The Wyld Olde Souls: Ensoulment

Ten-year breaks don’t usually work out in bands’ favors. Either they never get back together, or they end up writing an album that sucks merely because the elongated hiatus destroyed fans’ patience. Despite a decade-long aperture, though, the Wyld Olde Souls’ managed to produce a stellar LP… their debut, in fact. That’s right, the year 2000 was the last anyone saw of the New York quintet, who put out its only EP that summer. Toss that disc out, though. Ensoulment takes the late-’60s folk sound with which the Souls’ originally experimented and expands it even further, unveiling tunes akin to Zeppelin and the Band’s softer ballads, but adding African percussion and mandolins to create an aura that HBO’s Game of Thrones could consider for its score. Take a listen and you’ll see. The Wyld Olde Souls don’t quite have the stamina of the medieval series, but they certainly have the enchantment.