Ashaena
Calea

Second album from Romanian band Ashaena takes them down a path somewhere; at least that is what the title can lead us to believe as Calea means path. They sing in Romanian hence the title, the cover state that it is folk metal and that is exactly what we get to hear as well. And it is not only the cover that brings Finnish band Ensiferum to mind when dealing with this Romanian quartet. Although the fact that it wasn’t terrible is the best one for me, as I will have this album streamed on our site all of next week in advance of this album’s release on July 18. But lets not dwell on that stuff; lets move on to deal with this album.

It is folk metal and Ensiferum is a good frame of reference, which has already been alluded to. Like said Finnish band they infuse their extreme metal with melodic and folk music touches the vocals are both grunted and clean, and can be described as quite varied. The songs are seven if you count them and they are rather long as it takes nearly fifty minutes to play through them but as the variation is as large as it is it will not be that easy to find it repetitive unless you repeat it over and over again many times. I think they have a fair bit of depth in their songs and the fact that they sing in an alien language gives them a trait of originality even though their music isn’t overly original in itself. The production is overall good and I think these guys show a style that is fresh enough for them to be noticed and not just drown.

If you are curious about what the band sings about as it sounds like they just make noises I can say that they sing about the typical themes for folk metal bands; like war and heroism and all of those things that you can expect to hear on a folk metal album. And I think overall you hear these typical things on a very good folk metal album, the melodies and the balance between the heavy elements and the softer ones is very good. I do think however that the production at times lets them down, fifth track is an example of that as it feels much tamer than it should be and the production as a whole is a little weak, although some might see it as a personal trait. Overall I think that this album has proven to be a very exciting path through some incomprehensible adventures and I think it is a very appealing album.

I think that the opening pair of tracks along with the sixth one are the highlights on this album, an album that is really good overall. I think that I can recommend this album for most people but especially for those who are fans of folk metal, you will most certainly like this album. More than that is not really needed, you know that this is a good album and it is your loss if you don’t check it out like I have recommended you to do.

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