Ah, fuck me, where to begin....
We musicians and lyricists of the metal world more often than not take our subject matter from our imaginations rather than the sum of our experiences, and it is a damn good thing too. Woe betide us if it were not so, we would be cursed with lives awash with blood, war and suffering, of demonic possession and horrors and chaos unthinkable. I don't want to even think about the lives that the boys from Cuntscape must have lived. Thankfully the lion's share of this material is indeed fictional. So we have mastered the fine art of the suspension of belief if you will, there is little that challenges this power of immunity to the laws of reality, hey, we will go along with pretty much anything. We're quite accommodating that way.
But Viking metal in Perth, Western Australia is such a conceptual absurdity that it is ludicrous beyond measure. That such a thing could even be conceived of is a testament to the diversity and "anything-is-possibleNess" of the local metal scene, but we really have to absorb and process the preposterousness of this notion before we can move on to actually reviewing the music. So over the edge of reason we skip, into a world of which we sunburned Aussies can't identify, nor find even a single landmark, and we doth find ourselves up to our beer cans in nordic fiction lore. Charging through our backyard BBQ come great armies of Axe-wielding trolls, hordes of leather-clad horned warriors streaming onto the shore from ships with dragon prows. We are enticed to cavort with the imps and drink their ale from hollowed out human skulls and altlers from the head of the most annoyed ogres.
Can anyone make us believe? I think that if anyone could it would be Claim the Throne, they are just insane enough to pull it off.
My first impressions of "Only the Brave Return" upon popping the CD into my CD player was that it is weirdo music for sure. It jangled my nerves and hurt my head and I was ready to write it off. But then you close your eyes and shut out the cold technocratic world that we live in, and suspend that belief until it is hanging around the height of Centerpoint Tower, and it can reach you. Oh don't get me wrong, this isn't easy listening metal, it is jarring and uncomfortable and can be really wacky at times. But there is a certain something to it, a kind of galloping silliness that becomes more amusing with each listen. You really start to visualise the roundhouse on the Danish moorlands with the lutist sitting cross-legged by the throne and spinning his yarns, you become immersed in the tale.
It is an odd kind of music that CTT have created here. There are extreme metal passages - some good ones too - in amongst the mellow and/or singalong sections scattered around, and some of the cheesiest spoken word sections imaginable. Suprisingly, other than the obvious addition of the instruments of metal timewarped somehow through time, almost all other musical sounds are based on instruments from the dark ages. The keys are the primary tool for creating this illusion and Nicole certainly takes to the challenge, but it isn't the only instrument being used in a unusual way. Whole minutes can go by with nothing but the tone of the lyre and the hypnotic rhythm of the singing or the twang of the guitar, and it can be quite effective if a bit avandegarde. It is as if the boys - and gal - from Claim the Throne have tried to be as true to the era as they possibly can be, rejecting anything that could be called modern or electronic. It gives the whole thing an air of authenticity that many bands strive for and fail, and this is an extremely hard thing to do. So many possibilities that others enjoy have to be rejected outright, and only a band with a singular vision - or one visionary with control - can accomplish such a feat. Thus I raise my alehorn to Claim the throne in respect.
OK, after 5 listens through the CD in a row, I have to be completely honest and say it still bugs the shit out of me. I hear some songs that are really well put together, heavy and inventive like "order of the Bleeding Heart" and I think that I am finally getting the vibe of the songs, but then I hear songs like "the Wandering Minstrel" and I get all annoyed again, it's just too strange and demented sounding. And what the fuck is going on with the vocals in the middle of "Words of the Great Oak"? Freaky stuff. I think the problem lies within myself, that the metal that I really idenify with is full of violent rage, and this album really has none to speak of, it just isn't that sort of album. In fact, I am not sure if this really is a metal album in the conventional sense, it uses Metal for sure but it almost seems secondary to the rest of the influences. It is less a bunch of songs and more an epic journey told with music, far too highbrow for a simple man like me to appreciate.
Whether you get into this sort of thing or not, I encourage everyone to pick up a copy for themselves, because you certainly won't hear anything like this come out of Perth again.
Review by Jez.
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