Of Roots and Flesh, by Northern Oak

Of Roots and Flesh

by Northern Oak

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fleba_il_fenicio Absolutely inspired album where fine folk music crosses the path of black metal, with the blessing of Jethro Tull. Each songs is full of personality and is miles away from lots of boring and copy-paste folk metal production promoted by mainstream labels. Artwork booklet, paper quality: each part of this work states the huge and passionate labor of love made by this band. Thank you, parrticularly to Chris for his immense help with the order. Favorite track: Marston Moor.

Ken Goodey Monuments is still an album I like, but Of Roots... is definitely a step-up. While Folk Metal is not the main style of metal that I listen to [Death & Black mostly], this isn’t just a collection of songs about medieval stuff, with added flute and violin for good measure: this is a well-crafted album on which the band has obviously worked hard to produce.
I hope they carry on doing this, because I would really like to be able to see them live when I'm much older and more grey than I am already! Favorite track: Gaia.

Adahn Surian A combination of folk metal and extreme/black metal that creates a fresh experience. This is their best work to date and I am looking forward to what they deliver in the future. Favorite track: Marston Moor.

Joecriv It's difficult to choose a favourite from this varied and expansive album. A great step up from Northern Oak's previous recordings in pretty much every way, this is a work of Enslaved-inspired yet refreshingly original and unique blackened folk metal that could well be one of my favourite albums of the year!

Timo Great record, you can feel the enthusiasm of the musicians. This band really deserves more attention.

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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
- The physical CD of the album, printed by Sound Performance Studios and beautifully packaged in a six-panel digipack case with stunning, panoramic artwork from Augustinas Našlėnas and a 16-page booklet containing lyrics and more artwork.

- Your download also includes a PDF version of the album booklet and an exclusive 'Of Roots and Flesh' desktop wallpaper.

Includes unlimited streaming of Of Roots and Flesh via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 3 days

£8 GBP or more
Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

As well as the songs, your download also includes a high-quality PDF of the album booklet containing all the lyrics and artwork and an exclusive 'Of Roots and Flesh' desktop wallpaper.

Purchasable with gift card

£6 GBP or more

1.	The Dark of Midsummer 08:48	lyrics	buy track
The Bard from ether wove the faerie court But inert archetypes they would remain. So to all earthly delights he did resort And stitched all mortal rapture to their frames. Yet longest nights would plague midsummer for Disputes of Titania and Oberon, Could raise contagious fog and gales that tore At trees and stifled souls they came upon. How soon the breath of man corrupts ideas With petty squabbles and our jealousies. So pale in our anger and bound by fear. You would think the gift of life a disease. How many shaking hands have warned, Our race is nought but gutter spawn? Yet that same Bard could scratch the quill to please And brought us Mab a maiden without peer. Drawn by a team of little atomies At night delivering dreams to our ears. Such guides we craft to spur us on, To go explore Lord Shaper's moonlight shore, Find purpose, reach beyond the grasp of dawn, [dare us] to name and mould a brave future. The breath of man can set the heart aflame With faith and valour, inspire and exhort To beauty, glory, sun and earth proclaim. Only fools would sell the gift of life short. If to warmth and love we are sworn, There is still hope for the unborn.
2.	Marston Moor 04:22	lyrics	buy track
How splendid are the spears? How golden our hauberk. Our watchword Liberty Our banner the sky. How purple [shall] our blood be? How glorious our scars. When the deaths upon them Smiling at the stars. Sir Rupert of the Rhine surveyed his Royalist force Awaiting battle at Marston Moor He thought that in the morn they'd take back The North When thunder cracked [and] our muskets roared. How splendid are the spears? How golden our hauberk. Our watchword Liberty Our banner the sky. How purple [shall] our blood be? How glorious our scars. When the deaths upon them Smiling at the stars. Our hearts and souls emblazoned With the hopes of all creation. We will bring our lands salvation As we seek to tear from his head The crown Keep fighting to End the divine right of kings No man of faith could leach the life from the countrymen in his care. End the divine right of kings This poison will be swept aside by roundhead soldiers borne on angels' wings. End the divine right of kings No man of faith could leach the life from the countrymen in his care. End the divine right of kings This poison will be swept aside by roundhead soldiers borne on angels' wings. Borne on angels' wings... Lyrics marked with * taken from "A Roundhead's Rallying Song" by Alfred Noyes
3.	Gaia 05:11	lyrics	buy track
Cognoscere anima Cognoscere anima Cognoscere anima. By the kiss of dawn I've let my shadow self eclipse the soul. Seen how my wings of creativity have been clipped by concrete. Sensing a truth we once all shared has been lost in society's mortar. If I let weariness Crack my carved persona, Splinter knots of my struggles, Seem so base yet so much more. Return to the primal Fierceness of life Inside each sapling Seeking to pierce the sky. By the kiss of dawn I've let my shadow self eclipse the soul. Seen how my wings of creativity have been clipped by concrete. Feeling the pulse of the earth, borrow energy, seethe with insects, Be the downpour and rage with the tempest and scream with the tide. I can fulminate volcano. Know that I burn with a flame I cannot name, That religion and science have wed in the name Gaia.
4.	Nerthus 05:12	lyrics	buy track
Turn away iron, anoint with amber, her wain is prepared. Hail sovereign goddess of life and death toward us she rides. She triggers the end, mistress of decay, the death that feeds life, Spurring on growth, calling forth crops, nourishing all. So they give her attendants, an offering of slaves, Said to be drowned once they have cleaned her ethereal form But no master left me here, this is volition. Hail sovereign goddess of life and death towards me she rides. Beyond the veil is that pure face. I forfeit my life for that pure face. Pure face. As I gaze, back at my past self, I feel the bile of my wasted time. See how my works crumbled around us. How I failed my duty to loved ones That no amount of self flagellation Will get these stains out of my skin. I will pledge this loathsome being To a higher power. Leave behind my shame and guilt, surrender to her beauty. They leave me with trembling hands to cleanse the sublime. This is honour, this is privilege, expunging my remnants of soul. With no sense of loss, I cross the boundaries of water. Hail sovereign goddess of life and death towards her I ride. Beyond the veil is that pure face. I forfeit my life for that pure face. Pure face. Nerthus use my form as you see fit.
5.	Isle of Mists 03:54	lyrics	buy track
(instrumental)
6.	Taken 07:00	lyrics	buy track
I am the rage you can never Understand 'cause you cannot see All the things that have been taken from You I am the weight of depression My essence seeping from me. These wounds that I bear to you Leave no mark on your solemn visage. I am the anger of futility. I am the pain of meeting your gaze And no longer finding love there I am the pain of meeting your gaze And being nothing to you. And yet I am the praise For the dawn that follows night May I learn to see life as Something other than what was taken.
7.	Requiescant In Pace 00:25	lyrics	buy track
Requiem aeternam Dona eis, domine. Et lux perpetua luceat eis. Requiescant in Pace. Amen.
8.	The Gallows Tree 04:35	lyrics	buy track
Come follow, whither shall I follow thee? Come follow, to the gallows tree. Terror must have gripped your heart When he promised you a lesson, Brought you where crows shriek and start, To the withered bough that bears me. Come follow, whither shall I follow thee? Come follow, to the gallows tree. He said, 'If you steal or murder, With villains you'll come to be. With no one to hold your legs down. No true love to set you free.' So the law claimed my end But what will leave you glassy eyed? Slain at a war in the King's name? Branded heretic by the Church? Worked to your death by a lord? You learn no justice as you stare, Only a fear of whose noose will snare. Come follow, whither shall I follow thee? Come follow, to the gallows tree.
9.	Bloom 05:03	lyrics	buy track
Leave the darkness Nurse those seeds of pain, Planted in your wounds See potential Like Pines growing From the graves. Bloom like Day's Eye Be ruthless as Ivy No drought can stop your growth. Don't be caught in your own realm like Narcissus Oblivious to the words of love that haunt you. Feel the violet of Dead Men's Fingers and Witches Bells. Pick not Soldier's Buttons or feel their thunder. Your elements will only be bound in your form this once, Stand as proud as the knight never to be forgotten. Wear by your heart the fabled hero's charm Hypericum, Keep your mind as keen as Blackthorn, make Holly spines your armour. Unfurl. Let the limitless energy of life work through you. Leave the darkness The season is ripe, Rise to the light.
10.	Of Roots and Flesh 04:56	lyrics	buy track
You think because you name them, You master these wilds But language and labels Hold no sway. They've no heritage. Don't breed anguish with politics. Lands are not possessions or chains. All beings must feel their freedom Under the boundless grace of sky. You never begrudged The myriad frames Of Nature. So why does the slightest Difference In your fellow man Gall you so. Punish not for creed or culture, This earth need not bleed out sorrow. Don't breed anguish with politics. Lands are not possessions or chains. All beings must feel their freedom Under the boundless grace of sky. Our forms were born from stars So drop your hatred See how bright life blazes.
11.	Only Our Names Will Remain 06:49	lyrics	buy track
Oh victorious soldiers, We are not jubilation But dolour on parade. I know why we do not song; Wounds are our only medals, Nightmares our 'shining moments'. We fought for flags and borders Not the warmth of emotion. Braying and flailing like beasts. Metal clashing like locked horns. You can't revel in the blade When you see the fear in their eyes. What use is glory when Only our names will remain? We fought for flags and borders Not the warmth of emotion. Braying and flailing like beasts. Metal clashing like locked horns. You can't revel in the blade When you see the fear in their eyes. What use is glory when Only our names will remain? Like the change of a season Frost sets in the bones. Another crop of flesh Lost to the unspeakable. Nought cheaper than lifesblood Drunk by the thirsty earth. Nought more meaningless Than a war born corpse. Statues they erect in memory, Eroded by the elements, Becoming soulless wraiths Or do they serve as mirror For what dies inside us? Hearts left by the graves of children. As we starve, What use glory? Only our names will remain...
12.	Outro 01:35	lyrics	buy track
Unable to wake from the mists, we look From haggard eye to haggard eye to see How the lie of divine right dragged us down. How our wings were clipped by concrete, So Mab could no longer ferry us to dream. For we know the Poet was right when he promised there was time For a hundred visions and revisions, for a hundred indecisions, And yet said time will not stop Until we join a bitter union of roots and flesh. For all things decay. For all things end. But if we allow the shattered pane of truth To drown us in defeat, until only our names will remain, Then we will never know what it is to rise. Never remember that we were always pure. That our struggles shine brighter than the glorious weave of starfire.

about

Of Roots and Flesh is the third full-length album from Sheffield's finest purveyors of folk metal and fine attire, Northern Oak. The follow-up to 2010's Monuments, Of Roots and Flesh is their most accomplished release to date, with more complex song writing, more philosophical and introspective lyrics revolving around the nature of struggle and the addition of new instruments such as violins and melodeon.

This album was funded through a successful Kickstarter campaign run in November 2013, which raised the necessary funds for the band to record at Skyhammer Studios with renowned metal producer Chris Fielding (Primordial, Electric Wizard, Winterfylleth).

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"This is an album born of struggle. It is the desire to take ownership of our past, not turn a blind eye. It is allowing those deeper emotions the space to be open and raw like wounds, so that they can heal and grow into something stronger. It is a meditation on those painful dichotomies, of craving technological advance and longing for nature's embrace- the material against the spiritual.

So thank you for continuing your own struggles and allowing our paths to cross. No matter how difficult it might feel, keep striving for the light because none of your actions have ever been in vain. They have brought you to this moment, reading these words, and they will guide you on to the incredible things you were always destined to do. No act of kindness or creativity can ever be too small. Never forget that there will always be people who are grateful that you live and breathe in this world.

Thank you for joining us on this journey. Let us cut a blazing arc across the night skies together."

credits

released October 4, 2014

All music and lyrics copyright Northern Oak.

Additional vocals on "Requiescant in Pace" by Messrs Adam Page, Tommy Rushton and Jim Waterman.

Recorded, produced, mixed and mastered by Chris Fielding at Skyhammer Studios.

Album artwork and layout by Augustinas Naslenas (vandenisdi.blogspot.co.uk).

Additional thanks to all of our Kickstarter backers for making this album possible. A full list is preserved at www.northernoak.co.uk/kickstarter-dedications/

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about

Northern Oak Sheffield, UK

Founded in early 2006 during a wintry excursion to the Peak District, Northern Oak have been spreading their unique brand of flute-heavy progressive folk metal across Sheffield and the rest of the UK ever since.

Our music sounds like Jethro Tull played by extreme metal fans with an appreciation for everything from Pink Floyd to Emperor. ... more

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