Call of the Haima Chiefs – Blood Folke

Blood Folke, for me, were the very band that I always wanted to exist in Minneapolis. Somehow they pull together the perfect storm of innate brutality with a subtle gentleness. Yeah, gentle and brutal – I said it. Don’t worry though, this doesn’t sound like the 10,000th band trying to bridge the gap between Mogwai and Neurosis. But, there is a haunted quality that comes out between the layers of rhythmic assault, loud to quiet to loud guitar, and viola that pours out pure beauty and near-drone. In my experience, most bands who have a viola (or a violin) tend to rely solely on that to evoke feelings of haunt, the aura of weeping, and/or bring forth an element of ‘epic’ as an afterthought – with Blood Folke I’d argue, rather harshly, these elements are there because the band wrote them in as a whole unit. As in, they thought this through and fucking wrote these songs. I won’t say that the viola doesn’t add to the haunted effect, just that this isn’t a one trick pony (or three, I suppose) and this isn’t a band who decided to throw in a viola because, “It’ll sound super killer, bro!” Blood Folke is a band with three goddamn people, playing heavy, well thought out, artistically driven Metal that is full and complete; and with a flare for avoiding the obvious and a knack for writing song that, while not overly catchy, you will be humming to yourself again and again. Damning tradition and starting a band with nothing but a guitar (who’s player also does vocals), a viola, and drums isn’t necessarily an ultra risky venture – what in the age of abandoning the traditional rock set-up – but I’d have to say that they make it look fucking easy and they do it better than most. And, with only a small hand-full of shows, and a 4 song demo (which sounds better than many full lengths) behind them I can’t fucking wait to see what they come up with next. They really are one of those bands who I can’t say enough good things about. The only question I have is: are they looking for a bass player? Because I totally know a guy….
Blood Folke : Winter’s Summer

The demo is available here for free and you should probably go download it right fucking now.

(photo credit: Sharyn Morrow)