There is some interesting background around Mena Brinno (meaning Moon Fever). This group is centred around classically trained opera singer Katy Decker who is the real deal having sang as Adina and Cleopatra at the opera and Marius Kolzlowski a Polish metal musician. Apparently they realised they both shared a love of American folk music and wanted to combine metal elements to it. Pretty Polly is their second album and not the sort of style one would particularly expect to hear coming out of Tampa Florida.
The folkloric aspects are partly illustrated in the music but also very much prolific in the lyrics. Both ‘Pretty Polly’ and ‘Katie Cruel’ are traditional songs that there are various versions of since they were first sung in the early 1900s. Deriving from Migrant New England ballads these are certainly the most metallic renditions of them. ‘Katie Cruel’ is said to date from the American Civil war period and one gets the impression that this is the era the album is entirely centred around.
Traditional and bombastic metal guitar leads take us into ‘Banks Of The Ohio’ and quietly weaving away behind them is the trill of a flute. Then the vocals come in and they are certainly strong, operatic and totally entrancing. Although the groups ‘Icy Muse’ debut of 2007 had impressed me at the time it is not an album I have re-visited and it is obvious that the group have really upped the ante here as this second release is a far more confident follow up. ‘Entrapment’ literally dances around with harmonious bird song vocal trills and a really infectious demeanour about it. The title track cuts a jig, it was originally sung with a pennywhistle accompaniment and although I have not heard this can easily visualise it as this modern reworking unwinds.
At full throttle Katy is pretty lethal on ‘Labyrinth’ I am tempted to shut the kitchen door fearing for all the glasses, she could probably shatter them if this was turned up loud. There is a good grasp of melody here that allows songs to gallop along and drag you in, at times things are tad twee like the “Through the woods I go” trill of Katie Cruel but as discovered we cannot really blame the band for that as they did not write them in the first place. As I get to last track ‘Wildwood Flower’ and throw it in the search engine it comes as no surprise to learn that this is another traditional folk song from old America. So in conclusion I can happily say that not only have I enjoyed the music here but also learnt something covering it.
http://www.menabrinno.com
http://www.myspace.com/menabrinno
