The Awakening (Prelude) opens the Canticle Of The Moonshade Realm, the debut EP from Wirriekow. If there is an argument for not listening to music via streaming, then missing the move into track two, Spaewives Evince (Act 1), or even listening in the wrong order, means you miss the story of the riffs and the atmosphere of this three-act structure rooted in Perthshire myth.
Wirriekow – Canticle Of The Moonshade Realm
Release Date: Out Now
Words: Steve Ritchie
Wirriekow is the brainchild of Martin Robbie, whose previous bands include Mass Worship (Century Media), In Tongues, Anchor and City Keys.
For this project, he has returned to first principles, recruiting longtime friends Kristian Sator on vocals and Ross Tanbini on drums, the latter currently studying under world-renowned drummer Virgil Donati.
“This EP is a gritty reflection of the village where it all started,” Kristian Sator said. “Created by my good friend Martin, these four tracks dive into the darker corners of our roots. With Ross on drums and Martin on guitar, it feels like old times. I’m incredibly proud to be a part of this project.”
Listening, you can feel that Canticle Of The Moonshade Realm is built around a shared musical language. The concept draws on the myths and legends of Perthshire, Scotland, a fertile ground for supernatural horror, but for me, it is the riffs that first dragged me in.
The narrative follows a protagonist awoken by three witches and drawn through ancient ritual toward a climactic emergence of evil, told across four tracks structured as prelude and three acts, The Awakening, Spaewives Evince, Buried Moon and Seven Stars, and the closing A Thin Place Of Liminal Static.
The sonic foundation is late ’90s Death ‘n’ Roll, the Swedish sound that Entombed and Carcass defined, filtered through a Scottish sensibility and executed with deliberate authenticity.
The guitar parts were tracked on an ’80s BC Rich Gunslinger through an original ’80s BOSS HM2 pedal by someone who has previously recorded at Sunlight Studios in Sweden under producer Tomas Skogsberg.
Mixed by Robbie himself and mastered by Dan Swanö, whose credits include Edge Of Sanity, Nightingale and Witherscape, the EP has an intensity and organic warmth that keeps it from feeling clinical. Sator’s vocal performance, recorded with a broken nose, carries a rawness that no amount of studio polish could manufacture.
Tanbini’s drumming drives the EP with precision and authority without ever crowding the atmosphere that Robbie has so carefully constructed.
It was the riffing on Act 1 (which I listened to first) that sucked me in. Do not make the mistake I made. Start from The Prelude and run right through. It is a great 12 minutes.
Canticle Of The Moonshade Realm is the first in a series of planned releases. On this evidence, the series is worth following. Stream and download at Bandcamp.
