Sangre de Muerdago - Xuntas (2020)

The band Heilung has conquered the metal world from the live role-playing scene at almost absurd speed: under the wing of Season Of Mist, the group went from underdog to headliner in just three years. SANGRE DE MUERDAGO could be a winner of this amazing development. The band from Galicia accompanied Heilung on their last European tour and should have gained many fans among the friends of cultivated shaman rituals.

The Spaniards have nothing to do with costuming, dancing and all the fanfare that makes healing so popular and at the same time controversial - their soulful, unpretentious neo-folk should still have exactly the taste of the nature-loving healing fan base.

Just two years after “Noite”, SANGRE DE MUERDAGO are now releasing their next album, which is called “Xuntas” (Gallician for “together”). Sometimes instrumental, sometimes sung in a lovely voice, the pieces cast a spell over the listener once more: performed on instruments such as key fiddle (nyckelharpa), viola, dulcimer, Celtic harp, hurdy-gurdy and flute, the music of the Spaniards is strongly influenced by folk and traditional music Dances shaped. SANGRE DE MUERDAGO also interpret Galician songs (“Foliada De Tenorio”) - but their own compositions are more touching. “María Soliña” with its whistled melody, for example, or “De Néboa E Choiva” carried by flutes. These songs sound once again so warm-hearted, dreamy and simply beautiful that you feel transported into a magical fantasy film world: This is what folk could sound like in Valinor, Tolkien's home of the immortal elves.

This fairytale character is underpinned by the sounds of nature that reverberate over and over again in the context of the album: chirping birds, for example, the constant babbling of a brook or the powerful surf of the sea. SANGRE DE MUERDAGO mix the natural sound of their instruments perfectly with the instruments of nature. And unlike countless other experiments of this kind, the result doesn't sound cheesy or artificial, but completely consistent.

This is certainly not least thanks to the lively, natural sound of the album: It captures all the instruments so authentically and dynamically that you get the feeling of attending a chamber concert. As on the last albums, Tobias Häussler (Farsot) is responsible for this, by the way, a man with a black metal background. But that is not the only involvement of SANGRE DE MUERDAGO with metal: Georg Börner, known from his black metal project Coldworld, plays the key fiddle. And with Steve Von Till (Neurosis), who sings along in Galician (!), The Spaniards have a prominent guest on the title track.

So there are enough reasons to give SANGRE DE MUERDAGO a chance as a metalhead as well. First and foremost, however, the music should be mentioned here: Those who love metal not only for its brutality, but also for the often great melodies, could find their happiness in "Xantas" without electric guitars, drums and screams - this applies to folk fans that anyway. However, caution is advised: SANGRE DE MUERDAGO are addictive - and one album on the shelf quickly becomes several.