CoC : Otyg - Alvefard : Review

Otyg - _Alvefard_
(Napalm, 1998)
by: Drew Snow (8 out of 10)

Hey, here's a novel idea: take some folk songs from your country and spice those tired old things up with some metal, damnit! OK, so Storm might've gotten to the concept first, but Otyg is by no means any sort of Storm clone; if anything, they're a more evolved, more folk oriented variant. The music, based on violin with a melodic guitar accompaniment and brought up by a powerful backbone of pounding, mid-paced drumming, is a bit more harmonious than Storm, and obviously is a little more complex, taking the idea much further than simply "heavy metal folk." The vocals are totally clean, with both the male and female vocals being very similar to those in Storm. Something Storm -doesn't- have, however, is someone jamming away on the oft overlooked mouth-harp, granting the band immediate originality points. Overall, the combination of the totally apt violin, guitars cranking out the obviously northern sounding melodies, well done vocals, and just plain rocking pace of the whole thing forms an excellent album, to be appreciated by fans of Storm and lovers of plain good music in general.

(article published 10/3/1998)