Gewyrdelic dual-violin folk metal band ISENMOR has revealed details on their upcoming debut full-length, Shieldbrother, due for release on October 9.
Shieldbrother features eight tracks, all self-recorded and mixed, then mastered by the legendary Dan Swanö of Unisound.
“‘Shieldbrother’ was a massive undertaking for ISENMOR,” explains guitarist/vocalist Tim Regan. “Since each song has so many layers, to get the whole thing done, we had to divide up the recording into sections. Our bassist Mike Wilson facilitated the vocal, bass and keyboard recordings. Acoustic violins were recorded at violinist Mark Williams’ studio, and Mark also helped produce the drums with drummer David Spencer. I handled recording the guitars. After everything was tracked, I had the monumental task of putting everything together. The result is that every individual piece of the puzzle received very close attention, which in the end gave us a better result than if one person had recorded everything.”
Shieldbrother delivers tales of glory with the triumphant title track “Shieldbrother” and the furious “Furor Teutonicus,” sorrowful tales of woe such as the mournful “Battle Scarred” and the dirge-like “Mount Badon,” a 17-minute epic entitled “Sigurd’s Song,” the obligatory folk metal drinking song (with an ISENMOR twist), “Drink to Glory,” and more tales steeped in the myth and history of the dark ages.
Shieldbrother track listing:
1-Battle Scarred
2-Shieldbrother
3-Mount Badon
4-Furor Teutonics
5-Drink to Glory
6-Kings of the Cold Mountains
7-Wanderlust
8-Sigurd’s Song
ISENMOR sings tales of harrowing battlescapes and historic foes in their “gewyrdelic folk metal” style: a blend of metal, orchestral, and folk music, combining intricate violin leads and rich vocal harmonies with a strong guitar-driven folk metal base inspired by the stalwarts of the genre including Týr, Ensiferum, and Eluveitie. “Gewyrdelic” is an Old English word that roughly translates to “historical.” The meaning of the term, as well as its etymology, describe ISENMOR’s lyrical and thematic focus on the history and legends of the Anglo-Saxon and Germanic peoples. ISENMOR previously released the 2015 Land of the Setting Sun EP and 2016 “Saxon Shore” single.
“Fans of ‘Land of the Setting Sun’ are going to be blown away by ‘Shieldbrother,’” Regan says. “It is more of every dimension of the ISENMOR sound. We basically took every aspect of the sound we had developed on ‘Land…’ and doubled it. We were also able to add more depth to the ISENMOR sound on ‘Shieldbrother,’ including cello in ‘Sigurd’s Song,’ mandolin on ‘Kings of the Cold Mountains’ and ‘Drink to Glory,’ and more layers of orchestration on the keys throughout. The album is truly massive and I couldn’t be prouder of it.”
Together since 2014, the band has shared the stage with numerous international metal acts, has been featured as a repeat performer at the Maryland Folk Metal Festival and Pocono Folk, Pagan and Viking Metal Fest. With these performances and through the strength of the Land of the Setting Sun EP and the “Saxon Shore” single, the Maryland-based band has built a massive worldwide fanbase, as evidenced by the Shieldbrother Kickstarter campaign which more than tripled its goal in a few short weeks.
“Folk metal is a really broad genre,” says violinist/vocalist Nicholas Schneider. “From band to band you can find folk metal with influence from just about every other metal subgenre, and the songwriting on ‘Shieldbrother’ really explores that range. Tim has a long history playing in power, death and heavy metal bands, and can write some killer riffs; Mike is really into prog and loves to add a lot of complexity to songs; and I like to write in elements of black metal and a bit of post metal, and of course add in some traditional fiddle melodies. Despite the wide range of influences, the collaborative nature of ISENMOR’s songwriting has let us bring all this together to create an album that explores the breadth of what folk metal can be, but still has a distinctive ISENMOR sound.”
ISENMOR is:
Peter Lesko – Lead Guitar
Jon Lyon – Keys, Vocals
Tim Regan – Guitar, Vocals
Nicholas Schneider – Violin, Vocals
David Spencer – Drums
Mark Williams – Violin
Mike Wilson – Bass, Vocals
ISENMOR online:
