Although not quite as bad as it is in the case of their Scottish brethren across the North Channel, Mael Mórdha suffer from the Alestorm syndrome: The music is great, the ideas are fine, the mood is set...but the whole thing is marred by a voice that fails to do justice to the rest.

Anthony Lindsay's voice can at best be described as strained and forced when he uses his clean vocal - which he happens to do for the most part. And I can see how he should be using the clean vocal a lot for this folk laden doom/death metal, but I find my self desperately wanting to hear this with a really good voice and not something that to a frightening degree sounds like myself when I try to sing.

For all it's worth, it's really cool to hear bits of Gaelic in metal - it really creates a mood. Mael Mórdha, why not explore it even more and have lyrics in Gaelic (translation attached, please), bring in another singer to do the clean vocal parts and create more tunes like the fabulous The Doom of the Races of Éire?

Sláinte to that.