Label: Audiosama Records
Date: March 23rd, 2023
Romania, a country in the neighbourhood famous for its nature, a legend of Dracula and rich folklore. In my head Romania is the Brasov Rockstadt Festival, castles of Transylvania, Dirty Shirts and E-an-na. A country with such a rich history and tradition deserves someone who can present it in a world of popular music. Metal in their music is just one of the genres they use to show us where they come from and what kind of musicians they are. From Romania’s Got Talent over Eurovision music contest to Wacken E-an-na is more than a band, they are making a whole new genre of music.
Last year they published their third full length called “Alveolar” and now we are waiting for their new album named “Nomad” that will be released at the end of November. Till then let’s see who they are. In recent times when music equipment is accessible for everyone every day some new band pops up on the internet. Tons of one-man band projects and others who just like to play with mixing programs. To be creative and unique became a tough job but not for E-an-na. You can call them a music fusion, non-metal band but they represent themselves as folk metal, so let them be it. Every album of this band is a story for itself. It has its own vibe, so does “Alveolar”. “Mioritic Metal” as the opening song just gives us a preview of what we will listen to, maybe it’s a name of the actual genre they belong to but they explained us in the rest of the album. Folk metal, not in such a typical form but in Romanian way in songs like “Călăuză” or “Floare de Fier” is something that bought me in this album. As a folk dancer I recognized some elements of melodies I dance to, special in “Floare de Fier”. In a combination with thrash metal blast of drums it gives us perfect Romanian music rhapsody. It’s not just pure endless same melody, a mistake that most folk metal bands make but these songs have a form and keep your attention from top to the end. Full of Balkan joy, more Slavic than Roman perfectly fit for a movie soundtrack. I saw an animated movie a few days ago called The Peasants, E-an-na could make music for the Romanian version of it. In the rest of the album folk is in the background like some kind of jewellery in songs. “Trecătoare”, “Făntănile de la Capătul Lumii” and “Cenuşiu” are like Rotting Christ who use folk elements to make one special atmosphere. What makes this band a fusion of music is funky, oriental and even hardcore moments in some songs. This review would be four pages long if I would write about every song separately, but three or four minutes of the longest songs fit around three or four types of music. Not to get me wrong E-an-na is not the first and certainly not the last band that plays this type of music. From Romania there is Dirty Shirt, from Bosnia Dubioza kolektiv, from America/Bosnia Kultur Shock but not so many musicians can make this work out. E-an-na suits my taste more than these three together.
When it comes to the subject of its songs E-an-na are not typical in this area either. We got used to nature, mythology or Middle Ages when it comes to folk metal. All lyrics are in Romanian before you even start to listen make sure you have a google translate. But passionate and professional as they are, a small preview in written form in English below every song waits for you on good old You Tube. This album is about the burden that humankind carries on its shoulders with good and bad sides of this one life we have. “Alveolar” as the name says to me as a medical student is not so strange. It comes from Latin alveola, the smallest part of the lungs that provides exchange of gases and we call it simply breathing. The only thing that keeps us in life. We breathe deeply when we have some burden, we breathe fast when we fear so many reasons why they called it by this name. Not to act smart here anymore, I just want to say that I am very happy I found this band, totally accidently and my favourite folk metal mix is richer than one great band. There are even more facts to say about E-an-na but maybe another time with the appearance of “Nomad”.
