I thought I would be clever and play my original promo of this, for an extra listen and accidently played ‘Spirit The Earth Aflame,’ not complaining as it gave me the opportunity to relive two great albums. ‘A Journey’s End’ so the back of this promo tells me was originally released 15 June 1998 and to tell you the truth it seems like only yesterday. So Metal Blade have waited a more than reasonable time to bring this out again and like with Imrama have filled it with extras and expanded it to a whopping two hour listening time. Cannot comment on the packaging but sure it is very nice and I am certainly considering picking up these reissues myself.
This was the Irish bands second album and it saw them moving on from the more blackened sound of Imrama with many songs longer and more mature in the song-writing department and with a real epic feel about them. Alan ‘Nemtheanga’ Averill was still rasping away along with spoken growled out passages and those spectacular clean croons. The instrumentation on numbers like the frenzied opener ‘Graven Idol’ really drives the pace but they also have flourishes that just stink of the Emerald Isle about them. There are parts of this album with mandolin and whistles and there is a pervading atmosphere of both paganism and Celtic stylisation flowing through things that although perhaps sounding odd on paper makes perfect sense on listening to the album. The acoustic opening of ‘Dark Song’ has (I believe) a bodhran beat keeping time over clean vocals, a flute comes in and the passion behind this is enough to knock you flat despite the fact that you are essentially listening to an acoustic ballad. ‘Autumns Ablaze’ is one number that has a fiery theme something the band were really to go to town on by the next album. I really love the original cover-art to the CD of an autumnal forest. It just accompanies the vision of this song to perfection in my mind and is so much better than the statue head bust on the promo I have, which has also been reworked on the new release. I know that might be a frivolous point to some, especially when the music is so good but I have made my point. I also think the original cover paved the way for Drudkh’s artwork in the future too.
The title track is a slow-burner but it conveys the weariness that a long journey would have you feeling perfectly within the lyrical and vocal framework and takes you on a journey with its compelling atmosphere. If you are not drawn into this voyage you may as well be spiritually dead. The effective ‘Solitary Mourner’ a short spoken tale is a perfect poetic funereal introduction to the albums longest track ‘Bitter Harvest.’ This is a much more feral number in the vocal department and no doubt at the time it came out this album had the black metal purists gnashing their teeth wondering just what genre to pigeonhole this album with. The instrumental ‘On Aistear Deirneach’ that concludes the album certainly wont help make this task any easier.
As far as extras are concerned here we have firstly a long version of ‘Imrama’ song ‘Let the Sun Set on Life Forever.’ Then we have an hour long show recorded at The Ritz in Lisbon, Portugal in 1999. First exposure with this and the sound is none to good with the drums muddy and the mix poor, luckily this improves. The vocals are not too bad and are high up in the mix and the guitar sound is sharp and bass chunky but if you are expecting crystal clear quality you won’t find it here. The songs are taken from the first two albums and the soon to be released ‘Spirit Of The earth Aflame’ and it’s an interesting nostalgia trip for those of you who saw the band back then as well as good for those only just discovering the band. I do find Alan’s stage spiel a bit annoying with all his brothers and sisters Celtic claptrap (the Portuguese are such a proud Celtic nation, although they did invade and intermingle to a certain extent early in the first millennium BC apparently) but I guess he has to say something to get the crowd charged up. As you get used to the sound (it is suitably gnarly) this is a pretty nice addition to get on the album although as far as I am concerned it is A Journey’s End that is the important thing here and I am not sure if I would play the live set much in the future. Still with this selling at normal album price on those popular Internet shops it’s a damn nice freebie.
http://www.primordialweb.com
http://www.myspace.com/primordialofficial
