Ruadh – 1296 (Review)

This is the fourth album from Scottish epic black metallers Ruadh.

Oh dear, it’s taken me an obscene amount of time to finally check out Ruadh, after thoroughly enjoying them at this year’s Reaper Festival. Ah well, better late than never, and 1296 has definitely been worth the wait.

Across a captivating 43 minutes Ruadh’s music expands and unfolds like an epic tale from ancient times. This is stirring atmospheric/folk black metal that’s immaculately crafted and richly detailed. Ruadh offer an exquisitely rendered tapestry for the listener to explore. Richly detailed with strings, keyboards, and folk elements, 1296 is a rewarding experience that’s utterly compelling.

The songs are very engaging, and benefit from a multitude of hooks and tools with which to grab and hold the listener’s attention. Whether you focus on the melodies, the orchestral elements, the vocals, or anything else, there’s a lot going on that’s of sufficiently high quality to entertain throughout.

The clean vocals that so impressed me live are just as potent on record. Honestly, 1296 contains some of the best examples of the style – heroic, commanding, emotive, soaring, and many other words that basically say they’re damn good at fulfilling their role in the music.

1296 is extremely good, and I can’t believe that Ruadh aren’t more widely known. Regardless, this is a great album, and I urge you to spend some time with it. Ruadh are definitely a band to check out if you enjoy the work of acts such as Falls of Rauros, Agalloch, Saor, Winterfylleth, Primordial, Panopticon, Wolves in the Throne Room, Moonsorrow, and Wayfarer.