A few short weeks ago, I reviewed Prelude to Farewell from French pagan folk artist, Le Garçon de l’Automne. You can read this by pressing on the button link below.

Now, from England, we have Armchair Gods, a “zen rock” instrumental duo Paul Kearns and Steve Peckover. Recently, I played a track on my Saturday afternoon Progzilla Radio show, and now I can present a review of the entire EP, with four tracks, a pagan celebration and simply a joy to listen to.

We open with Mabon, or the Autumn Equinox. The duo provides all the instruments, and they are talented multi-instrumentalists. There is a glorious expansive feel to this opener, great guitar licks, a throbbing rhythm section, and rich soundscapes created by the synths in a piece which combines nicely the seasonal feel of autumn (dark and wet where I live) and the celebrational aspect of the equinox itself. A very pleasing slab of folk rock at the heavier end of the spectrum.

Beltane follows. This is the May Day festival, marking the beginning of summer. A shorter piece, just short of three minutes, the acoustic guitar introduces a track which perfectly describes to me that sense of anticipation for calmer weather and the promise of nature’s bounty following the long, dark winter. Again, very strong are the soundscapes created by the synths, and there is a particularly strong bass melody on this. The guitar solo soars very nicely in the final minute.

Ostara, the Spring Equinox, itself named after the goddess Eostre. The sense of drama is immediate, a military feel to the percussion and synths set against a lighter, and very pretty, piano and wind. The song I think rather brilliantly captures that call to arms of old, the planting of seeds, and evocations to the goddess to make the soil fertile.

We close with the track I recently played, and there is a video for this embedded below. Samhain, or as we call it now, Halloween. Give me this wonder over the ghastly corporate jamboree children are exposed to now any time. Darker, ponderous, brilliantly celebrating the harvest with its expansive feel, but also looking forward with some trepidation to the darker half of the year, the choral voices and crashing symbols personifying this very well. There is some magnificent guitar work, together with some creative symphonic synths and effects which can be disturbing in parts, all underpinned by a solid rhythm section.

Ritual is a wonderful set of songs, and I, for one, cannot wait to hear more in the future. You can get a copy at https://armchairgods.bandcamp.com/album/ritual