CARDINALS FOLLY - Deal with Soulseller Records - New Album 'Live By The Sword' coming on October 27th 2023

The Last Bastion of Doom. Those Finnish witchfinders. The ones that won't let go. The truest of the true. The stubbornest of the stubborn. CARDINALS FOLLY. A groovy trio of which name has been echoing distantly in the metal underground for more than a decade. A wild uncontrollable force moving onwards to another record or another adventure. With relentless riffs, heavy metal hails, ride-or-die attitude and true love for the old school doom and metal.

Hailing from Helsinki, Finland and formed in 2007 by Mikko "Count Karnstein" Kääriäinen (Bass, Vocals) and his back-then compatriots, CARDINALS FOLLY has been captained by Mikko ever since then towards new conquests. After several albums, line-up changes, dramas, label disappointments and tours around the world, the current stellar constellation of "Deranged Pagan Sons" with Juho Kilpelä (Guitar) and Joni Takkunen (Drums) has been ongoing since 2014.

On the upcoming new album "Live By The Sword", the band takes almost all that it finds good in metal and molds it into a tighter mass of unholy riffs, blasphemous pagan chants & choruses, luciferian & lovecraftian depravity and all in all a fearless ride to where the witching cauldrons boil hot and the brews are cool. Ranging from slow epic doom to galloping heavy metal and apocalyptic rock 'n' roll, the band loves to murder the listener with all their might. These past few years of plague and uncertainty have only made them angrier and more determined, resulting in this 42-minute onslaught of doomed heavy metal.

Band leader Mikko comments: "After these past few slightly chaotic years, it's nice to sign with a professional powerhouse like Soulseller Records. We're ready to go, ready to put this powerful bastard of an album out and show the world what we can do. We've done now six albums, and not many bands do six albums. Recently we toured in Norway, USA, Finland, Germany and Italy. It's true love towards this deranged craft and evolving it that keeps us going. I honestly believe we're also one of the few bands to steadily improve from day 1 onwards so far. That's not common either. And right now it seems we're in good hands. In a world under turmoil, I'm proud of what me, Juho and Joni have now created. This is our best album. There's no more to tell, and real action beats all words anyway. Crank it up and blast it as loud as you can. The doomed ones ride out again! Our Cult Continues!"

Links

http://www.soulsellerrecords.com

https://www.facebook.com/SOULSELLERRECORDS 

https://www.instagram.com/soulsellerrecords 

https://www.facebook.com/cardinalsfolly

https://www.instagram.com/cardinalsfolly

Thanks to Sure Shot Worx for all of the details

Cardinals Folly & Purification - Possessed In The Ritual Grove (Split Album Review)

Release Date: March 4th 2022. Record Label: Rafchild Records. Format: CD/DD/Vinyl

Possessed In The Ritual Grove (Split) - Tracklisting

1.Cardinals Folly - Law And Enlightenment 06:42

2.Cardinals Folly - The Second Seal 03:23

3.Cardinals Folly - Prince Prospero 07:35

4.Purification - 1st John 2:18 (King James Version) 02:59

5.Purification - The Crowning Mercy 06:54

6.Purification - Six Horn Cult Of The Sword 05:07

7.Purification - Adrianople (Suicide Morning) 04:29

Cardinals Folly - Members

Mikko - 4 Strings & Doomed Preaching

Juho - 6 Strings of Nordic Wrath

Joni - Battery & Brutality

Purification - Members

Grand Field Marshall William Purify

Count Darragh. 

The Resurrected Lord Donangato provided moral and spiritual support through these trying days, but does not play on this recording.

Review

Possessed In The Ritual Grove is a split album featuring legendary Finnish Doom Metal Legends Cardinals Folly and rising USA Doom Metallers Purification and it’s an album that perfectly shows what both bands bring to the Doom Metal genre whilst still bringing their own individual sound to the record.

Cardinals Folly offers three tracks running for around 19 minutes in length and Purification with four tracks clocking in at 20 minutes. Cardinals Folly are masters of the European Doom Metal Scene and they’re at their gloomy best with tracks that span the Heavy Metal and Classic Doom atmosphere especially on their opening track Law And Enlightenment.

The opening track is what Cardinals Folly do best by blending vintage sounding Doom Metal with a cool modern Heavy Metal sensibility and with a fast-paced approach. The vocals are OTT but with a menacing style when the heavier growls appear. The clean vocals are excellent with the band offering plenty of terrific guitar work along the way.

The other two songs from Cardinals Folly offer more great gloomy ideas and sounds especially on the stunning second song The Second Seal. The swirling psychedelics are a great touch and this has a Post-Doom flavour with the band playing a more restricted style of music that they’re mostly known for. 

Their final song Prince Prospero is the standout track from the band firing on all DOOM METAL CYLINDERS for an aggressive style of Heavy Metal and Doom Metal that has the right amount of modern day Doom Metal attitude whilst paying respects to the classic grooves and sounds that was laid down over the last 50 years or so. The song is one of the best offerings the band have written in some time. 

Now it’s Purification’s chance to impress listeners with their style of Occult based Doom Metal. I will admit this is my first time listening to the band and I’m mightily impressed. Their music is a mixture of Doom Metal, Occult Metal and NWOBHM that allows the band to be more aggressive in the volume department. 

Their standout tracks for myself personally are The Crowning Mercy and Six Horn Cult Of The Sword. As they are fantastic showcases of what Purification is all about. With both classic and modern day Doom Metal and Heavy Metal riffs matched against hard-hitting lyrics. Their overall sound is quite distorted in places compared to Cardinals Folly and I may have enjoyed their part of the album a little bit more. 

However, this release works so well is down to the bleak surroundings both bands adverse themselves in with their individual sets of songs that allows Possessed In The Ritual Grove to be one of the best split album releases seen in the Doom Metal field for quite some time.

This could end up being considered one of 2022’s Doom Metal Best Split Records Of The Year. It’s a seriously outstanding release that will keep the Legion Of Doom Metal fans happy and excited for a long time to come.

This is true DOOM METAL at its very best. You dig.

Awesome stuff…

Words by Steve Howe

Cardinals Folly Links

Facebook | BandCamp

    

Purification Links

Facebook | BandCamp

Cardinals Folly - Deranged Pagan Sons (Album Review)

Release date: September 04th 2017. Label: Nine Records. Format: CD/DD/Vinyl

Deranged Pagan Sons - Tracklisting

1.Worship Her Fire 06:23

2.Dionysian 04:10

3.Deranged Pagan Sons 05:28

4.The Island Where Time Stands Still 06:46

5.Three-Bladed Doom 05:15

6.Suicide Commando 05:27

7.I Belong In The Woods 06:02

8.Secret of the Runes 08:29

Members

Mikko Kääriäinen - Lord

Juho Kilpelä - Truth

Joni Takkunen - Saviour

Review

The mighty Cardinals Folly return with their epic new album - Deranged Pagan Sons. As with previous albums, the band play a blistering style of Modern Doom Metal that's bursting with vintage and classic doom sounds as well.

Opening track - Worship Her Fire - is a frantic and very fast-paced offering with the lyrics and vocals being more rooted in classic heavy metal folklore. It's the music that's the main standout here with the instrumental work demanding your attention throughout. The production from the start is clean and crisp but still with a very unforgiving doom based feel.

Second track - Dionysian - carries on the modern sounding heavy metal vibe with the band taking their time in bringing their trademark doom metal riffs to the masses. The sound of the song never feels forced as the band start to weave a doom and gloom atmosphere. The vocals are handled superbly by Mikko. As he's on fine devilish and demonic form right from the start.

The next song is the album's title track - Deranged Pagan Sons and it's perhaps the standout song on the album. As the album finally starts to embrace the more Occult Rock side of Cardinal Folly's music. The song even contains moments of heavy stoner metal sounds at different parts of the song. The lyrics have a very cool classic and historical feel. Which I know is a big aspect of Cardinal Folly's musical identity.

The fourth song - The Island Where Time Stands Still - has a similar approach to Metallica classic song - One. Obviously very different styles of music but they both have a similar approach. Vintage soundclip starting the song with the heavy doomed out guitars making their appearance known. Maybe I'm looking way too much into that song. It's just the overall vibe that I feel with the song. Mikko perhaps plays the albums heaviest bass parts on this song. Brooding and with a sense of purpose.

The second half of the album obviously follows the same path that the first half brilliantly contained. Three Bladed Room, Suicide Commando, I Belong In The Woods and Secret Of The Runes each contain their own individual highlights. As the band play a spectacular heavy style of Doom Metal that may sound theatrically OTT at times. Though that's the overall charm with both the band and album itself. You need OTT theatrical sounds for an album such as this and Cardinals Folly pull this off with huge original style of their own.

With this being their fourth album, it could have easily seen the band ended up stale and uninspired. I'm happy to report this is perhaps the best that Cardinals Folly has sounded in years. Deranged Pagan Sons is a stunning and beautifully well-crafted album that will appeal to both long-time fans of the band and the casual doom metal fan.

This album proves why Cardinals Folly are at the top of their game within the Doom Metal world. Embrace The Doom Metal Madness that the band have created with this album.

Words by Steve Howe

Links:

Facebook | BandCamp