A SCOTTISH musician has launched the “world’s first” full Gaelic metalcore album after going viral on social media and hopes to encourage more people to learn the language.
Colin Stone, who is originally from Caithness, is the lead singer of the metal band Gun Ghaol and is launching a debut album on Friday.
The Falkirk-based musician has quickly shot to fame online after posting songs in Gaelic but singing in metal, which he says has been “overwhelmingly popular”.
Stone started posting music two years ago following an online call to action from the Royal National Mòd, a historic Gaelic festival, encouraging people to help get others involved with learning the language.
“I scrolled through the videos, and they were all very safe, very kind of what you'd expect,” Stone said.
“Kilts, choirs, pleasant singing, but nothing that really caught the eye.”
He said he thought “let's just upload me screaming in Gaelic and see what happens” and that it was “very different” from what people would normally expect from Gaelic music.
Stone’s video quickly gathered speed online amassing around 50,000 views which led to him thinking there was an audience for the music genre. “I think it works because people are taken by surprise.
“They think they know what Gaelic music is, but actually it's something completely different,” he added. “When they think of Gaelic music, they think of Runrig, or choirs of the islands, a traditional kind of folk music.”
The musician was quick to point out that other genres which have gathered a lot of success recently that use Gaelic in their music include Skye’s own dance and Celtic-infused Niteworks and Ireland's hip hop trio Kneecap.
“If there was ever a message for me to other would-be musicians out there, it would be do the weird thing, pick the genre that hasn't been done,” Stone said.
He picked up the language as a child from his mother and has been an advocate for more people to get involved with Gaelic ever since.
Stone fell in love with music from an early age, he learned to play fiddle in primary school, but later discovered metal music after hearing a Linkin Park album which he “sneaked” away from his brother.
Now Stone has released a full 10-track metalcore album, which is a subgenre of metal, and was popularised by bands like Bring Me the Horizon and Bullet For My Valentine.
The album titled Leum, meaning jump, features collaborations from other artists including Gaelic rock band BALACH and Finnish metal outfit Lowhill.
It also features a cover of the iconic Gaelic poem Òran na Cloiche where Stone’s eight-year-old nephew Ruairidh provides vocals too.
Stone said he hopes Gun Ghaol can challenge the traditional stereotypes of Gaelic music and break musical barriers as he said: “There will always be acts that use the fiddle and the accordion.
“For me though, the language can only keep growing if we allow it to push past those boundaries and expand into new areas.
“Gun Ghaol is entirely different. There’s not a fiddle or a squeezebox in sight.
“It’s pounding drums, distorted downtuned guitars, and me screaming into a microphone.”
He added: “To me, that's what's going to keep pushing Gaelic forward rather than keeping it in its little box.”
Leum was released on the penultimate day of the Royal National Mòd, held at its spiritual home of Oban, which Stone said he hopes to play at in the following year.
He said it only “felt right” that as the traditional festival celebrating Gaelic culture ends a new chapter in the ancient Scottish language opens with the debut of Gaelic metalcore.
Stone said: “It felt right to me that this was coming out at the same time as the Mòd, this really important cultural moment in the language that happens every year.
“We would be the sort of side stage diversity pick, something very, very different from everybody else.
“But I want people to come along and be surprised by it and, who knows, maybe even enjoy it.”
You can find Gun Ghaol’s album on most streaming sites.
