A Grove of Ashes and Aspens

  • Musical Retrospective: Falconer and their Debut Album

    Now Playing: Upon the Grave of Guilt by Falconer I feel like it comes as no surprise at this point that I like Falconer. I’m a folk metal and power metal guy, I sing baritone, what better combination than Falconer for my particular musical tastes. For those unfamiliar, Falconer was a Swedish folk/power metal band…

  • New Sabaton Album: Thoughts and Feelings

    Now Playing: Templars by Sabaton So it’s been a minute since we talked about Sabaton around here. Not because I dislike them or anything, I just had my attention on other topics. (And I’ve been a bit busy, but school will do that to a bitch.) Now, they dropped a new album in 2025, and…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…