ext_171270 ([identity profile] xterminal.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] sovay 2008-07-03 12:24 pm (UTC)

I know YOU'RE the last person to whom I need to recommend Jill Tracy. :)

A number of the British dark folk bands do stuff with medieval themes (or, simply, medieval covers, Fire * Ice's first [and best] album Gilded by the Sun is half medieval covers and half original stuff that sounds medieval, and Sol Invictus has increasingly been going that way as well-- SI were also the band that broke Sally Doherty's career into the mainstream, for what it's worth).

You being a Jill Tracy fan, I assume you're already familiar with most of New Weird America, but if you're not, run, do not walk, to the record store and buy everything and anything Joanna Newsom. Ys is probably the album closest to what you're looking for, but you can find smatterings of it on any of her discs.

And I swear I've recently heard a song called "Hadrian's Wall", but I'm not turning anything up when googling. Maybe I dreamt it.

A bit of a lateral jump: Stephen Fearing. It's not explicit so much as inferenced, but I think it's there. Unfortunately, the album I'm thinking of, The Assassin's Apprentice, has been damned hard to find for the last five years or so. Depressing, because its title track is just... wow.

Also, there's the wonderful world of black metal, which is awash in that sort of thing, but really, you have to be able to stand black metal. That can be something of a chore. Ease yourself into it with Celtic Frost's two best albums, To Mega Therion and Into the Pandemonium, but I rush to add that I may be recommending them purely out of a sense of nostalgia; they were instrumental in my growing up to be the sociopathic asshole that I am. Once you're there, there's an entire world of Norse mythology at your fingertips-- the later Bathory albums, Gorgoroth, Enslaved, that sort of thing. Watch your step, though, because some of it can be offensive (even if only done to be "contrversial" rather than being heartfelt); steer far clear, for example, of Darkthrone and Absurd, both of whom voice strong anti-Semitic sentiment as part of the greater "all religion sucks" message. If you find yourself intrigued (or, more likely, amused) by the general feel and sound of black metal, you can get a good primer with Michael Moynihan's Lords of Chaos. And, to go full circle, Moynihan is the founder of Blood Axis, one of the bands on the fringes of the British Dark Folk movement (though he's American, and his music is on the martial end of things a la NON or early Sol Invictus, rather than the folk end).

Oh! While I'm on the subject of Moynihan, Blood Axis' touring violinist, Annabel Lee (the name should clue you in, no?) has done some solo albums that may click in, as well. She's also in about eighty-three other bands that might play. A quick check of discogs.com will steer you in the right direction, because I'mm too tired to remember any of them right now, and too lazy to look them up myself. :P (Blood Axis itself, on the other hand... how shall I put it gently... ummm, sucks. They do a mean cover-- their version of Joy Division's "Walked in Line" is phenomenal-- but their "originals", which are comprised mostly of Moynihan quoting authors at length over sampled and looped classical tunes, get really old really fast.)

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