Zitat:All of a sudden the Canadian formation Blackguard gets loads of attention, for they are the winners of the worldwide MySpace band contest organised by Nuclear Blast in 2008 and they scooped a contract with this famous metal label. This brought the career of the epic folk metal band – already paving their paths in their native country for a while – in a rapid. Until now they were known as Profugus Mortis, and to preserve this link with the past, they called this worldwide debut album ”˜Profugus Mortis”™.

Listening to this vigorous, spirited album it soon gets obvious that we are not dealing with a starting band right here. The extremely fluent manner in which they present us duels between guitars and keyboards shows technical skilfulness one only sees with experienced musicians. This sextet hailing from Montréal appears to be formed in 2001, initially as pure black metal band. Due to several line-up changes – particularly the recruitment of vocalist Paul “Ablaze” Zinary heralded a first turning point – they evolved towards a more folksy approach. When violinist Emilie Livernois left Profugus Mortis in 2007, she was replaced by guitarist Kim Gosselin and he would turn into an important acquisition. Beside a number of demos, the band released a full length album ”˜So It Begins”™ (2007) and the EP ”˜Another Round”™ (2008), but these might be hard to find in Europe.

The music on ”˜Profugus Mortis”™ is very energetic. ”˜Scarlet To Snow”™ starts in a cinematic way, but then the multilayered music cuts loose in a proper fast pace with opulent fast and furious guitar skills and lively keyboard parts. One may call this a blend of Children Of Bodom and Finntroll, especially because the keyboard parts include most of the folkloristic patterns and that”™s why they remind me of Henri Sorvali from time to time. Due to the orchestral keys, a song such as ”˜In Time”™ is a bit evocative of Turisas. The galloping riffs and polka rhythms are competently completed by shouter Paul Ablaze, who has a raucous, gravel-like throat. Ultimately rough, though his vocal energy gets a bit too much for me towards the end. Nevertheless this is a very mature debut – if we may call it that way – and I want to make a special mention of the firmly rocking keyboards in ”˜Cinder”™ and ”˜Vain”™. Blackguard is ready for worldwide domination, but first they will be touring intensively in Canada and the United States as part of the Pagan fest II tour, together with Eluveitie, Moonsorrow, Korpiklaani, Primordial and Swashbuckle in April 2009.
Quelle