elvenking It’s no secret that we as metal fans were showered in gifts this year. Two Elvenking singles (one supporting an album announcement), a Tungsten album, an Orden Ogan album, a Powerwolf album, are just a few of the new releases we got in 2024. But which ones caught…

  • Range Practice: Singing Baritone in a Genre of Tenors

    Now Playing: Stormseeker by Heroik In the realm of singing, there are six main categories of voice range: soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, and bass. Each of these ranges, split into two broader categories of treble/higher (soprano, mezzo-soprano, and alto) and lower (tenor, baritone, and bass). Each range has a distinct sound and range, though…