Cruachan is a Celtic power metal band from Ireland and this is their fifth disc. Though Cruachan began as raw Celtic black metal they switched to power metal on their second disc and have maintained the same general style right up through The Morrigan’s Call. Their music is very heavy, crunchy, festive and upbeat combined with pervasive Celtic folk melodies played on such instruments as acoustic guitar and keys, bouzouki, mandolin, banjo, bodhran, aldotrube, fiddle, violin and mandocello. They feature considerable variety from song to song, from fast, surprisingly aggressive blackened power metal with folksy riffs to light-hearted metal versions of catchy traditional Irish songs. Indeed, the black metal influences from their past show up here in the occasional hard guitars, fast drums and male black vocals much more than their last few discs. Their lyrics are fascinating and are based primarily on Celtic folklore, history and mythology; the band actually goes to the trouble of explaining them in the liner notes by giving the reader considerable background information on the stories.