Although this one man project takes name from olden Celtic lore, this is actually four tracks of Pagan might from France. ‘Paganism’ was originally released as a limited demo before being recently picked up by a label and reissued for those that missed the pressing first time around. There is not a huge amount more to say historically as this is the sole release of Fir Bolg who are bolstered out live apparently by session musicians and I would imagine any performances are infrequent and solely to be witnessed in France. On the strength of this there is certainly scope for something further in the future; an album would probably be the next step as with this we are pretty much half way there.
‘Night Of The Black Moon’ instantly impressed with its furrowing mindset and gravid rasp heavy vocals. In fact I was reminded of Kampfar here, it has that sensibility and even jaunty melody strummed through it. It’s an infectious rabble rousing number too, strong on melody and passionate, mixing swathes of blackened guitar work and pummelling drums as its backbone. There is a folk laden mid section and all the expected boxes are ticked here as the driving pace is again picked up and slammed away till conclusion. ‘Celtic Death Pagan Ritual’ makes no bones about where it is coming from, the spirit of the gods are behind it and if it were not for the good production this could have come back from the mists of Emperor and Enslaved as it rides towards Valhalla on a spiny chariot of barbed guitar work. The keyboards with choral parts on ‘Invocate The Old Spirits Of Woods’ (got to love these titles) only goes to enforce this idea, add a dash of Bathory to the mix and you know exactly where this is coming from and it is all pulled off with finesse.
This is one of those releases that would have definitely slipped under the radar unless it was for the labels dedication and that would have been a shame as ‘Paganism’ is an obscurity that deserves unearthing. Hopefully this will not be the last we hear from Fir Bolg either.
http://www.myspace.com/firbolgtruepagan
http://www.schwarzdorn.de
