Merkfolk - Kolovrat (2018)

1 	Płonie 	00:38
2 	Marzanna 	04:41
3 	Wiosna 	04:31
4 	Woi, Kupała! 	04:23
5 	Zła Wróżba 	05:45
6 	Południca 	04:35
7 	Plony 	03:24
8 	Odlatują Żurawie 	04:10
9 	Dziady 	05:50
10 	Gody 	04:28
11 	Kolęda 	02:54
12 	Zima 	04:17
13 	Przemija 	01:47

Agata Tutkaj – vocals
Katarzyna Nowosadzka – violin
Kacper Pawłowicz – accordion
Irmina Frąckiewicz – guitar
Daniel „Debest” Kryński – bass 
Rafał „Baton” Frąckiewicz – drums

Merkfolk powstał na początku 2013 roku z inicjatywy rodzeństwa – Irminy i Rafała. Od listopada 2013 zespół regularnie koncertuje. Występowali, między innymi, na Ogólnopolskich Zlotach Miłośników Folk Metalu, Ragnard Rock Festiwal (Francja), Kalevala Polish Tour, Hellhammer Festiwal (Czechy). Mieli okazję grać na jednej scenie z Percivalem Schuttenbachem, Kalevalą, Welicorussem, Arkoną, Primordialem, Nokturnal Mortum, Wardruną, Skiltronem, The Moon and the Night Spirit, Nine Treasures i innymi.

Nazwa zespołu, w luźnym tłumaczeniu (z norweskiego), oznacza "niosący folk". Utwory Merkfolk to wpadające w ucho melodie, grane przez akordeon i skrzypce oraz ciężkie brzmienie gitar i perkusji, okraszone kobiecym growlem.

W październiku 2014 r. miał premierę pierwszy teledysk Merkfolk do utworu „Topielica”. W lipcu 2015 r. zespół wydał, nakładem wytwórni Art of the Night Productions, swoją pierwszą płytę LP pt. "The folk bringer".

W grudniu 2015 r. Folk-metal.nl uznało płytę „The folk bringer” debiutanckim albumem roku. Merkfolk jest laureatem kilku nagród, między innymi przeglądu kapel na Cieszanów Rock Festiwal 2016. W lipcu 2018 zespół wydał drugą płytę LP zatytułowaną “Kolovrat”. ---band.pl/merkfolk

Three years after their debut The Folk Bringer Polish Merkfolk release their second full album. Expectations are high, because their firstborn was voted debut of the year by our team. More often than not a band would sound more mature in the way of song writing, sound and diversity. Is that the case with Merkfolk?

Well, that’s open for debate. Most of the strong points of the debut are back on Kolovrat. Which is a distinct sound, good song writing (though not better than on The Folk Bringer), accordion, violin and raw female vocals. However, from a different singer. Current singer Agata Tutkaj is sadly not as convincing as Mery was. Less variety, in fact very monotone and harsh to the point of core vocals. Not an improvement at all. Which really is a shame, because apart from that, there is not a whole lot amiss with this album. It is a bit more mid-tempo, but that’s not a bad choice in itself as long as the songs keep you interested. And mostly they do.

Still a faster song like ‘Woi, Kupala!’ is more likely to get the party started. A song with moderate speed that is typical for this album would be ‘Plony’. Mind you, ‘Plony’ ending with a ‘y’ instead of first song ‘Plonie’. Polish humour, maybe? This song is typical in another way, namely that towards the end of the song you wish Agata would stop shouting in your face all the time.

Other than that, enough to enjoy. The band specializes in writing a gripping first minute in most every song. Often resulting in a nice enough song. Yet seldom better than the songs on the debut album. After listening to Kolovrat for multiple times I accidently heard ‘Nananana’ from the debut album. And it immediately made me smile, whereas I was somewhat frowning throughout Kolovrat. If this would have been the band’s debut, I probably would be a lot more enthusiastic. It still is above average. But with a debut like The Folk Bringer this album can’t possibly score higher than an eight out of ten. ---folk-metal.nl

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