Posts Tagged ‘Such Power Is Dangerous’

Album of the day: Cardinals Folly – Such Power Is Dangerous

Posted on Sunday, November 13th, 2011

Praise for Cardinals Folly‘s Such Power Is Dangerous from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: Yep, this is one of those that barely needs a review, besides our thumbs up (we like it!) and a few other crucial facts of the matter: it’s from Finland, it’s doom metal, it’s on the cult Shadow Kingdom label. And perhaps unsurprisingly, sounds a heck of a lot like the late great Finnish doomsters Reverend Bizarre. Which is not to say it’s unoriginal, any more so than Rev Biz, ’cause both bands worship at the altar of old school traditional Black Sabbath derived doom.

This is what they’re SUPPOSED to sound like: epic and emotive, dire and depressive. The debut full-length from Cardinals Folly (cool name, we think, but shouldn’t there be an apostrophe in there somewhere?) is appropriately sloooow and heavy, adorned with dramatic deep voiced vox, that for sure recall those of Albert Witchfinder. If you miss the ol’ Reverend, Cardinals Folly will be right up your dark, cobblestoned alley. But not only do they have that “sound” (which they do very well), they also work in enough interesting, creative moves of their own to make this a worthy doom endeavor in its own right, too.

The album begins with an atmospheric intro track, ‘The Hammer Speaks’, featuring a militaristic drum beat amidst distorted ambience, eventually joined by deeeep vocal intonations. A bit Current 93ish, really. That’s a fine way for this to slide into the full-on amped-up doom metal of track two, the title track, oven ten minutes of slow majestic riffery, dissonant downer psych leads, loosely-strung low end bass, and more of those droning deep but melodic vocal stylings…

Things speed up a bit for the chugging ‘Valkyries I Avenge’, energy matched by maniacal laughter from the vocalist (who has his insane side, heard later in the album as well), but it’s the very end of track four ‘The Spear Of Destiny’ that got everyone in the store staring at the stereo, when they start in with some studio trickery, messing with the tape speed, for a moment making this druggily ‘drag’, like a 45 played at 33, but even more warped and warbly. Nice!

And so it goes, seven tracks, well over an hour of rumbling heavier-than-thou true doom wretchedness from up near the Arctic, like we said, definitely for anyone into fellow Finns, Reverend Bizarre (RIP). Also Lord Vicar, Procession, Gates Of Slumber, Condenados, Garden Of Worm, The Wounded Kings, that sort of thing. You know if this is meant for you, or you for it…

At 40 years old, Aquarius is the oldest independent record store in San Francisco. We try to only carry music we love, and we’re always searching for more new, cool, weird and wonderful music. All of which we then share with you, our loyal customers.

Tags: Album of the day, Aquarius Records, cardinal's folly, doom, Shadow Kingdom Records, Such Power Is Dangerous
Posted in 2011, Album of the Day, Roadburn Recommended | No Comments »