Metal Underground.com

Celtic folk metal is a genre that, ironically, has been dominated by the French and Spaniards over recent years. Celtachor on the other hand come straight from Dublin, Ireland and are looking to reclaim Celtic metal glory for the country that gave birth to its existence. Ripe with Irish Whistle and folk flourishes, Celtachor’s debut release features six blackened, thrashy folk metal anthems that do their best to stand up in battle against the genre’s most seasoned warriors.

After the intro “Nemed’s Wake” is done with, “Rise of Lugh” charges forth in all its Celtic glory. The music here is nothing new and the song is structured around a simplistic guitar approach, but that’s the main point here. This isn’t meant to blow your mind, the music is created for the purpose of imagery. The album serves as a backdrop, a soundtrack to the times of Ireland’s mythical past – paying tribute to the legends of the ancient times of Eire. “Rise of Lugh” is a straight forward thrash, folk, and black metal hybrid that works well as an album opener.

While the album’s opening track is great, and to be fair none of the songs on the album are bad, the momentum sort of levels off after the first full song. Each successive track on the disc relies very heavily on the use of the Irish whistle and Bodhran, an Irish hand drum. “In the Halls of our Ancient Fathers” never goes beyond that realm in terms of incorporating other folk metal elements, and misses out on a lot of potential moments to expand its “epic” factor.

With that being said, this is the band’s first ever recording and it is an unproduced demo, which is quite impressive. The recording quality is above what you would expect from a demo release. All the instruments stand independent of one another and make themselves heard. Fans of Celtic and folk metal should also find this to be much more enjoyable than the casual listener. While “In the Halls of our Ancient Fathers” is a streamlined and straight to the point release musically, it is still low on the cheese factor that the genre has become iconic for. The album seems to follow a strict storyline as well with characters returning in several songs.

“In the Halls of our Ancient Fathers” is truly just the beginning for this young Dublin, Ireland act. There is no telling where this band will go on its next release and how Celtachor will sound with a more professional production quality. While the six songs that make up the album (not including the first intro track) do not vary enough from one another to give a lasting impression, each song is very well written and will please anyone seeking a new Celtic/black/folk/thrash metal hybrid to get into. The songs are thrashy, fast, seasoned with searing black metal vocals and smothered with enough Irish Whistle to make your ancient ancestors get out of their graves a do a little jig, and for that Celtachor does deserve some credit.