COMUS

All songs on the album deals with horror-like themes of evil and unworldly doings. I will not go into describing the tracks inmuch detail, only expressing my view that the best tracks being "The herald", "Drip drip" and "Song to Comus". They are really exciting pieces of music. The other track are very good indeed but these three are, IMO, the best.

The music could be categorised as acoustic, Hammer Horror folk with a truly twisted edge. There is nothing normal about this folk outfit, nor anything like it. When speaking of unique Comus really do possess that. Other bands may have tried but I feel no other band really came or comes close to sounding like this, so loose and demented it seems natural. Like the soundtrack to your worst niughtmare the music still possesses incredible beauty and goes beyod sheer novelty. The musicianship is very accomplished and at times brilliant. Female and male vocals fly in and out of the mist of twisted imagination, creating a tapestry of sound and images seldom or ever copied to the same degree of brilliance. A classic in it's own right and something that must be heard to be believed.

Comus. Who were they? Who are they? Musical geniuses? Demented occultists? I suppose the truth lies inbetween. There is no question in my mind that Comus are brilliant in a weird, scary, demented way. In the garment of british folk they rear their ugly head and behold, there is light in the darkness and I am willing to follow this askewed light wherever they go.

I often find myself categorising Comus as Hammer Horror folk. If you've ever seen one of Hammer's productions I think you know what I mean. There is quite a resemblance between these two. Listening to Comus I see before me misty, british meadows, gently stroked by the morning sun but behold, in the far lurks the creatures of the dark. The people who dwell in the dark side of existance. Purple garments. Horned helmets. Crooked daggers and incantations. Blood and gore.

"Out of the coma" is an aptly named title for an album so long in the waiting and starts off with the powerful title track. Great instrumentation and vocals from the depths of humankind. "The sacrifice" and "The return" are equally impressing, though the latter is very beautiful and gives somewhat of relief to the other tracks horror-like soundscapes.

I suppose that the prize is really "The Malgaard suite". Shrouded in mystery and coming out of the past like a ghost it is great to hear. If I had been there in 1972 I probably would have found myself blown away, since it is a performance of great power. Coming off a cassette gathering dust for 40 years the audio is less than crisp. On the other hand the sound is amazing, considering, and gives a really good idea of what it must have been like witnessing Comus perform live. Don't get yourself worked up about the audio quality. It is amazing considering it's age, like I wrote, and is truly an amazing experience. It is nigh on impossible to decipher something or anything of the lyrics but in some sort of way it only adds to the experience. A rare moment in time, thought to have been lost for eternity, rises through the ashes and presents us with something truly unique. I am not saying that "The Malgaard Suite" is the best song by Comus, simply that it is a raging piece of music so historically important and rare it transcends imagination. Glorious, really. Maybe Comus will get around to record it in the studio alongside part 2 and that would be truly awesome.

The Comus trademarks, beauty and horror in perfect folk harmony, are all very evident on "Out of the coma" and is all you could wish for (and more) from a band who left such a legacy 40 years ago and then lying dormant in obscurity, a secret known only to the initiated. This is truly an amazing feat and this morning I've listened to it for several hours, discovering more and more of the secrets on the album. The folk that Comus presents is one where the boundaries of the genre are stretched to the limits and maybe even beyond the pale, into the wild. I cannot stop listening to "Out of the coma", it's just too enjoyable and I fear I could go on forever ranting about it's brilliance. Comus may not be the easiest of bands to listen to but the reward is so much greater.

I am reluctant giving the album five stars but then again it is a magnificent record, in some ways surpassing First utterance. How weird is that? But hey, "weird" is the trademark of Comus anyway. One of the key ingredients that make the album so great is that the vibrant, youthful inspiration of 1971 has matured into the elderly grace and knowledge of life and the ugly side of being. That makes Out of the coma so worthy an album it is rare in the true sense of the word. Ah, why not? It is a flawless album. Here's to Comus á la 2012, you are worthy of the five star rating. Here you go.

When you have music that doesn't need electricity, all these instrumentalists who have been summoned to the studio have the ability to play in the same manner anywhere else, such as the dark forest. These people could be occult practicing psychos who play music in caves instead of rehearsal studios. Anything is possible with folk and this notion is what makes the atmosphere more effective and sets it apart from black metal and various other 'evil' bands.

Anyway, back to the actual review. First Utterance is an underground prog folk gem, and since brutal lyrical themes aren't everyone's cup of tea it's the sort of thing with a cult following. Notably, it's almost 50 minutes long which is impressive for a debut album at the time.

'Diana' is the perfect introduction to the album and sets the dark, quirky, 'foresty' atmosphere with aid from what is seemingly goblins worshiping their pagan god, and creepy slide guitars. This is my personal favourite of the album and I especially love the melodic hook of the violin in the chorus. In fact the violent sounding violin throughout the album is exceptional. Hand drums give the occult feel, and to further signify creepiness, the goblins have a sweet fragile-sounding girl singing with them. Haunting!

Next up is a change. 'The Herald' is a creepy and softer song broken into three parts. The girl's vocals come to fore in the first and last parts with a gentle flute alongside, and the middle section is filled with virtuosity in the form of acoustic finger picking. Unlike the other songs, this one is a showcase of beauty - a contrast from the others, displaying that evil has the power to be seductive and lure you in to a seemingly serene world. But it gets graphic from here on.

'Drip Drip from your sagging lip. Liquid red down your body spread.' 'Your body at peace even the earth will fill the crack where entered my blade.' I think we can assume what this one's about. The confrontational yet somewhat subtle lyrics are clever. This song has most of the instrumental elements from Diana, such as the hand drums, slide guitars, violent violins, but this time it's less quirky and fittingly a lot more aggressive. The chorus is very catchy also. Included in the song is a section where the cave dwellers seem to be partying.

'Song to Comus' is similar to the last song; it has rape, aggression, creepy vocals, etc. I don't think much else needs to be said. To be honest this is my least favourite song as it doesn't offer much new and repeats itself a little. But it's still great song nonetheless.

Next up let's hang some Christians in 'The Bite'. It's a more straightforward track with a set rhythm and sounds a little reminiscent of Jethro Tull with it's 'rockier' flute. It also has more of a sense of drama.

'Bitten' isn't really a 'song' but more a short atmospheric experimentation. A nice interlude.

Like the subject matter of 'The Prisoner' this song is structurally kind of schizophrenic, with humbler passages among the more dramatic. In spots it sounds a lot more happy and positive compared to the rest, but it's about mental illness so it's still Comus like we have come to know them. The song ends the album in a crazy, abrupt, disorientating, and therefore fitting manner. Insane!

What's great about this album is it challenges the listeners by disturbing them. We all get a kick out of violence in movies and games, and we love to be scared and shocked from horror films. So I don't see a problem with getting a kick out of disturbing music. Although I'm pretty sure most people would think you're pretty weird for it.

Anyway this is one of those 'love it or hate it' albums, and I am a proud lover. You have to be in the right mood or place when listening to it though. 4.5 stars for this unique folk experience. Thanks to the internet and people like Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth who publicize their fandom, more and more people can discover things like First Utterance.

Apparently, in 1974, after two years of hiatus they had, there have been some big changes in the band. Keyboards and drums came in. The sound and the feeling is in a very different place than their first album. That's why it's hard to get into. It sounds like a folk rock album with Comus essence here and there. It's like "First Utterance" and The Beatles had some passionate love and "To Keep From Crying" is their bastard child. But not every bastard has a miserable life. I sat down and listened to the bastard. He told me what he had to say. He pured himself down for hours. And I really enjoyed the journey of the bastard. The bastard has spoken to me and he has spoken good. God, just, finish the paragraph already!

I've spined the album for like five times and I thought it was a good album. After a month of other awesome music, I came back to this. The reason I'm writing this review is that I loved every second of this album and I think it deserves much more attention than it got. It's normal that at first a listener would think Comus has lost some very important qualities they had when they recorded "First Utterance". But if you listen to "To Keep From Crying" close enough, you'll understand that they still had those wonderful qualities, but they built new qualities onto that. It's hidden in the melodies. Of course it's not the second "First Utterance" but it really has this wonderful unique personality that is very hard to hear at the first impression. It has so much to say, yet I don't hear any Comus fans listening to it so much. And I thought, what the hell, maybe I'll make a person or two enjoy this album. Give it time, there's a good chance that he'll give you so much.

The new album of Comus is a come back to their true style. And I believe most of the people just miss the chance of even meeting this bastard we have here. I'm here to say "I think you should meet him".

The show opened on the absolutely enthralling Song For Comus, setting an infernal and manic pace and sets afire the fairly young audience. The ensuing Diana (from their very rare three-track EP of the same name) is also fairly manic, but doesn't escalate the tension. The rather calmer 12-mins Herald opens on a slide or glissando bass (you'd swear this is Pearson's violin playing, though) before Bobbie's angelic voice takes you soaring through the stratosphere, before Goring's stupendous guitar solo takes the sunlight, dropping it momentarily for Pearson's violin and Seagrott's flute interventions. The gory Drip Drip is obviously one of the most-awaited tracks by the audience, as if Wootton's near-evil lyrics was the main attraction, especially when he proposes to cut us up very gently. The FU closing track The Prisoner again sees Hellaby's glissando bass opens the hostilities and let the band loose. The band closes their set with an unusual cover of Lou Reed's Venus In Fur, then repeat their anthemic and eponymous Song For Comus as an encore, much to the audience's joy, despite a rather short set.

The amazing thing is that the band prepared for this sufficiently well for the gig that their playing is flawless and you don't even remark the band is in their early 60's. The DVD comes with an extensive rockumentary about the reunion preparations and rehearsals (including some Opeth Ackerfeld involvement), and it's exactly the kind of ideal bonus you'd expect (although Colosseum's Reunion Rockumentary remains a reference to me) for this type of DVD. Definitely worth the investment, if you're anything serious of a Comus freak.

This visceral, bodily effect is very present in 'Out of the Coma' - not only due to the heavy breathing and aggressive, roaring vocals, but also the tortured wailing of the instruments. Classic Comus. It's equally present in the very vulnerably feminine "The Sacrifice" - eerie harmonies combined with beatiful flute feel on a primal level like the panic of being aware of what a young girl you are as you walk home at two in the morning. Failing to empathise with the fear of the subject and the conciousness of her own weakness is impossible. This track is emotionally as tense as an instrument string, intricate and lightly beautiful. Not one to listen to in a vulnerable mood, although also my favourite track.

"The Return" is a welcome break from the distressing clamour of the first two tracks. Sweet and flowing, it does posess some of the smiling fearfulness of the previous track, but leans more towards melancholy than panic and insanity. The pagan fluting and wailing is broken up by some pleasantly deeper instruments and softer singing, which adds welcome balance. Still there's a sense of tainted beauty that makes this track, in proper Comus style, deeply affecting.

"The Maalgard Suite", explained in the previous track to be the basis of Comus's lost second album, is of poor audio quality due to the age of the cassette it was taken from. This does detract from the track, but not nearly as much as one might expect it to. The nature of Comus's music does much to salvage it from poor recording conditions. Detailing the story of a "beautiful maiden captured by a warlock ogre". The vocals are difficult to make out, but the aggressive crooning of the male vocals and high, lilting, almost screaming female vocals make it reminiscent, in my opinion, of both "The Sacrifice" and "Drip Drip". All the disconcerting harmonies and disturbing instrumentation we've come to expect from Comus are there. Also there from around the nine-minute mark is the strange, inexplicably but definitely "of the forest" beauty they manage to bring to every song, taken over again soon after by male-voiced aggression and panic-inducing instruments and vocals. Rawly, painfully stimulating.

This is an album and band i'd really like to write more about, but the distressing nature of this band's music mean it's not something I can listen to too many times in a row, despite the genuine feeling they inspire being also their main draw. It's that level of genuine response - so genuine it can't be suppressed - that leads me to give it five stars. This is a band that was never popular not because their music is bad, but because it's so good at what it does that it's difficult to listen to. Wrap up in a blanket, arrange some comfort food and then give it an attentive listen.

And indeed, right from the first card played, the 8-mins+ title track, we find almost everything we loved in their first misdemeanour, and find ourselves almost transported to the sequel of the Diana EP that had followed their debut album. Indeed, we find the (slightly gentler) madness of Wootton's vocals, which dispels some deranging lyrics, much in the line of FU and Seagrott's sax doesn't diphase us from the Comus realm. The following 8-mins+ Sacrifice is a tad closer to their second full album (at least at first), but it would stick out as its highlight, had it found place on it. Indeed Bobbie's calm vocals give a soft ambiance, reinforced by Seagrott's flute. But halfway through the track, the band returns to their usual insane musical manners and Wootton pushes Watson's vocals to glass-shattering heights, while Seagrott's flute pulls some real neat interventions, before Pearson's violin takes over. The 6-mins Goring-penned The Return is somewhat softer

Of course, it is the Maalgard Suite that holds most our hopes, as this was supposed to be the main work of their second (but lost) full-fledged album. The only witness of that conceptual piece is a live-recorded cassette miraculously found, dusted and restored (as much as possible) of the first part. As you'll easily guess, the sound is anything but great, but whatever you'll hear will enchant you, as you'll realize that their would-be second opus would've at least looked equal to FU. Sadly, the second part was never recorded, but apparently it was written. It is therefore a little sad that Comus didn't choose to re-record the first instalment and record the second yet-uncommitted to tape second part, and then maybe add the live recording as a bonus track. Another disappointment is the spoken explanation between the new material and the historic live tape. I'd have been much happier if I had read it in the booklet, rather than be subjected to the explanation every time I spin the album.

Well, despite most observers' anticipated fears, Comus scores a successful touchdown with their newer material, but fails to convert it with an unfinished historical Maalgard Suite, which was expected to be the icing on the cake of the band's musical legacy. Of course, it's not too late yet, and the band can indeed convert the try by releasing the definitive Maalgard epic in a full-blown studio version, since they've clearly shown us that they've still got IT!! Get to it, guys ;-))))

It's difficult for me to think of any folk album that's quite as memorable and unique as Comus' debut, 'First Utterance'. Although they were something of a one-album wonder, this UK act has gained a fair deal of love and admiration from the progressive community, as well as a recent wave of interest in light of Opeth frontman Mikael Akerfeldt's fandom. While many remember folk from this period to be softened by hippie love and drug-induced compassion, 'First Utterance' has stood the test of time particularly because it went against those norms. Instead of a pleasant campfire singalong, Comus whisks the listener away to a dark and primal realm of tribal mysticism, violence, and mental illness. For all of its creepy atmosphere however, there's something remarkably beautiful about the music that Comus has made here. I have no problem calling this one of my favourite albums of all time.

Comus takes no time to get things started; seconds into the opener 'Diana', a listener will have already heard the strangeness that dominates the band's sound. Although traditional folk instruments are used, they're delivered in a very quirky, even charming way. As the album rolls on, there are more conventional sections where acoustic bluegrass skills are sported, but the backbone of these songs lies in the strange sounds Comus are able to make with the acoustic guitar, a violin, or a flute. There is not conventional rock drumming on this album, but tribal beating that commends the primal horror vibe that the music gives off. As dark as the tone for this album is, the music itself enjoys some very upbeat moments, although the out-of-tune freaky garble is never far behind.

Where I think many of the album's detractors may stake their bid is with the vocal work on the album. There are multiple vocalists on the album, and even more vocal styles at that. With 'Diana', we hear the music presented by a strange warble that sounds like something a goblin would chant to his forest tribe. 'The Herald' is the most beautiful piece here, with Bobbie Watson's higher pitch virtually defining what the term 'haunting' can mean. The lyrics are almost unrelenting dark and disturbing, as if the band is pitching six or seven different ideas for cult horror films. Rape, murder, and severe mental psychosis are never too extreme for Comus. Of course, many listeners may be put off by the fairly grim nature of the lyrics, but in all truth, the disturbing lyrical themes are a hell of a lot more interesting than the typical acid folk tripe about loving your fellow human, or dancing with beautiful people, man.

As this and many other reviews will indicate, 'First Utterance' is a love-or-hate album, and for good reason. The band takes quite a few risks here, and as a result, it was panned at the time of its release. In hindsight, it's seen as one of the great underground gems of progressive folk, and I would even say that it's the best thing to have come out of folk rock in its time. Listeners with a mind twisted enough for itshould find an experience here that will be damned near impossible to forget.