''Curse of the Cwelled'' is the seventh studio album by the English

folk metal Folk metal is a fusion genre of heavy metal music and traditional folk music that developed in Europe during the 1990s. It is characterised by the widespread use of folk instruments and, to a lesser extent, traditional singing styles (for exampl ...

band

Forefather ''Forefather'' is an English folk metal band from Surrey. They also incorporate elements of Viking metal and black metal. Since inception in 1997 the band has released seven studio albums. History ''Forefather'' was formed in September 1997 b ...

. It was officially released on April 23, 2015 in time for St George's Day by their own record label, Seven Kingdoms.

Track listing

# "Havoc on Holy Island" - 5.25 # "The Anvil" - 3:50 # "By My Lord I Will Lie" - 5:05 # "Fire of Baited Blood" - 3:58 # "Curse of the Cwelled" - 5:05 # "Awakened Hate" - 4:53 # "Painted with Blood" - 4:42 # "Rustics to Remain" - 3:51 # "Edge of Oblivion" - 4:03 # "Master of Fate" - 5:07 # "The River-Maid's Farewell" (Instrumental) - 4:11

Lyrical references

As is typical for the band, much of the album's lyrics are based on the history of England. Several songs include elements quoting relevant poems or other works, often in

Anglo Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons happened wit ...

. * "Havoc on Holy Island" describes the 793 raid on the island of Lindisfarne, and includes a passage from the

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alf ...

describing the incident. * "The Anvil" is based on, and includes lyrics directly from, a

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...

poem of the same name. While the original poem describes

William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...

as a unifying force "forging" England into a single nation, the song reverses this and portrays him as a tyrant reshaping England as he sees fit, at the expense of its people. * "By My Lord I Will Lie" describes the

Battle of Maldon The Battle of Maldon took place on 11 August 991 AD near Maldon beside the River Blackwater in Essex, England, during the reign of Æthelred the Unready. Earl Byrhtnoth and his thegns led the English against a Viking invasion. The battle ...

, and quotes from the Old English poem about the event. * "Awakened Hate" is closely based on the poem "

The Beginnings "The Beginnings" is a 1917 poem by the English writer Rudyard Kipling. The poem is about how the English people, although naturally peaceful, slowly become filled with a hate which will lead to the advent of a new epoch. The first four stanzas ha ...

". * "Painted with Blood" is based on The

Battle of the Teutoburg Forest The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, described as the Varian Disaster () by Ancient Rome, Roman historians, took place at modern Kalkriese in AD 9, when an alliance of Germanic peoples ambushed Roman legions and their auxiliaries, led by Publius ...

. * "Curse of the Cwelled" describes the Anglo-Saxon inhabitants of England chafing under William the Conqueror's rule. It includes lines from a 1066 entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. * "Rustics to Remain" is about the

Peasants' Revolt The Peasants' Revolt, also named Wat Tyler's Rebellion or the Great Rising, was a major uprising across large parts of England in 1381. The revolt had various causes, including the socio-economic and political tensions generated by the Black ...

* "Master of Fate" draws from J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium. It is about the tale of

Túrin Turambar Túrin Turambar (pronounced ) is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. "''Turambar and the Foalókë''", begun in 1917, is the first appearance of Túrin in the legendarium. Túrin was a Man of the First Age of Middle-earth, ...

; the title "Turambar" translates to "master of fate". * "The River-Maid's Farewell" is an adaptation of the 17th century

English Country Dance A country dance is any of a very large number of social dances of a type that originated in the British Isles; it is the repeated execution of a predefined sequence of figures, carefully designed to fit a fixed length of music, performed by a g ...

titled "Parson's Farewel".

References

{{Authority control 2015 albums Forefather albums