The Mercian Sphere

Winterfylleth are a UK band who play a rather laid-back, melodic style of Black Metal with pagan lyrics. This is their sophomore album and shows them trying to emerge from the shadow of Forefather, in which all UK pagan bands must toil. I wish I could say this really tore my head off, but it's not really that kind of album. Winterfylleth play generally slow, with a lot of tremolo picking and moody melodies. Their vocals are a faceless rasp and their songwriting is competent but pedantic, with nothing really surprising or interesting going on. This album does create a definite and enjoyable mood of ancient forests and lost peoples, and I do like that quite a lot, especially now, as we move down into autumn. For background mood music this is pretty good, but the faster parts are undistinguished, and mostly this disc ends up being pretty pointless.