When I think of Celtic folk metal, there are 3 names that come to mind far above all others: Cruachan, Primordial, and Suidakra. I'm going to talk for a while about the trajectory of those bands over the current decade.
Coming into 2011, Dublin-based Cruachan had released 5 studio albums, beginning with their 1995 debut. They had cemented their status as a premier band in the developing sub-genre with "The Middle Kingdom" in 2000 and "Folk-Lore" in 2002, but since then they'd been a bit wobbly. The band had gone pretty quiet, having released no new material since 2006.
Fellow Dubliners Primordial, on the other hand, were doing great at the time. They too had released 5 studio albums beginning with a 1995 debut. They too had established themselves as a force over their next couple releases. However, while Cruachan had fallen off, Primordial had made the step up to a bigger label and released the excellent "The Gathering Wilderness" in 2005, followed by their towering masterpiece "To the Nameless Dead" in 2007. In 2010, they set the stage for their follow-up by releasing a live album.
Germans Suidakra are the outliers in most of this narrative. Debuting with a studio record in 1997, they were more prolific and varied than the other two. From 1997-2009 they released 9 albums covering ground in black metal and melodeath in addition to their folk metal material. 2006's "Caledonia" and 2009's "Crógaght" were a pair of the best Celtic folk metal albums of the decade, though, and considering the pace of Cruachan and Primordial's output, at that moment in time Suidakra looked to be the best bet for good new Celtic Folk on a consistent basis.
In 2011, all 3 bands released new albums, and each of them has released 2 more albums since then. This marked the first time since 2002 that all 3 had released an album in the same year, and it also marked the beginning of a new era in the way I'd assess their relative status.
Suidakra released "Book of Dowth" in late March of 2011. The album was solid, but it was the kind of record that makes you go "yeah, that was pretty good, but I think their last one was better." The following month, Cruachan and Primordial dropped their new albums 8 days apart.
Cruachan had undergone an intriguing transformation, losing the female vocals from their formula (they had generally employed clean female and harsh male vocals) and focusing on a more aggressive, blackened sound with "Blood on the Black Robe" also marking the beginning of their "blood trilogy" of albums. It was an unexpected shift, but it actually lead to a very strong release.
Primordial's "Redemption at the Puritan's Hand" meanwhile was a killer album that suffered a little bit from following such an impossibly great predecessor. The best tracks were ones that dominated my playlist for much of the year, though.
In the end, while I liked the Suidakra release alright, it didn't do much to stand out, while Primordial ended up topping my end-of-year list and Cruachan made the top 5 as well. With the benefit of time, while I still think the best material off RATPH is better than anything on BOTBR, the latter has probably stayed in my mind as the slightly more cohesively strong whole. Really, though, picking between them is tough.
From this point onward, though I didn't realize it yet at the time, Celtic metal would have a big 2 instead of a big 3. Suidakra signaled that reality when they followed up first with "Eternal Defiance" in 2013: a record that had the same vaguely lackluster quality as its immediate predecessor. In this case, though, the step down was more noticeable.
In 2014, the two Irish bands again released new albums less than 2 weeks apart, this time with Primordial going first. Again, Primordial were excellent, with "Where Greater Men Have Fallen" making another of my year-end lists and probably being the strongest folk metal album of the year. Cruachan's "Blood for the Blood God" was a worthy follow-up, but as is often the case, as the middle installment in a trilogy it didn't particularly stand out.
In 2016, Suidakra tried again with "Realms of Odoric" stumbling into existence so weakly that I'm still trying to figure what the hell happened. To date, it's the latest release from the band. Perhaps this is just a temporary dip. I certainly hope so, but right now they appear to have totally fallen apart.
This year, Primordial released "Exile Amongst the Ruins" in March, with Cruachan's "Nine Years of Blood" following 4 weeks later in April. Yet again, both records are fantastic. This time around, though, I'm going to have to give the nod to Cruachan. By injecting just a bit more folk and dynamic range back into the harsher sound of the previous albums of the trilogy, they hit a sweet spot that really impressed me. Primordial's record didn't really break any new ground for the band or anything, but it sounded great and kept their streak of successes rolling. Ultimately, expect to put both on my top 10 at the end of the year.
So there you have it. What "it" is, I couldn't tell you, but it's yours now.
