Furor Gallico
Songs From the Earth

Second album by Furor Gallico does offer songs from our planet, that’s good and interesting – at least in theory. The Italian octet brings out those songs from the earth for their second album that follows the debut album a little over three years later. They have certainly evolved in terms of cover art considering that the interesting cover art that covers this album looks a whole lot better than the artwork we sae on the debut some three years ago. Back then I figured they had something going for them and with experience I thought they might iron out those issues that I had with the debut album, like the too long playing time and the uneven quality of the songs ranging from quite brilliant to rather boring. So how about it? Has three years additional experienced made any difference? Are they a more relevant band these days?

Well, musically they build from the same platform of melodic extreme metal that is very infused with elements from Celtic folk music with whistles and all of those things. In fact, the whistles are probably the most prominent element in this band’s music. The sound is modern and strong, maybe not as edgy as the top bands of the genre but nice and melodic. The vocalist does sound better than on the previous album but I don’t think that the singer is particularly strong this time either, and the variation that is quite large is still smaller than it was on the previous album. That could of course be a bit good because the debut album had a very shifting quality. There are nine tracks giving a total playing time of around 50 minutes, and I do think it sounds a but shorter than its predecessor which it is by around eight minutes.

It is a pretty good album but it lacks the edge of the pagan metal genre’s best bands like Eluveitie or Ensiferum – it might indicate that they need to change their name to something beginning with E considering that the best bands of the genre do begin their name with E. Furor Gallico does not go one better with F, their music is a bit too slow and too tame to really rough any feathers and despite the variation it feels rather bland. It is a good album that lacks that little extra that grabs the listener’s attention. I think it is a well-made album and they have addressed several of the things I didn’t find too agreeable on the debut but they managed to introduce some other niggles instead. Some people are never satisfied they may say and they may be correct as well but I think that this album isn’t dynamic enough to really grab my attention.

No song stand out in any massive regard, the songs hold a decent quality from start to finish but none strike me as that amazing. The opening title track and the ending track are the ones I think are best but none of them can be considered a hit song. A decent album that I think mainly will appeal to fans of the pagan metal genre and probably not so much to the rest of us. So the band has grown up over the years but they seem to have grown old now.

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