I’ve been following the folk in Alunah for a few years now. In 2015, I ended up interviewing them three times and managed to see them live quite a few times as well. Whilst I don’t normally listen to this sort of music, there’s always been something about their music which makes it that bit different to their peers. So, let’s see if that theme continues with their latest effort, Solennial.

Right off the bat, it’s a bit different to normal with an almost haunting sounding clean guitar-driven song. Vocalist Sophie Day’s vocals cut through perfectly and add that little cherry on top to the spooky cake. The typical heavily distorted guitars then slam down into the groove laden track that is “Light of Winter”. Having a mid-paced feel to it, it’s hard to not to nod along to the song’s catchy rhythms held down by both Sophie and David Day (guitar).

“Feast of Torches”, reintroduces the clean sounding guitars to begin with before, once again, the noise comes in with drummer Jake adding a good bit of drive to the song. Featuring somewhat of a joint-vocal chorus, it keeps things interesting amidst the groove and riffing. Coming in like a tonne of bricks, “The Reckoning of Time” falls away almost as instantly as it came in. There is a little too much sibilance on the vocals for my liking however. Whether that’s due to the effect on the vocals or the dynamic processing, is very hard to determine. Ending with a joint guitar harmony, the track slowly fades away into the lulls of time and space.

Retaining the groove and adding in some harmonies in the choruses, “Fire of Thornborough Henge” keeps the same tried and tested formula of the other songs but adds little bits here and there to keep things from getting samey. “Petrichor” once again brings the clean guitars back along with what sounds like a cello adding the under melody before the rest of the instruments come in to take over the groove. Having the cello adding a small under-melody adds just that bit extra to the track and makes it one of my personal favourites on the album.

“Lugh’s Assembly” opens with a joint guitar harmony before once again slamming down into the sweet nectar of the main groove. Of particular note, Daniel Burchmore’s bass playing on this track sounds particularly good and sits just right in the mix. Ending proceedings, “A Forest” is actually a cover song. The band have played it when I’ve seen them in the past but have never actually released a recording of their own. Their unique take on it ends the album beautifully and builds open the original in a manner I’ve not heard before.
I’ll openly admit that this sort of music is a bit outside of what I normally listen to. Normally, you’d find me listening to something like Aborted or Persefone or something much more high speed and aggressive. With this album however, it fits perfectly with the jazz-phase that I’ve been going through recently.

Solennial can be considered a step-up from their previous album and is, arguably, one of the most complete albums I’ve heard in a while. Each track expertly flows into the next and like Persefone’s latest, you can’t really jump in at any one point. If I was a vinyl collector, this album would find a warm and welcome place amongst the collection.

Rating: 8/10
Standout tracks: “Feast of Torches”, “Petrichor”, “A Forest”

https://www.moshville.co.uk/reviews/album-review/2017/03/review-alunah-solennial/

Before their set at the festival, I was able to catch up with a friend of mine whom I’ve now interviewed three times in the past 8 months! We chatted about the upcoming album, Dave’s (guitarist) gear issues and any bands he was looking forward to watching.

Thanks to Andy at Napalm for organising and as ever, Dan for his time. Was a pleasure to interview you again.

MT: You’re playing the Sophie Lancaster stage later on today, are you excited for it?

Dan: Very excited and a little nervous. I think we were just discussing before that this interview is taking my mind of it a little bit. But no, we’re very excited to be playing.

MT: Last time we spoke, you mentioned that you were working on the new album. How’s it going?

Dan: It’s going really well. We’ve got about 2 songs that are structured but aren’t finished, as they’ll probably change. We’re really relaxed when we’re doing it and coming with some good ideas.

MT: Is the production going to be any different to the previous album?

Dan: Possibly. We’ve got some different ideas of how we want to record it and we’re coming up with loads of ideas and concepts as to how we want to do it. That’s a bit different to the last and we’re thinking of ways we can tie the songs together.

MT: I think we spoke about this yesterday but Dave’s been breaking amps again from what I’ve heard.

Dan: Oh yeah, we’ve had a bit of a nightmare on amps and poor Dave’s been cursed. He’s gone through a couple of amps and he’s now back with his original one, which is sounding really good. We’re hoping he’s got rid of the curse now.

MT: Has your gear changed since we last spoke?

Dan: Nope still using the same gear. I am looking to upgrade a bit however. As we’re writing, we start thinking about what sort of sound we want and that has an effect on our set list as well. Our equipment’s changed a lot since I’ve been in the band. I’ve been in for 2 years and we’re always looking at different amps and gear.

MT: After you’ve played, are there any bands you’re looking forward to watching?

Dan: We want to see Black Label society and we want to watch Rob Zombie as well. That’s all I can think of off the top of my head. *Looks at band list* Oh and maybe Cannibal corpse as well. Unfortunately we can’t go and see Orange Goblin as they are on just before us.

MT: Thank you for your time!

http://www.moshville.co.uk/interview/2015/08/bloodstock-2015-interview-dan-of-alunah/

It’s not often that I’ll travel to a gig outside of Glasgow. That’s mainly due to there being so many good ones in Glasgow that I’m spoilt for choice. So you may be wondering why I travelled to Edinburgh for this gig. The answer is simple. I wanted to see Alunah again after having really enjoyed their Glasgow gig. Before the gig like last time, I had the chance to chat to Sophie and Dan from Alunah. That will be up within the next few days.

Onto the headliners, Alunah. Having seen them before like Isak, I kind of knew what I was expecting. Heavy grooving riffs, heavily distorted guitars and bass and a flowing melodic vocal line. Having a set composed of songs from across all three albums along with a brand new one proved for an enjoyable set and watch. Like last time, Sophie thanked everyone for coming to listen and dedicated a few songs to some members of the audience and one to BB King and Terry Jones. It’s safe to say that they enjoyed themselves as did the crowd, with several people headbanging along and really getting into the music. That might have been due to having a few many beers, but we’ll say that it was the awesome music.

In short, the night was a bit different to what I’d normally be at. That didn’t stop me from enjoying it and all the bands from delivering good performances with a good stage sound. If you’ve never heard of any of these bands before, like last time I advise you check them out. I wouldn’t be surprised if you see any of them at a festival in the future. Particularly Alunah, but I’ll leave that to the band to announce.

http://www.moshville.co.uk/gig-review/2015/05/alunah-isak-solar-suns-bannermans-edinburgh-160515/

Before Alunah’s first ever Scottish gig, James from Moshville Times spoke to Sophie and Dan backstage at Audio: http://www.moshville.co.uk/interview/2015/02/interview-sophie-and-dan-of-alunah-jan-31st-2015/

"Onto the headliners, Alunah. Having spoken with Sophie and Dan earlier they classified their music as “Heavy melodic with doom elements” or “Sexy Doom” (Sorry guys I had to put it in, it was too funny not to). Opening with a country style track, the band got straight into their element. Having a sound made up of a thick wall of guitars, with the bass grooving and the drums keeping everything together, it was hard not to nod or headbang along to their music. Playing a mix of songs from their third and second albums along with a song from their first, the band made the most of their one hour set with only brief moments of not playing which involved Sophie thanking everyone for being there or introducing the next song. They were clearly enjoying themselves and delivered an awesome set. In short, the night was a bit different to what I’d normally be at. That didn’t stop me from enjoying it and all the bands from delivering good performances with a good stage sound. If you’ve never heard of any of these bands before, I advise you check them out. I wouldn’t be surprised if you see any of them at a festival in the future."

http://www.moshville.co.uk/gig-review/2015/02/alunah-buried-sleeper-isak-pyre-of-the-earth-audio-glasgow-jan-31st-2015/

With their third album, Awakening The Forest out at the start of October and a European tour recently drawn to a close, Soph – lead singer and guitarist of Alunah – kindly took some time out to answer a few questions for us.

Alunah are on the cusp of re-releasing their first two albums (as Soph does mention towards the end of the interview) and you can get more details about that on the band’s own web site.

Many thanks to Andy at Napalm for organising things, and obviously to Soph herself for her time.

Three albums in and still a “new” band, only formed in 2006. Tell us a little about where you all came from to find yourselves working together as Alunah.

Yeah I suppose we are still quite new compared to some bands. Dave and I have known each other for years and we used to write and play music together. His old band were playing a gig in Birmingham, and we met our drummer Jake at the gig. We had seen Jake and his girlfriend Liv at various gigs, and were always there supporting Dave’s band. I drunkenly went over to them for a chat and we ended up arranging a jam session for Dave and Jake. I went along to watch and ended up singing.

The usual label the band is given is “stoner” metal, but you yourselves prefer to be less specific – psych, traditional metal, doom… what sort of influences have you had which have led to this mixture of sounds?

We listen to a wide range of music, and I don’t personally confine myself to being a fan of any particular genre. I’m personally influenced by anyone from The Doors, Big Brother and The Holding Company, BB King and Led Zeppelin to Ahab, Jex Thoth, Rose Kemp and Hexvessel.

Whatever pigeonhole you put the band in, female vocals in any of these genres are not as common as in others (symphonic in particular). Does having yourself as lead singer influence the way the music is written at all?

I write all of the vocal melodies, can cover between 3 and 4 octaves, and can hit both really high and really low notes. So I don’t feel that changes have to be made in order to accommodate my vocals; the riffs come first anyway, so I actually write the vocal melodies around the riffs.

Your track lengths are, on average, a little longer than the traditional average. Do you set out to write longer songs or do they just suit the mood and pace of each piece?

Both really, long songs do suit the nature of our music but we also like long songs. It sounds a bit wanky, but I think of each song as a journey, we want people to close their eyes and get lost in it. Our song writing is quite considered, and we always think about the structure of a song, rather than freely jamming it out. Of course, we¹ll jam things out occasionally, but we always like to have an idea of where it’s going. Sometimes we’ll have a song that comes in at 4 minutes, and we may feel that’s too short, so we’ll think about the structure some more and add new sections. We spend months writing one song, and most of our tracks have been re-written 2 or 3 times due to us being our own worst critics. It¹s great having a 16 track album, but the danger is that half of those tracks will be fillers and people will get bored.

Do you find it more challenging to learn these longer songs for live performances?

Not really, we practice a lot and we never go a week without having at least one big practice, regardless of whether we have a gig or not. I’m actually better at learning the longer songs, as I can break them down better in my mind.

How much of the lyrical themes come from your own personal interests? Are you guys particularly into the mythical scene outside of Alunah?

I write all of the lyrics, so anything I sing about is as a result of my own personal interest in it. Nature has always been my biggest inspiration, but I also sing about English pagan history and folk stories on the new album. In the past I have sung about paganism and Wicca in general, as well as general myth and magic. It all interests me, but I have written more of a personal album this time due to me losing three close members of my family whilst writing it.

Three albums in five years – how do you feel your sound has evolved since Call of Avernus?

I still love Call of Avernus as it achieved a personal goal for me, to release an album; I never thought I’d have released three. However, there’s no denying that our sound has evolved since then. We have each improved our playing and singing styles, we think more about the equipment we use and the quality of our production. We also have a different bass player on this album, and he has bought a completely different bass sound and style to Alunah. A combination of all this has changed our sound considerably.

You’ve shared the stage with some very well-known names in recent years. Could you pick a favourite? Or one which made you stand there and think “I cannot believe we’re here…”?

We’ve played with and been humbled by some great bands such as Trouble, Paradise Lost, High on Fire, Saint Vitus, Fu Manchu and Spirit Caravan, and all of them were lovely people. However, bands such as Jex Thoth and Mars Red Sky, who may not be as well known as those guys, were some of the nicest bands we’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting and playing with. I think our gig at DesertFest Berlin 2013 was a “I cannot believe we’re here…” moment, it was our first time in Germany, second ever gig outside of England, we had a huge crowd who knew all of the words to White Hoarhound, and I kept thinking about the 2006 Sophie whose only ambition was to release an album.

Your live reviews are very positive. How would you describe your show?

It’s pretty basic really, no bells and whistles, we just get up there and aim to put on the best gig we can for people. No gimmicks, it’s just about the music.

With the album just out, what are your plans? You’ve just had a quick jaunt around Europe and I spot the one date confirmed for early next year. Anything else you want to leak?

Yeah, we’ve just spent two weeks in Europe, and came back to some great gig offers which have now been confirmed. One of which is an overseas festival, however we can’t announce what it is yet. Our plan for next year is more touring, a re-release of our previous two albums on PRC Music, and writing for our fourth album.

http://www.moshville.co.uk/interview/2014/10/interview-alunahs-sophie-day/