German magazine Skug have a review from Holger Adam of the album.
https://skug.at/various-artists-ballads-of-seduction-fertility-and-ritual-slaughter-was-ist-das/
I used an A.I. to translate it then edited the results to make it smoother:
The folk-horror film The Wicker Man is an entertaining yet ruthless hybrid of musical and crime – and it flopped at the box office when it was released in 1973. Today, the film is a pop culture icon with appeal far beyond the folk horror genre. In the decades since its initial release, the film has achieved cult status, the Paul Giovanni soundtrack has been repeatedly reissued and the film is now available in various edited versions on DVD or Blu-ray. And the crappy remake from 2006 with Nicolas Cage in the leading role shows: The original is unattainable, the version with Cage is a farce (and therefore worth seeing, at least once).
In 2023 »The Wicker Man« celebrates its 50th birthday and on this occasion in Phoenix, Arizona based label Was Ist Das? released a tribute album. The small underground label is run by Ned Netherwood, an Englishman in exile (because of love, of course). He has enlisted a number of well-known musicians to reinterpret the original soundtrack’s compositions, and the 17 exclusive tracks on »Ballads of Seduction, Fertility and Ritual Slaughter« cover a relatively broad musical spectrum, which – however – fortunately – not removed from the sinister mood of the original.
The experiment of venturing into a quasi sacrosanct artefact of pop culture succeeds precisely because »the old ways« are not negated. »Sumer Is A-Cumin In« remains a song piece with Sharron Kraus, only instead of a choir, Kraus sings alone and layers her voice over one another, creating a dreamy, hypnotic mood. And Meg Baird’s rendition of “Willow’s Song” stays close to the original — but the former Espers singer has the experience, and the gesture of homage doesn’t devolve into mere imitation. Andrew Liles (Nurse With Wound) and Alvarius B (Alan Bishop), among others, deviate further from their templates. He snarls his way through »corn rigs« in his own crooner manner, while Liles’s »The Landlord’s Daughter« dresses in a post-industrial sound atire.
As the Banshees of Bunsworth, members of Ireland’s Woven Skull let off steam with “Searching for Rowan,” and David Colohan features twice on the album, once solo and once with his band United Bible Studies. – And so it goes on and on, lively around the »Maypole«, so to speak (here interpreted by Magpahi, the musical project of the British artist Alison Cooper). The majority of the performers represented here have been working in the musical underground at the experimental intersections of folk, drone and noise for many years. The contributions to »Ballads of Seduction, Fertility and Ritual Slaughter« testify to a musical expertise that does not deny their being a fan. And how can you not be a fan of »The Wicker Man«?
I think Holger in his last two sentences hit on why this album turned out so great. Every artist I spoke to had a sincere love of both the film and the soundtrack. I picked them for their abilities but it worked because of the sincerity of their intentions. No matter how much the songs were reinvented, they all remain true to the spirit. I’m not sure the success of this project could ever be emulated because is there another film and soundtrack so universally loved and so ripe for reinterpretation?
