Exclusive to BraveWords, Cradle Of Filth keyboardist / backing vocalist Lindsay Schoolcraft has submitted a review of the new Leah album, Ancient Winter. Check it out below.

Lindsay: "If you don’t know by now who Leah is you clearly don’t spend enough time on Facebook to see that this woman is a master sorceress of getting the word out about her music. And rightfully so; her career hasn’t bloomed just because she knows her culture and genre and can run an ad like no one’s business. The other major factor is that the music speaks for itself, and it shows in her following of dedicated fans that are always waiting and wanting more. Five albums later she has always delivered fantastic melodic folk metal that has also been described as fantasy metal and Celtic. And this fifth album is a nice surprise that differentiates from the usual fantasy tales accompanied by the full heavy metal instrumentation. 

Ancient Winter is eight songs that stay true to Leah’s sound, but also dip into medieval elements and even Middle Eastern stylings. The metal band is nowhere to be found, but that doesn’t mean this album doesn’t hold its own, because it’s got its own unique flair about it. 'The Whole World Summons' is a strong opener that sets the whole theme with choirs and bells. Leah always has a way of painting imagery through her lyrics and she does not fail you with this track. The song gains momentum with traditional instruments and percussion, knowing when and where to take their turns. 'Light Of The World' takes us to the Middle East and really sets the mood in a sultry and mysterious way. Here you find a story of journey and sense of purpose, but also a calming comfort. 

'Upon Your Destiny' is surrounded by a very ethereal intro and outro, but once you get into the track you feel as if it’s a love song between two long distance partners. You really feel the emotion in this song and it really stops you and tugs at something inside you whether its your heart or soul. Redemption brings us right back to Leah’s Celtic folk sound, but through the harp, flute, choir, and traditional instruments it still holds that winter sound in an epic fantasy driven way. With the lyrics telling the tale of battle and self discovery, this song could fit into any fantasy film soundtrack seamlessly. After that we go into the atmospheric track, 'The Messenger', that is purely instrumental with Leah singing her own jargon of mysterious lyrics in it. It’s a nice transition from her original pieces into the next chapter of the album, which are covers of traditional medieval Christmas songs.

'Gaudete' is the perfect balance of the traditional song and Leah’s original sound blended together. Her approach on recreating this song is done gracefully and with confidence that has turned it into a full-blown epic. In 'Puer Natus', Leah still keeps the traditional medieval sound and structure, but again confidently flies through the melodies and vocal lines and allows the traditional instruments to guide the song. The album ends with 'Noel Nouvelet' which starts with a very chilling atmospheric intro. The song comes off as jolly, but still keeps something dark and mystery about it, especially with Leah’s own additions that stray away from the original melody line at the end of the song. As a native English speaker, her diction is so well pronounced that you would have guessed she has been speaking Latin and French most of her life. My hat goes off to her in this department. Being a long time trained singer myself, I know that this takes discipline and doesn’t always come easy when singing a language that isn’t your native tongue.

I am highly recommending this album to anyone who is absolutely burned out on regular Christmas music and needs a change, which I am sure is most of the world population at this point, who would rather eat Christmas dinner in silence than have to listen to Mariah Carey or Paul McCartney one more time. Upon first listen, I didn’t get any impression of the music being religious because I am so use to Leah’s epic tales of battle and defeat, Queens and Kings, triumph and chivalry. But upon inspecting the liner notes I do see that there is a lot of inspiration from her faith and it shines through as such a very heartfelt touch on this album. When the first snow fall hits your home town I highly recommend you check out this album because I think you will find it magical and be revisiting it for winters to come."

Guest Musicians on Ancient Winter: 
- Troy Donockley (Nightwish) on Uileann pipes, low and high whistles 
- Anna Murphy (Cellar Darling) on hurdy gurdy 
- Shir-Ran Yinon (Eluveitie, Epica, Haggard) on fiddle, violin, and viola 
- Rupert Gillett on cello and salaw 

Produced by Oliver Phillipps, mixed by Tom Müller
Artwork by Jan Yrlund (Apocalyptica, Korpiklaani, Battle Beast)