Leaves' Eyes - Meredead

The long awaited follow up to Njord wasn’t something I was really losing sleep wondering about. A lot of people I know were extremely excited, but I was never a huge fan of Leaves’ or Liv for that matter (insert flaming here). It wasn’t really her voice – I like her voice really – it was just that I found them to be another symphonic band as opposed to anything truely original.

That opinion ended with Meredead. Not initially though (the first track didn’t captivate me much, ironically Njord is my favourite track of the album of the same name). When Étaín started playing I noticed that Leaves’ were taking a more thought through approach to their song writing.

Obviously from Spirits’ Masquerade it’s obvious they are using choirs and orchestration better; Étaín however is amazingly catchy, but doesn’t sacrifice this to become anything akin to a pop song – perhaps it’s the folk injections, however, via the methods of dual vocal passages and instrumentation, that truely make this song stand on end.

I’ll admit, after Étaín I had high hopes.

Velvet Heart was a song I’d already heard on youtube before the album was released. It’s by far the poppiest on the album, yet for once the lyrics aren’t traded in for more simple ones to make it more accessible. Moreover, it’s actually got – though sparingly used – really lovely choir parts written in that complement the use of the symphonic/folk elements of the song to brilliant results.

I was excited for Kråkevisa and Veritas/Nystev most though. Songs in freaking Norwegian! As someone who loves hearing other languages and folk songs these songs were ones I sat waiting to be played when I listened to the album. They are beautiful. I mean truely stunning songs. Of course, the lyrics aren’t the work of Leaves’ – I’m sure both are folk songs (I know Kråkevisa is, and I think Nystev’s lyrics are a folk song or folk story) but they are both so wonderfully unique to Leaves’ Eyes that it’s essentially made this album the album that transcends them from average symphonic/folk band, to masters of symphonic/folk metal – and I say this with great respect for them.
Meredead (the song itself) is also one that caught my attention. It’s very different from the rest of the songs on the album I feel...it’s a song that I think needs to be listened to a few times to truely appreciate...but with acoustic guitars maintained throughout, and wonderful vocal work as the introduction, this song defines the album.

It ends with Tell-Tale Eyes (unless you have the bonus track, but I don’t include these in reviews for bias purposes) – a relaxed folk song with male and female interplay. This song isn’t really for me – it’s the male vocalist I don’t really like here, and I feel the ‘alternate’ version on the Melusine EP is better, but it’s still a wonderful song and I can see why it would appeal and why it is the last song of the album...it really contrasts Nystev well and helps reveal the many wonderful sides of the folk/folk metal genre.

I feel there is a lot of room for improvement too – and I feel that they could make a few of their songs longer – as shown with Meredead and Sigrlinn, it’s something Leaves’ do well, where as songs like Velvet Heart feel like radio filler trash at times when compared with these epics.
8/10