Pausing silently at the river edge, they are alerted by the sound of footsteps, crunching through the mud and reeds. They lie low in the bushes, and quickly realise that they are hopelessly out-numbered. Thane looks at the sky and notices the erratic flight of two ravens. He closes his eyes for a few moments. Rather than condemn both themselves and the village to slaughter, he orders a retreat. They swim quickly out to the skin boats, and are quickly spotted by the shadow men. Barton notices that when they descend into the water to chase them, their blackness dissolves away, and they become recognisable as human, albeit foul ones.
lyrics
Fast upon the boats we must run, from cold death
A vision on the trembling threads, we don't fight yet
Board the vessel take the oar
Our direction is the breath...
...of gods that speed us on!
Row like you are trying to lose your shadows
Cutting up the wet road like a black filthy crow
See the village, see the hall
our direction is the breath...
...of gods that speed us on!
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