My first experience with the Spanish Basque Country band, Aiumeen Basoa, was back in 2001 through their split release, 'Triarchy of Vasconia,' which also featured Spanish natives, Ilbeltz and Adhur. Much like Ilbeltz, no less than nine years separate this old release and their debut albums, but for all the waiting, 'Iraganeko Bide Malkartsutik' was absolutely worth it, because its quite an impressive debut.Iraganeko Bide Malkartsutik is an extraordinary mixture of traditional Basque folk music which I believe is influenced from the Cantabrian region as well as some flamenco tendencies, a smidgen of black metal influence and some progressive touches all intertwined with a keen sense of melodicism, lyrics dealing with esteem for nature and Paganism and an absolutely incredible atmosphere throughout the six songs. Four of the songs are new while the remaining two are re-recordings from the aforementioned split and here they get slightly re-worked and ultimately perfected too.
To give you an idea of what an Aiumeen Basoa song is like, 'Kantauriko Trabain Erruak' opens with the warm sounds of an acoustic guitar, which gives me this sensation of sitting on the beach on a warm summer day, when before long an accordion, flute and violin make their appearance. Shortly thereafter the first signs of metal arrive at a blasting pace followed by a ghastly scream, a wash of atmospheric synths and commanding raspy lead vocals. From here on the song continues on for several minutes at both fast paces and entirely soft folky moments too with fantastic progressive changes. The stunning guitar (both electric and acoustic) work from Mikelot and Beleak is tasteful and melodic at all turns and when paired with the violin, occasional female vocals and other instruments the results are quite epic, to say the least, but you'll just have to hear the ending of this incredible eleven minute song to know what real majestic folk metal is all about.
'Jentil Odola' as well is a catchy little number that features everything that makes the previous song as well as all the others just so special. This song does however feature some cleanly sung male operatic-ish vocals, which are paired alongside the female voice to great effect too. Again here the music shifts between galloping black-ish metal paces to calm purely folk sounds and reaches a point of absolute brilliance when the solo pops up. 'Aintzinako Guduen Oroimenak' is one of the old songs from the split release and although it sounds only vaguely changed it sounds better since the production on this release is considerably improved and I'm also quite happy that the band kept the beautifully melancholic woodwind/violin ending to this song.
From here on the album continues onward fairly similar to what we've already heard, but there's little subtle differences like the wonderful blues part in, 'Akelarrearen Sua,' which completely took me off guard, but I adored it. 'Ekaitzaren Begitik' is also interesting since parts of it does away with the jovial mood in favor of something a bit more melancholy as well it makes great usage of piano during the middle of the song, which is followed by a most impressive death/doom part. 'Aiumeen Basoa (Arlekina)' is the other re-recorded song and again quite similar, but vastly improved nonetheless.
In the end and after several plays later, 'Iraganeko Bide Malkartsutik' has found a very special place in my heart and I can only hope the band continues to prosper from this point. Honestly though every last aspect of this release is superb, from the impressive guitar work to the stunning female voice, the various folk instruments and even the raspy screamed vocals and the drum work are performed perfectly.
Unfortunately Aiumeen Basoa is signed to a tiny label called, 'Erzsebet Records,' which probably means you wont be finding it in your local record store, but its absolutely worth the hunt on eBay or other online distros. If you've heard folk metal and thought it wasn't for you I absolutely urge you to check out this release as well as Illbeltz's, 'Auskan Gabiltz Olatun Gainian (1598 Potrobizargorri I),' which I reviewed a few months ago, because frankly I think you'll see this is far better than your average Ensiferum or Falkenbach clone and thus proves that folk metal is a worthwhile and flourishing genre of music.
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