Ireland's Geasa (means a curse, a prohibition, an oath etc.) started as a black metal influenced extreme metal band back in 1996. The debut demo from same year, 'Starside', is included here re-mastered. The demo is more black metal, but with a definite Irish spirit. A nice extra, but I'm not counting it to the score.

'Fate's Lost Son' itself consists of five uniquely Irish sounding metal songs. Without effort, the band succeed in illustrating large spectrum of human emotions in their music, from aggressiveness to yearning, from melancholy to pride. The basis of the music embodies heavy metal, black metal (but only music-wise) and doom metal. Melancholic atmosphere is lifted by e.g. acoustic guitar and sound of sea. Primordial (also the band where drummer Simon O'Leary plays) are Geasa's fellow band, but still these two ensembles are distinctive forces on their own. 'Seas' is a magical, catchy journey to the spirit of Eire. 'Heavenfall' is rawer piece of doom/death metal. 'Divine Reality' starts atmospherically and builds into angry vortex. 'Eire' is a doomy melancholic song, reminding heavily of Primordial. 'Crawl (Into the Sun)' embraces the spirit of old Paradise Lost (kind of 'Shades of God' era [1992]). Vocals are varying. Clean singing is in vein of Primordial's A.A. Nemtheanga. Not very skilled, but filled with passion. There's also hoarse bellowing and black metal style throat laceration.

'Fate's Lost Son' sits perfectly next to Primordial discography, so if you have that other Irish band's platters, be sure to check this one out! And if you like Irish music, you should check Geasa out all the same. Geasa are not a band to be overlooked.

Rating: 7 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
04/02/2006 12:36