The hall is ready with ale, mead
And music, and the hearth is glowing
On the faces of those who attend.
Solemnly, a man speaks of his ancestor,
Connecting with him through the web of Wyrd.
lyrics
'Sittaen Aet Symbel
A beot I read
Of my great-grand-father's deeds
Of the life he betrothed me
He cut through the flax
With his ready tongue
Sweet mead from his lips
Flowed in yellow paths'
'Sittaen aet symbel
Come brothers and maids'
'We drink!
To Woden, for victory,
To Njord and Freo
For the qualities of ice and gold.'
'We drink!'
'Sittaen Aet Symbel
Raise the horn to your lips
Taste the secrets behind the staves
Between measured sips
A toast to the dead
That see at the symbel
And a declaration
Of their intent in our flesh
Sittaen Aet Symbel
A gielp to the hall
Around this table of ash
That has known the nine worlds
Witness my wyrd
I will craft it to this end'.
One by one those attending shout their appreciation
'Hail!'
The Symbel is done,
The beots and gielps made.
A voice sings over the mead bench
And the crackling fire,
Whilst those present drink to the past,
Present and their future...
supported by 5 fans who also own “Sittaen aet Symbel”
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 “Sittaen aet Symbel”
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