Artist: Galghe
Country: Belgium/The Netherlands
Label: Zwaertgevegt
Format: Cassette EP
Year: 2025
Less than two months after the release of debut ‘Bloed Eed’ have passed, but Galghe has already struck again. Their EP ‘Stiers Wreedheid en Andere Nare Vertellingen’ is ready to delve further into the identity of the band and the stories they intend to bring. And while on the first demo the tales behind the tracks were left to the imagination, this new release unfolds more of the darkness contained within these recitations.
Musically the four tracks on this new release are more uniform in length than on ‘Bloed Eed’, each clocking in around five minutes. While the songs on that first recording had that Pagan and epic Black metal in common with a hypnotizing repetitiveness, the tracks on ‘Stiers Wreedheid en andere Nare Vertellingen’ seem to have slightly more individual identities. And so, perhaps, it is best to associate and relate this to the tales they intend to tell as ‘Stiers Wreedheid en Andere Nare Vertellingen’ aims to bring folk stories from the lowlands back to life.
‘Stiers Wreedheid’ is a terrible tale of a bull turned into a rage by playing kids. In its path, the bull took down a farmer and his pregnant wife. Torn open, the child was ripped from his mother’s womb. Miraculously, only the child survived, prophesized to bring good to the land. It did no such thing. The song itself is more Folky in its intro, with acoustic guitar, keyboards and clean singing, but otherwise sharp in riffs and tone and chopping and fast in the drums. ‘Blauwe Gerrit’ then is a more epic sounding track, dark and brooding with a melody at the center of the composition. Its story is of a fictive creature from sages, an invisible entity that jumps on the shoulders of strangers at abandoned places in the Veluwe region, to heavy their burden and tire them out. Another ghost tale is that of ‘Het Goddeloze Tolhuis’. Once a toll house, now with a forest ranger house in its place, numerous ghost stories about the toll house and its vicinity have arisen since the 18th century. The song itself is more melody driven once again, but this time with a fair bit of Heavy and Power Metal hidden underneath the Black Metal jacket, making it a more epic and thrusting track. That thrusting drum pace is combined with a more brooding and melancholic atmosphere in ‘De Roggemoeder’, a story told of a ghost that lived in fields of rye and grain. It served as a warning for kids not to enter these fields. When you look at a field of rye, you will see some stalks move in an unexpected manner. Is it the wind, or is it the rye mother?
I thought ‘Bloed Eed’ was an enjoyable release with long-spun epic tracks and a Pagan atmosphere. ‘Stiers Wreedheid en andere Nare Vertellingen’ takes that a step further to a more varied musical concept with more unified lyrical approach. And with it, the vision of Galghe to be a collective in a vessel in which loss, impermanence, historical reflection and human tragedy take center stage, becomes clearer. Fascinating band, I’m curious what other tales the band has to tell!
