Morrigan: Welcome to Samhain

In 2006 Morrigan released Welcome to Samhain via Undercover Records once again.  It was a CD that saw them settled into their acknowledged (to small numbers) Black Metal brand, whilst not at all continuing on the same evolutionary path established by the career-defining Headcult.  Instead it appears to pretend that album never even existed: speed generally gets notched up on Welcome..., the guitars are not as heavy, perhaps more traditionally Black Metal in tone, and the 'epicness' is dialled down to make way for an often more primitive experience.  An odd decision, I would have thought, in the trail of producing one's best creative work.

"Eye of Despair" harks back to the primordial aggression of Celts or its two ancestors, and generally points towards a much shorter song length on average than what Morrigan was otherwise becoming comfortable with prior to this point.  The subsequent track, the title piece, plays to the style that I would say was the Jekyll side of Morrigan's trademark - leisurely, melancholic, choral.  There's no doubting though that if Quorthon had never existed then neither would this (along with a slew of other classic bands and albums over the years!).  Bitches are also back on this CD, with 'Bastard and Bitch', an intense, wintry piece that must surely be aiming towards The Return in its aspirations, particularly if one reads the lyrics (the meaning of which I'm still unsure of, as much as I would like to shed explanatory light), while noisy interlude 'Cranking Battleships' is the sort of waste of space the listener is likely to only allow themselves to hear once.

'Life, Death, and the Hereafter' goes for the heaviness, sandwiched between a particularly pounding riff - this is also the longest piece on the disc.  'Believe in Eternity'  adopts a chaotic 'second wave' approach that reminds one of middle-era Immortal as they became particularly unpredictable for a while (and I guess before they sort of became a parody of themselves and the whole genre): there's a lot of screaming going on here!  'Armour of Honour' has plenty to keep speed fans happy, while 'Roaring Warlike and Victorious' is certainly not as pummelling as its title might suggest, taking on a laid back nature.  Concluding piece 'Poch Mo Hoine' (I'm not sure what this means) may remind one of the eponymous Bathory debut in all respects.

Most of the cuts on Welcome to Samhain are of a decent quality, although the listener here can't help but feel a little dissatisfied after the double whammy of Celts and Headcult, expectations possibly unfairly higher here.  I felt the same back in 2006 when I first heard it - it has grown on me a little over the years but will always be overshadowed slightly by what came before.