After a short piece of music, a story is told of runes and the magic of Wyrd.
Gifts are exchanged to fortify old bonds.
lyrics
It hailed so fast
We could not see the headland through it
Send for crows send the ravens
Thought and memory
Came back to me
Painted runes upon my starry eyes
Through twisted creaking boughs
Three sisters slice trough time
We raised our horns to the three norns
Our forefather's philosophy
Creaks in the green trees
Aching to be embraced again
The staves tell a tale
Of what was once
And what is now
And what could be
And what could be
Gifu is the gift I aspire to give
To drink from fountains
Deep wells that stare
All through my starry eyes.
If I stop to take it
It just drifts away
But all things come to
Those who live by
The steel and the rune
supported by 5 fans who also own “A Journey With Oak Staves”
A more melody-driven album than Battle Staffs... with a tighter feel to the song structures, but still retaining that rich, doom-sodden heaviness. This release came out four years after Battle Staffs... and it’s always good to see a band further develop their sound, without losing one drop of the raw energy that drew you to them in the first place Ken Goodey
The great Oakland atmospheric black metal band Abstracter returns with a punishing new EP pulled from the depths of hell. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 17, 2021
supported by 5 fans who also own “A Journey With Oak Staves”
This has been staple listening for me since I first got the CD in 2006. Raw but not to the extent that it is unlistenable, the riffs are heavy and memorable, with each song having it's own identity.
Wartooth's vocals are certainly a highlight of Bretwaldas' sound. Rough and gritty, in the best way, as he snarls out lyrics about Dark Ages warriors, heathenism and nature. If you can imagine if Lemmy was a Brummie and sang on an early Black Sabbath album then you're getting somewhere near the sound of this Midlands duo.
This album is class from beginning to end but if I was to have to choose highlights I'd go for album opener The Haunted Ride, Iron Skies (a song of two gloriously different halves) and Beneath the Eaves. The latter appeared on a CD with Zero Tolerance magazine way back and was the undisputed stand out track on there. Grimslath