HEXVESSEL
All Tree
CENTURY MEDIA
Rustic wonders from Finland’s acid folk troubadours
After A prolific
career within the black metal scene, English vocalist Mat Mcnerney fled to the forests of Finland in 2009, getting it together in the country with a headful of Celtic mythology and 70s acid folk. There he gathered a sprawling band of merry troubadours – nine musicians are credited on All Tree – armed to the teeth with acoustic guitars, flutes, pianos, violins, violas and a duduk (an ancient Armenian wind instrument). At points on their first three, invariably charming albums, Hexvessel maybe felt a bit too much like a stressed metalhead’s rustic weekend chill-out, all placid hippy jangling and twee tree-hugging mysticism. All Tree scarcely deviates from these tropes, but the conviction, sincerity and talent has never seemed clearer now the songwriting has sharpened and the sound brightened.
Musical comparisons have broadened accordingly, from arcane rarities like Forest, Dando Shaft, Tir Na
Nog and Dulcimer to household names like Fairport Convention, Moody Blues, Cat Stevens even, as well as the two big Nicks, Drake and Cave. So there’s an immediacy, universality and accessibility to neatly crafted tunes like Ancient Astronaut, Changeling, brooding ballad Birthmark and Cropredy-ready pagan anthem Wilderness Spirit, the sort of ageless, celebratory singalong that could happily accompany a Summerisle fertility dance in 1973 horror classic The Wicker Man.
Rural atmospheres are resoundingly cast with the addition of found sounds, from crackling fires to the birds whose chirping song beautifully augments the textures of arcadian mantra A Sylvan Sign. As with the most epic Bathory albums, it communicates a full immersion into the world of the band, so that even if you’re listening in a metropolitan tower block, with your eyes closed and your headphones on you’ll be swept away to a sun-dappled woodland glade where sprites and nymphs frolic.
■■■■■■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Steeleye Span, Anathema, King Crimson