'Halls of Our Ancient Fathers'
2011
Review By Di Parkes
Celtachor are:
Stephen Roche - Vocals/Whistles
David Quinn - Guitar
Emile Quigley - Bass
Anais Chareyre - Drums
Fionn Stafford - Guitar
Celtachor are an Irish Mythology band from Dublin; the original formation began way back in 2007, then just an idea thrown around by founder members Stephen Roche and David Quinn. This idea finally came to fruition when the full line up was complete in 2010.
These guys are quite specific about the information they are trying to get across to the listeners, their Celtic roots are everything and the album indeed is a testament to this fact; from the lyrics to the use of an Irish whistle/flute and also the sound of the bodhran - an Irish form of battle drum where the hand is placed into one side of the drum and the skin is struck with an instrument called a cipin - to use their own words, it is:
“tales of victory and sorrow, of High Kings dead and gone, and of warrior
Queens full of rage and beauty…”
I can see and hear where Celtachor are trying to go with this; indeed I commend them on their Celtic pride and sense of heritage, but alas I did find my attention span waning the more I listened. To me it almost felt at times that the flute sounds had just been tagged in for added effect. Each of the 6 tracks on the cd link together to for a definitive story of war, honour, history, sorrow and lineage. Track 1 begins the story with a Son (Lugh) being born, by track 2 he for his own safety is sent to live with Nuada and they begin to prepare for battle; war rages and warriors die. By track 5 however, I’m afraid I had rather lost the plot a little but be assured that yet more war and bloodshed ensued. Track 6 is the finale, where Father and 3 sons who could have been King were laid at rest together in one mass grave.
To conclude: If you are a fan of black folk metal (with added authentic drums and flute and excellent growling vocals) then you should most definitely give this a go, but if you’re more a sing-along-with-the-lyrics type like myself then I think you are going to find it a little hard going.
