- Label: HauRuck SPQR.
- Year: 2009.
- Style: Neofolk.
- Format: CD.
- Note: Re-release of debut album with bonus tracks and new artwork.
- Score: 77%
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This is not a new album by THE GREEN MAN. On the contrary, this is their first album, first officially released back in 2005 without a label. Thanks to HauRuck SPQR!, we who missed to get this the first time around are now invited to try again. That includes me.
My relationship with THE GREEN MAN was bound in 2007 when I got their second, and still most recent, album ”The Teacher and the Man of Lie”. That is for sure a special one, with deep reflections on the Bible and a fine blend of neofolk and post-punky rock music.
Here on ”From Irem to Summerisle” we are guided through the same kind of Bible passages, the same kind of reflections around its stories and we are also, as the title suggests, flewen straight to Summerisle, the island where the cult mystery movie The Wicker Man took place. The track that goes under the title ”Summerisle” is a very interesting one with lyrics that could be extracted from a tourist diary, telling a quick resume of how life there looks like, how their traditions and rites look like, and how the Lord Summerisle himself behaves.
Exclusive for this re-release is also a cover from one of the best songs from The Wicker Man’s soundtrack, ”Corn Rigs”. It’s OK, but seriously, the original version can’t be beaten. A note, the other bonus track is a homage to A. Crowley called "Liber Al".
The music is based in good old fine neofolk, with plenty Brittish, oriental and Arabic influences, to go along with the thematics. The two gentlemen in THE GREEN MAN are for sure exceptional musicians, and was, already back in their first album, very brave to experiment with their sound.
The guitar playing is most often extremely skilled, whether it’s strummed or plucked, and I love the flute work on this disc!
The vocals alternate between sung and spoken with a pasted (but charming) British accent. I prefer the sung tracks, but the spoken passages that dominate, can for sure be both interesting and catchy from time to time as well.
Most of the tracks are fine, perfect in length and always interesting to hear. There are some parts of the album where I reach out for the skip button, like in the song about ”Adam & Eve”, where the problems a young band can suffer from breaks through. It’s not biggie though, and in the whole, this is a very good document on the beginning of a band that can and will be something be something big.
Tracklist:
- Baptism by Sea
- Death is Before me
- Amantia Muscaria
- Irem
- Adam & Eve
- Europa
- Death of Reason
- Summerisle
- Corn Rigs
- Liber Al
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