Band: Xerión
Title: Cantares Das Loitas Esquecidas
Label: Schwarzdorn Production
Distribution: Soulfood / Sure Shot Worx
Release date: October 13th 2010
Review: CD

Galicia is a region at the North-Western side of the Iberian Peninsula, in Spain and in a small part of Portugal. This area isn’t as ‘separatist’ as, let’s say, the Basque region, but here too an own national(ist) identity lives strongly.
Xerión were formed as a one-man project in 2001 by Nocturno (also in Black Goat) to pay tribute to the Celtic mythology. An important fact to understand the music of Xerión is the fact that Galicia used to be inhabited by Celtic tribes in the past, and like several Spanish and Portuguese bands and projects, Xerión too have their musical efforts penetrated with Celtic-folkish elements.
In the early years, Xerión released a couple of demos and a few splits, and with the assistance of a few (session) musicians, Nocturno could perform live too. Most of the time it was at the peninsula exclusively, yet a few times other European countries got visited too. 2007 saw the release of the debut full length studio album, Nocturnal Misantropia, through Germany’s Schwarzdorn, one of the leading underground labels when it comes to Folk-injected (Black) Metal. In 2009, the mini-album Palida Morte, Negra Sombra got spawn onto Mater Terra, giving the project the opportunity to perform live on stage along with bands as Heretic, Desaster, Decayed (one of the bands Xerión did a split-album with) and Negura Bunget. And at the end of 2009, Nocturno and some session members, amongst whom Daga, working together with Nocturno since (almost) the very beginning (Summer 2002), started recording the second full length, called Cantares Das Loitas Esquecidas, which means something like songs from forgotten battles.
After a divine intro, Badaladas Funerais No Esmorecer Da Lua, the hymn O Espertar Do Xerion shows that Xerión’s new album, with a total running time of forty seven minutes, continues the path that was made throughout the past years, yet at the same time this path now is much more interesting. The combination of Viking Black Metal, comparable to, let’s say, Kampfar, Hades Almighty or Falkenbach, with Celtic-influenced Folk-elements is superb, even though it does not bring something new – which wouldn’t convince anyway. This track, as well as some others, contain Uileann pipes (comparable to bag pipes), yet used the ‘right’ way – not the poppy would-be way, done by so many (too many) Folk Metal bands nowadays. Some parts are extremely heavy, fast and war-lusting (Enslaved, Nargaroth, Emperor), others are focussed on melancholy or melodic epic (Bathory, Cruachan, Hellveto), and some are more obscure, winterly, nightly, grimly (Krieg, Darkthrone, Burzum [what about the bass lines in Morte Na Iauga? -> ever listened to Burzum’s Erblicket Die Töchter Des Firnaments?], Judas Iscariot).
The overall tempo varies between mid- an up-tempo, including several slow passages, yet never it looses its will to charge. And besides, lots of tempo-changes bring diffusion and confusion – what about that Blast-explosion in the title track, or that acceleration in Morte Na Iauga (by the way, the CD-version features a video-clip of this song, with nightly views of some forest)? The injection of (semi-) acoustic or symphonic pieces (keyboards do play an important role) and the few harmony choirs too are additional surpluses.
The focus wasn’t to create a guitar-driven Metal album, yet a confident, proud one, with a heroic atmosphere and a Nordic sound. And indeed, Xerión succeeded to exceed its former efforts (with the knowledge that both Nocturnal Misantropia and Palida Morte …, as well as the material on the splits, were of an extremely high quality!).
Worth mentioning: Loitas Na Néboa is Xerión’s version on the Taunusheim-hymn Nebelkämpfe, in a wonderfully strong version.

90/100

Ivan Tibos.