Mythbegotten is a folk metal band with epic metal qualities that combine brutality with black metal-ish musical moments.  The band hails from the New England/Upper areas of New York.  Over the last several years I have increased my knowledge of this genre and there are many various acts I enjoy with folk moments such as: Empyrium, The Ruins of Beverast, Týr, Folkrim, The Dread Crew of Oddwood, Trollfest and Trold, just to name a few.

Mythbegotten is a new band and Tales from the Unseelie Court is their debut album.  This trio of folksters were once in the band Hounds of Annwn together and vocalist Dan Barbour is also the singer for Goblin Hovel.  The band is rounded out with Connor Hoffman on guitars, keyboards, and drum programming and Joe Sopchak plays the bass, key,s and orchestral arrangements.  Joe and Connor also do backing vox as well.  The album cover is mystical and as soon as I saw this in promos I was like they must have some folk influence to them.   To top it all off this is a long album.  8 songs in just under an hour does ask a lot from a listener.  However – if you are into the first 3 bands I mentioned above then you will be used to these longer tracks.

“The Heedless Horseman” (Not Headless Horseman, as the band told me when I asked if the promo had a typo) starts things off with some sounds taking me deep into the forests of upstate NY.  I was born and raised in the city and Long Island, but I know upstate NY very well, from playing shows, college, and The Catskills.  This reminds me of a forest where we have some goblins and townfolk playing instruments and dancing around some firepit swilling cups of Meade.  Starting with folk like vocals, epic, and the orchestral arrangements and keys are great.  The excellent guitar melodies carry forth the epic folk sounds in terrific fashion.  Lots of galloping metal moments and drums and bass sound tight.  Organic.  The hoping sounds at the 4.48 moments will get your blood boiling over and this is a very fun and extremely catchy opener.  Quality vocal tones and most of all the phrasing is catchy.

“Omen of Embers” starts next with awesome orchestral moments and there are moments throughout I am like is that a tin whistle?  An instrument used to greatly affect these types of releases.  Dan reaches some high vocal notes on this and settles into his mid-range nicely.  The chorus moments with his higher registers are piped in louder in the mix, alongside the orchestral moments.  Very good start and stop riffage to be had here.  Excellent guitar soloing and terrific harmonies.  Melodious yet catchy.

“The Fall” starts with acoustic guitars and some nice sounds in the background.  I feel like I am outside right near a castle as the vocals come in and with the epic power metal flair to them, puts me in the mood to start hopping on some dragons and take them fuckers for a ride.  The drums start coming in, lighter at first as the build-up continues and fully realized at the 2.15 mark.  This song has many epic folk moments which also remind me of Sojourner.  The slower pace works well until a blast best around the 3.20 part with the variety of vocals over this part and then the song settles back into that catchy vocal and rhythmic pattern.  This is a beast of a track!

“Of Wrath and Ruin” at 14 minutes closes the album out and encompasses all the best qualities of this band.  I am glad they saved this song for the end.  It is the best on the album and there are some female vocals piped in as well.  The end gallops along quite nicely and is the perfect ending to a terrific debut album.

Mythbegotten really knows this style of metal quite well.  Tales from the Unseelie Court is catchy AF, well-played and well-written.  This particular style of music makes me really happy, gets me in a good mood and I find myself two-stepping and twirling myself around and around and well you get the point.  Fun stuff.  This is such a great debut album and I am looking forward to future releases from this exciting new band.

Now- labels and distros out there – please look into this band and look into signing them.  Travesty something this exciting is not on a label.

[Visit the band's website]

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