A Review of Wilderun’s “Olden Tales and Deathly Trails”

Howdy lads and lasses, this is Gabe Cavaliere doing his very first album review. Today I will be reviewing a band I strongly believe will be a band to look out for in the future. This band is called Wilderun and this is the debut album Olden Tales & Deathly Trails. The reason why I’m saying this is because this band has an incredible and definitive sound that sets them apart from other bands. This band is for people who love bands such as Sonata Arctica, Wintersun, and Ensiferum or any other type of symphonic/power/folk metal. This band has an amazing way of putting these three artists styles and blending them together to make one spectacular masterpiece of music!

Band: Wilderun
Album: Olden Tales & Deathly Trails
Genre: Symphonic Folk Metal
Label: Unsigned
Release: September 21, 2012

The first track off the album, entitled “The Crackling Glow”. The song starts off with a light soft playing of the mandolin which will give the listener a sort of mystical nostalgia. If you just close your eyes and just listen to the first minute, it gives you some tremendously good vibes. You can hear this beautiful orchestration of trumpets by Wayne Ingram that gives the listener the perspective that the album is not just an album, but a wondrous adventure!

The track entitled “Suncatcher” is a very interesting song, you can hear the wonderful musicianship that each member brings to the table. From Evan Berry with his roaring screams, to the beautiful backing vocals of Wayne Ingram, Daniel Muller and Johnathan Teachey, to soft mandolin and flute in between, this really shows the musicianship of this band. What I really like about this song is that it mixes a ton of different elements in metal (folk, symphonic, thrash, power) and blends it into one beautiful mastered song.
“Storm Along” is probably one of their slowest songs on the album but yet, it shows how this band can really go from a fast paced upbeat folky sound, to a sad emotional slow song really shows the versatility of the band. Personally, it is not my cup of tea but I feel like one you buy the album you can see that this album is layered like a story, so this isn’t the type of album where you can buy one song and get away with not buying the album. Buy the album and you ears will be rewarded!

There were a couple of things I wasn’t a huge fan of about this album. At some moment i felt like some songs were longer then they needed to be. Like they incorporated a ton of instruments, but I feel like if they shortened the songs and made them a little more simplistic instrumentality. Some of the lyrics are somewhat corny, but overall this really was a stellar album. This album is really incredible for a debut unsigned band, and I would personally recommend this album! Please go ahead and support the local scene and buy yourself a copy of Wilderun’s “Olden Tales & Deathly Trails”!