Genre: Industrial / Tribal Electronic / Folk

01 A Hopeful Fall
02 Wotan's Return
03 The Leprechaun
04 Shave Your Head
05 Das Veilchen
06 XVS
07 The Source Of Our Land
08 Spancil Hill
09 Outro

It's funny how things can come back to you after a while. Take Embolus for instance. A few years ago somebody online told me to download some album from him. He told me I'd like it. 'Weltschmerz' was the album name, from some unknown band 'Embolus'. I liked it. It was weird, but I liked it a lot. After a while, I pretty much forgot about it, and I never managed to buy that (now sold out) release. Years later a new package from Heathen Harvest arrives. There it was, shipped from Netherlands to the Heathen Harvest HQ back to Netherlands, the new Embolus album. I had the biggest smirk on my face and laughed as if I was crazy. Life is a funny thing.

Embolus has, like the god Janus, two faces. The one is the neofolk/martial/tribal face. The other is the industrial/electro/cybergoth face. But unlike Janus is Embolus capable of merging those two faces. This blend creates something special, something that is not heard often. Forget all those cybergoth bands that jump on the bandwagon and use some traditional instruments, this is the real mixing of both styles. No more lousy usage of bagpipes, no more traditional songs played in a horrible way.

The CD kicks off with a very soothing ambient tune that turns darkwave. A female sings on 'A Hopeful Fall', with a voice that reminds me a bit of the first promo CD of the Dutch gothmetal band Infinite Dawn. After this very fine intro, the music really starts kicking in. 'Wotan's Return' is a powerful song about, you might have guessed, Wotan.

Lyrically speaking is 'The Leprechaun' a song in a traditional style. Musically speaking, it's not, well, not really. Full pounding beats and a synth playing high tones. But there is a violin as well, and a traditional sounding drum. You know, such a drum that's used in bagpipe ensembles. There's only one point that sets me back in this song, and that is the very last line. Embolus, please, it doesn't have to rhyme! It sounds really enforced this way.

The longest song on this release is 'Shave Your Head'. It starts with one minute of ambience, and then the beats come crashing in again. The vocals are distorted now, and the lyrics are very funny. If you like the darker side of humour though. The song is about the protagonist who needs to shave the head of someone he apparently loves a lot. But she slept with another man, and has to suffer for it. I feel Emoblus can compete with acts like Psyclon Nine with this song.

'Das Veilchen' is originally a poem made by Goethe. Who can read (and understand) German, can read that poem here. It's a very pleasant variety in music, as it's very calm with female vocals. Then a piece of music follows that is completely instrumental. 'XVS' features a remade classic tune. It sounds like Bach's Toccato. But I could be wrong.

Neofolk lovers will enjoy the next track, called 'The Source Of Our Land'. It features a violin and a very well played acoustic guitar. The sound is very melancholic and intense. Then my personal favourite track, 'Spancil Hill'. I said it before, and I'll say it again; I'm a fan of traditional songs. This song has been played by The Dubliners and Cruachan, amongst other. In the Embolus version it gets an extra dimension, due to the usage of the synths. I adds a great atmosphere to the song. This is so beautiful it creates goosebumps. The fact that the lyrics are very clear adds to that too. If you're familiar with this song, I'm sure you'll understand.

The outro leads to a full circle, as it hold a darkwave/ambient feeling to it. Sadly the lyrics are not in the booklet, but the album name is taken from this song. All of a sudden the outro is done, and silence remains in a way that makes you listen to it for a while.

This release has been a very nice surprise and rediscovery of Embolus. The mixture of different elements is something that Embolus does very well. Highly recommended.