Folkearth have been steadily releasing album since their 2004 foundation. By the Sword of My Father is, by far, their best work to date. Songs of Yore, their acoustic/Celtic album, was also very good. Other than that, they have unfortunately released a redundant series of Viking metal albums. I was a bit skeptical about this new work. Fortunately, things have somewhat changed. The biggest departure is the now much beastier musical direction. The deep rasps are more Viking-like than what was proposed before. The ear-piercing female vocals have also disappeared. Folkearth have become a more muscular and in-your-face horde. This is a good point, although I miss the folksy influences of their earlier days. Well, they're not completely gone, since they still use bagpipes, flute and some epic chants on this album. I find that at times, you have a chaotic passage where those elements and the lead guitar all play at the same time, which is not too pleasant. Then you have also, thankfully, a few of those acoustic or electro-acoustic guitar moments. "The Prince of Epirus" and "Apollonian Light" mix those organic tones with the meatier instrumentation. Closing track, "Byzantine Princess", on the other hand, is their more folksy/acoustic tune; a nice farewell.
All in all, Rulers of the Sea is a step in the right direction. I am looking forward to a great opus from this horde.
