Northern Oak Triptych EP Launch - November 2015

Last night Sheffield's very own pioneers of the heavy flute sound, Northern Oak launched their new EP Triptych with support from The Infernal Sea and Black Moon Rising.

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Photo Review: Mist, Kurokuma, Northern Oak & The Miser on the Faerie Gump

On 22nd September, Slovenian doom metal band Mist played their first UK date at The Rocking Chair, Sheffield with support from local bands: The Miser on the Faerie Gump, Northern Oak and Kurokuma.  The event was brought together by doom and post metal promoter Holy Spider Promotions in association with Femetalism.

It was an incredible night with top notch performances from all four bands, a great atmosphere and a huge amount of support.

First up were local 'comedy' progressive folk metal band The Miser on the Faerie Gump.  They might think their lyrics are silly, but their music is anything but!  There was so much energy on the stage and in the room during their performance and they really got the crowd warmed up.

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Holy Spider Promotions in Association with Femetalism Present: Mist, Kurokuma, Northern Oak and The Miser on the Faerie Gump

On September 22nd Holy Spider Promotions will be bringing an epic night of doom and folk to the Rocking Chair in Sheffield and we at Femetalism are extremely pleased to have been asked to get involved. Mist from Slovenia will be visiting Sheffield as part of a fairly limited UK tour and they will be playing alongside some of the best music Sheffield has to offer in the form of Kurokuma, Northern Oak and The Miser On The Faerie Gump.

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Mist to headline at The Rocking Chair, Sheffield 22nd September 2015

Femetalism will be collaborating with Holy Spider Promotions in Sheffield on an up coming live music event being held at The Rocking Chair, Sheffield on 22nd September 2015.

Slovenian doom metallers Mist will be headlining with support from Sheffield's very own Kurokuma, Northern Oak and The Miser On The Faerie Gump.

We will be putting together a full preview of the event, but in the meantime, check out the Facebook Event and all of the bands who will be playing.

Originally posted by Emma Sheridan on Femetalism.

Forged in Stone and Steel Part 1 - Track 7 Northern Oak - Gaia

Northern Oak are a progressive folk metal band from Sheffield, UK. They are known for their ability to weave vicious black metal riffs with haunting flute folk melodies that stir the raw emotions lurking deep within the human soul.

Since the release of their 2010 album Monuments they have toured the country with their energetic live show. They have also played several prestigious festivals such as Bloodstock Open Air while developing and shaping their sound.

The results of this can be heard on their 2014 album Of Roots and Flesh. The album ranges from existential rage on ‘The Gallows Tree’ to a desire to see the best of humanity in ‘Of Roots and Flesh’. The listener’s ears are rewarded by a seamless blending of vocal styles and a fusion of electric and acoustic guitars, flutes, violin and melodeon parts as they are taken on a musical journey through the nature of struggle.

Gaia is taken from their new album Of Roots and Flesh.

 

Northern Oak is: 

Chris Mole - Guitars 

Catie Williams - Flutes / Melodeon 

Martin Collins - Vocals 

Richard Allan - Bass 

Digby Brown – Keyboards / Violin 

Paul Whibberley – Drums 

Follow Northern Oak on:

http://northernoak.co.uk

http://music.northernoak.co.uk

http://www.facebook.com/northern.oak

https://soundcloud.com/northern-oak

Valkyrian Festival 2014 - Photo Roundup

Valkyrian Festival 2014 has been and gone, and it was a corker! Great bands, great people, great music. Lots of fun was had by all and, as usual, I took my trusty camera with me to grab a few shots. Before we headed towards the Bridlington sea, we gave you a quick preview of the femetal bands who would be performing over the weekend. Here is a sample of the photos I captured of them to show what went on, with links to full albums of all the bands.

Day 1

See the full album for day 1.

Apparition

Psydoll

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Festival Preview: Valkyrian Festival 2014

The dark Autumn nights are really rolling in now and the long, dark winter is edging ever nearer. How do we combat this misery?  How about Valkyrian Festival in Bridlington, UK?

Having a scan through the bands announced for this weekend, it's clearly going to be a pretty epic event musically.  The festival is being held in The Londesborough, Bridlington, East Yorkshire so there will be plenty of opportunity for land locked sea lovers such as myself to breath in some brisk sea air. Supported by The Crypt of Curiosities, Wolf Band Management and Music Promotion and Black Phoenix Rising and with all proceeds being donated to RapeCrisis there really is no reason to miss out!

From our point of view there are a tremendous number of bands featuring female musicians and so in this quick preview let's have a look at the line up and highlight some of the femetal bands who we will be rocking out to in a few short days.

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Northern Oak - Of Roots And Flesh Album Launch (Photos)

Last night, October 4th, was possibly the most hotly anticipated date in the Femetalism calendar; after an eternity of waiting (well, a year), the launch gig for Northern Oak's new album Of Roots And Flesh had arrived. And a what a treat it was, with support from Back To The Sea and Regulus and a run-through of the entire album start to finish! The bands were on top form, and Northern Oak especially shone throughout the evening in what is possibly the finest performance I have ever seen them play.

As usual I took my trusty camera along, so here is a very short summation of the evening in photographic form. The full photo album is available on our photo page, but here are a few highlights.

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New Release: Northern Oak - Of Roots And Flesh (4th October 2014)

Northern Oak are set to release their third album, Of Roots And Flesh, on October 4th. The album, funded entirely by a Kickstarter campaign last year, is something of a turning point for the band. Taking control of their own destiny, they have built on what they had in Monuments, the previous album, and with help of their loyal and growing fanbase produced something spectacular.

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Northern Oak to support Moonsorrow at York's Annual Folk Metal Night

Yes, you read it right. The mighty Moonsorrow are playing an exclusive UK show, this February in York, with Femetalism favourites Northern Oak and the seriously unserious York-based metallers Sellsword. Can we say we're excited? Because we are!

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INTERVIEW: Northern Oak

I have the great pleasure of presenting my interview with Chris Mole and Catie Williams of Northern Oak - progressive folk metallers and the pioneers of the heavy flute sound, from my home town Sheffield.

Northern Oak were formed in 2006 and have released 2 albums to date.  Their third album - Of Roots and Flesh - is due to be released on the 4th October and was funded through an hugely successful KickStarter campaign.

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Northern Oak Release New Song ‘Nerthus’ & Lyric Video

Northern Oak, Sheffield's very own progressive folk metallers, have today released a lyric video for Nerthus, which gives us a first taste of their much anticipated album Of Roots And Flesh.

Nerthus is a song that describes the worship ritual for an ancient pagan goddess of the same name.
Guitarist Chris Mole elaborates: “A statue of the goddess would be carted around the island where she was worshipped to receive offerings from her followers. The statue would be taken to a sacred pool to be cleansed by a group of slaves, who would then be slaughtered, as touching the goddess and looking upon her face was considered too divine for mortals to survive. Martin’s lyrics tell the story of one slave who willingly offers himself up for this duty, seeing it as an honour and a way to atone for the worthlessness of his former life.”

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Crowd Funding and Trees.

Independent music artists are every where at the moment, you won't see them if you just watch the telly, listen to the national radio stations or generally refuse to move away from the dross you are are fed via the mainstream, but it is everywhere.  In every town and city across the world there are people making music and promoting and performing it without any outside support or influence.  This makes me happy, but it also makes me sad.

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Professor Elemental supported by Northern Oak and Kassandra Killjoy - Corporation, Sheffield - 3rd March 2012

Well Saturday evening was spent at Corporation, Sheffield enjoying an evening of Burlesque, Folk Metal and Steampunk Hip Hop.  An eclectic mixture I am sure you will agree.  It was of course amazing.  Northern Oak were as always, immense and played an amazing set to one of the best audiences I have ever had the pleasure of standing in.  In addition, Kassandra Killjoy provided sultry entertainment in between the main acts.

The Professor was as expected hilarious, wearing his trademark hat and goggles and providing the audience with renditions of such tracks as Splendid and Cup of Brown Joy.

Having watched this video after it was posted on Facebook by the band, I had to share it here.  The completely brilliant Professor Elemental with the utterly awesome Northern Oak peforming Fighting Trousers.  Watch it and wish you had been there too (unless of course you were in which cause ... Hurrah!)

Northern Oak - The Great Exhibition

Friday night was Great Exhibition night in Corporation, Sheffield.  Four fabulous bands including Sheffield's own Northern Oak. Doozr took a few photos which he has just posted to TheMixEclectic but no videos have popped up on YouTube as yet. Found this one though from the Derby leg of the tour. New material as well. Awesome :) Thanks for making the last gig of 2011 a real highlight!

Forests, Folk Metal and Photography - October 2011

Having Doozr around is rather useful sometimes.  A great writer for The Mix Eclectic, a fantastic photographer for LazyRobot and a stupidly talented computer geek (creating femetabase most recently) - the boy is genius.  However, when he was asked to take some photographs for Northern Oak recently it was me he turned to for assistance of the lighting and reflector kind! :P

The first trip out into the Peak District was a bit of a washout - literally.  It was the first wet weekend of the summer and although we battled through, there was no way any of the photos would be good enough.  So on the 16th October we headed out again.

The resulting shots were fantastic and we had such a laugh creating them.

I'd really like to thank Northern Oak for calling me a 'glamourous assistant' in their recent newsletter seeing as I looked anything but glamorous during the shoot ...

Lighting Wench.

A great day had by all and a lovely set of Northern Oak photographs for the world to enjoy!

The Women of Bloodstock 2011

So of course, being at Bloodstock and having a desire to promote women in metal, I had to check out the bands performing with a female member.

I trawled through the festival guide and found a good few bands on the Sophie Lancaster and New Blood stages.  There were not many on the Ronnie James Dio stage though - this was slightly disappointing.  Nevertheless I tried to get to as many sets as I could and I was not disappointed with what I found:

Sanguine - New Blood Stage - 

Lead Vocals: Tarin Kerrey

I've already mentioned this four-piece female fronted UK alternative metal band from Exeter.  Powerful, energetic and somewhat intimidating. I really did love it and the free EP CD I was handed the day before is now well played.

Cerebral Bore - Sophie Lancaster Stage - 
Lead Vocals: Som Pluijmers

Talking of intimidating.  Cerebral Bore are a female fronted death metal band based in Glasgow, Scotland.  They pulled a massive audience and demonstrated that they are a real death metal band to contend with.

Saturnian - New Blood Stage - 
Soprano Vocals: Lydia Bateman

Saturnian are a six-piece extreme symphonic metal band from the UK.  The New Blood tent was packed during their set and they really performed an impressive mixture of vocal styles and stage performance.

Evil Scarecrow - Sophie Lancaster Stage - 
Keyboard: Princess Luxury

This band just have to be seen live to really appreciate.  A five-piece parody metal band from Nottingham.  Really didn't disappoint the packed Sophie Lancaster tent and many people have since said it was the highlight of their weekend.

Northern Oak - New Blood Stage - 
Flute: Catie Williams

Northern Oak are a six-piece folk metal band from Sheffield.  I am a massive fan, an almost obsessive stalker and still completely blown away by their Bloodstock set.  Catie's flute just makes them all the more awesome.

Therion - Ronnie James Dio Stage - 
Vocals: Lori Lewis and Linnea Vikstrom

The only band I could find with female members on the main stage were Therion.  Therion are a Swedish symphonic metal band with two female vocalists.  I was close to the front for the set and thoroughly enjoyed their performance.  I have since acquired a number of items from their back catalogue.

There were two other bands I found but didn't get to see for one reason or another.

Candid Iniquity - New Blood Stage - 
Guitar: Francesca Dixon

This four-piece metal band from Manchester were on just a little too early for us on the Sunday and we didn't make it into the arena in time.  Having listened to them since I am even more disappointed to have missed them.  Perhaps they will be playing near Sheffield one day soon and I can make up for it?

Amaranthe - Sophie Lancaster Stage - 
Female Vocals: Elize Ryd

A six-piece Swedish/Danish power/melodic death metal band.  Having seen their most recent video before heading to Bloodstock I wasn't that fussed about seeing them so didn't make them a priority at the festival.  It appeared to be over produced pop metal trying to be Evanescence.  As much as I like a bit of pop metal every now and again this really didn't appeal to me during the festival.

In hindsight I should have made more of an effort to see them to see for myself what they were really like.

So there you have it.  A very swift round-up of the women playing at Bloodstock 2011.  In a way I hope there were others that I missed - not because I wish I had missed them, but because it would be great to see more women playing at festivals such as this.  If there were more that you know about please add a comment with the bands details so that I can check them out.

And you never know.  Perhaps next years line-up might include a few more lovely ladies on the main stage too?!