Writing a random review without calendar because I can. Regõ Rejtem by The Moon and the Nightspirit.
I've already been familiar with The Moon and the Nightspirit for a while, but I never really got into them that much despite quite enjoying Mohalepte, so when I found out they had a concert nearby, I decided to check them out further. After listening to all of their four albums, I enjoyed it enough to see them live but not enough to be overly enthusiastic about them. However, since coming back I find myself drawn to their music a lot more.
The band plays a fairy-like form of medieval folk, focussing on, from what I've read, Hungarian legends with the lyrics being in Hungarian. There isn't as much variation on instrumentation as you'd see with the likes of bands like Faun or Dead Can Dance (though Agnes Toth's vocals have some similarities to those of Lisa Gerrard, but with more control) with the band focussing on their core instrumentation: Bass, acoustic guitar, percussion, a violin and vocals to create an emotionally touching piece of music.
Perhaps the strongest aspect of the band is in their pacing, which is driven by the percussion. The tracks are very segmentized in that all instruments change in their melodies at the same time. The band also utilizes a lot of vocalization rather than actual vocals, which bothered me at first, but I've grown to like it.
The Moon and the Nightspirit also has a strong baritone, almost metalesque vocal delivery that's very sparingly used to provide a counterpoint to the higher tones of the female vocalist, and when its applied, it's usually a highlight in the track. The band's come into existence out of the ashes from a metal band which comes forward in these moments.
All in all, Regõ Rejtem is a fantastic album and I'd recommend it to anyone that's open to this kind of folk music and isn't put off by fairylike imagery. (I'm pretty forgiving in artwork and even I hate this one)