Heidevolk
Uit Oude Grond
Napalm Records

What would be really nice, speaking as someone who considers himself a big fan of folk metal, is if the majority of new bands and recent albums didn’t all sound completely alike; as with any genre that has a modicum of success, hundreds of copycat bands have emerged and are being snapped up by labels looking to ride the crest of the popularity wave. Heidevolk definitely fall into this category, with the mark of Turisas and Finntroll lying heavy on tracks such as ‘Karel Van Egmond, Hertog Van Gelre” and ‘Dondergod’, even though this is now their third album.

Heidevolk tick all the right boxes: ancestral mythology – check; folk melodies – check; heavy guitars on which to play said tunes – check; traditional instruments for the acoustic breakdowns – check. It’s the same old tried and tested method employed throughout ‘Uit Oude Grond’ – which ironically (or appropriately) means “from old soil”. Though it is far from being a shoddy attempt, I still can’t think of a single reason why I would listen to this over something like ‘Jaktens Tid’ or ‘The Varangian Way’; there are even newer bands around such as Eluveitie that are taking the genre forward.

‘Deemstering’ makes a passable show of being a mellower acoustic number, whilst the instrumental ‘Alvermans Wraak’ rattles along with great gusto and is quite clearly the highlight from the album. But invariably, any good work is undone immediately by the following tracks again sinking back into the well of sheep-like mediocrity. There’s still hope for Heidevolk, but ‘Uit Oude Grond’ is not the album to lift them out of the shadows of the bands that have gone before.

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Review by Dominic Hemy