Book of Dowth is a solid uniform testament of folk influenced melodic death metal for fans to feast upon.

Thematically, Turisas sustain their mostly historical bent with eyes turned toward Byzantium, though any storytelling takes back seat to the triumphant tone and exultant crusade invoked by the music itself.

There’s hardly any filler to be found here, not even a short, throwaway instrumental track. Tribus was one of the latter great albums of 2010, one that I’m sorry to have missed until well into 2011.

Hey Hellbound Readers, welcome to the second edition of Postcards From Natalie Zed for 2011. We met Natalie just about a year ago now when she won our big year end contest, taking home more than 50 CDs, records, posters and t-shirts. In a surprise move, Natalie then asked us if she could review her winnings for us. How could we say no?

Well, Natalie is all done with her original batch but has decided to keep on doing her postcard sized reviews for us. So, without further adieu, here is part nine of her ongoing series which we like to call “Postcards From Natalie Zed”. This set includes reviews of MITOCHONDRION, GRAF ORLOCK, THE MEADS OF ASPHODEL and more.

Scythia, are nothing short of incredible particularly when you consider that the band had only been together for a few weeks prior to taking off on tour (member changes)! Leader of the pack David Khan is very much at home on the stage and leading his tribe through some of the best folk metal I’ve heard in a long time. Not only do they perform in costume but David takes on the role of the bard and speaks just as his character would have in between songs.

Jason Wellwood provides a glimpse at the triumphant showing of Scythia, joined by Marching Mind in Thunder Bay.

“Next on the docket was Hamilton’s own Deathmarch. For reasons I’m not fully aware of they were without a drummer tonight, getting by with a drum track and Northern Storm Records label head Rob Cranny. By this I mean that Rob sat in the middle of the stage, shirtless with drum sticks in hand, phantom drumming throughout the entire set. Remember what I said about metal being fun?”

Renee Trotier reviews the August 18th performance by DEATHMARCH, ESOTERIC DOCTRINE, HALLOWS DIE and TWILIGHT CHILD at the Corktown Pub in Hamilton ON.

If All Empires Fall is meant to close a certain chapter of the band’s history, we have every reason to believe the next one will be even more exciting to witness.

Everything else fell away, however, when TÝR took the stage. I seemed as though I had handed the band a checklist of everything I hoped to see in their performance, and they generously met every request. They played “Hail to the Hammer,” “Hold The Heathen Hammer High,” and “Sinklars Visa;” Heri and Terji performed shirtless; they took long swigs from a bottle of rum throughout the performance.