Wongraven - Fjelltronen (1995)

Similar to how Storm was a collaboration between Fenriz of Darkthrone and Satyr of Satyricon (with Kari Rueslåtten adding her vocals), Wongraven was the collaboration of Satyr and Ihsahn (Emperor), with additional percussion from Hans K. K. Sřrensen. However, the difference here is that Wongraven is not a metal band in the slightest, but an epic, medeival ambient folk project featuring an expressive array of vocals and synths, seasoned in acoustic guitars, bass, timpani, mouth harp and other instruments. This is the sole full-length release from Wongraven, but it does possess some staying power, especially if you enjoy this brand of dark, period ambience.

Half of Fjelltronen consists of a single, 16 minute track called "Det Var En Gang Et Menneske", which meanders endlessly from the rolling, sparse percussion and whispered vocals of its opening moments through a long stretch of keyboard that sluggishly dominates the faint, sparkling acoustics. The drums crash in and out as if to accent moments of authority, and the final few moments of the track become quite haunted...with the repetitious acoustic and darker, somber keyboard tones, and Satyr's vocals growing into an eerie crescent. Once you are through this behemoth and into the clear, you are met with "Over Ødemark", a doomed piano dirge with Ihsahn's fingers all over it, and Satyr joining in for the final half. "Opp Under Fjellet Toner En Sang" is under two minutes of grace carried through synthesized woodwinds and an ambient backdrop, before the other substantial track on the album, "Tiden Er En Stenlagt Grav" kicks in for a slowly building, instrumental. The bass here is hypnotic as it flows below the subtle synths in a folk lick. The track fades out and returns with some more of the project's, haunting atmosphere, though there is a swagger to the piece which should rouse the historic traveler within all of us. Another instrumental, "Fra Fjelltronen" offers closure, with over 3 minutes of bells, haunted castle environments and dying medieval thunder.

As with many such offerings, the appeal will be limited to those who do not mind a largely instrumental slice of atmosphere that can haunt your dreams and suck your thoughts into a dark mirror of the past...half real, half idealized into a grim, impossible portrait. Though there are words, and vocals, they truly merge in with the landscape of the instruments, soaring forth only to bait you with stark, glorious contrasts. I would definitely recommend this album to any fan of Summoning, Vinterriket, or early Mortiis. In fact, add some black metal to this and you would have the first few releases of Summoning, so I'm guessing it was a possible influence to their Tolkien-inspired path. Fjelltronen is not an absolute classic, and I thought Storm was a more successful side-project, but it shows a great deal of depth to the imagination of Satyr, and might make for a good companion piece to the first two Satyricon albums.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

Equilibrium - Turis Fratyr (2005)

The 21st century has brought us a great many artists who walk the margins of multiple styles, without ever committing fully to one or the other. Equilibrium is one such artist, and their hybrid of death metal, symphonic and Viking elements has placed them well upon the map, with an appeal to fans of peers like Ensiferium, Thyfing, Finntroll, and Turisas. Like these other bands, I can't help but feel Bal-Sagoth was an influence with their unusual, goofy keyboard epics. Upon Turis Fratyr, the keyboard is the central element. The guitars churn and chug as needed, and sound quite thick and powerful, but the orchestration of the music is what places the writing just far enough into the memory. This was a pretty big debut album, and while it's successor Sagas is mildly superior, there are a number of tracks here I enjoyed, and a few that lay forgotten.

The band likes to perform a lot of glorious, charging rhythms, and while these can be fun and create the desired effect, often the synth lines and subcurrent riffing feels just too generic for its own good. Helge Stang can grunt or snarl, fusing a medium between the two genres which have birthed this band's sound (three if you count power metal, for which an argument could be made). The guitars and synthesizers frolic through a lot of bouncy, happy rhythms that would do any Finntroll or Korpiklaani proud, though the lyrical theme is pretty much pure Norse myth-history.

The title track is a brief, ambient intro that leads into "Wingthor's Hammer", which is a little sampling of what lies in store for the next hour of listening. It's flighty and silly sounding, but also kind of cool if you just don't bite too deeply into it. The verse guitars chug along below a slew of atmosphere, as Stang alters his vocals in an almost conversational pattern. "Unter Der Eiche" starts with some nice synths, and then another pretty glorious, if unmemorable charging gallop, before biting off the melody from the Biblical hymn "We Three Kings". "Der Sturm" builds a good momentum, though its core riff is once again fueled by a very generic pattern of notes that is easily eclipsed by anything else the band swerves into at any point in the song. "Widars Hallen" has a nice flute melody which almost feels like a sea shanty, and up to this point it may have been the most memorable track on the album, perfect for taking your girlfriend to the Renaissance Faire after watching the Peter Jackson Tolkien trilogy. "Met" is one of the most identifiable tracks on the album, sounding very much like Finntroll...almost too much. Like if you told me this was a missing track from Jakten's Tid, I might believe you, aside from a slight hint in the German lyrics.

"Heimdall's Ruf" is a bombastic, atmospheric intro the further frolicking synths of "Die Prophezeiung", which is a solid track with some nice melodic death guitar lines packed in. "Nordheim" becomes fairly fun, the synthwork is again delightful and playful like kids playing Hobbits vs. Mordor or a re-enactment of Die Nibelung at the park. I do like the way the chords function below the synth at the 2:00 point. "Im Fackelschein" features about two minutes of lush, acoustic calm, before the might of "Toten Heldensagen", which is the longest track on the album, and one of the best. I wasn't sure I'd be able to stomach 9+ minutes of Equilibrium's musings, but this has a more energetic, serious tone than most of the other songs and makes for a firm showcase of the band's potential (and it's up to the level of most of the tracks on Sagas). "Wald der Freiheit" ends the original album with another lush landscape of synth, but the bonus track "Shingo Murata" is another soaring epic which recalls Bal-Sagoth and Finntroll.

It was rather inevitable that this brand of shallower, orchestrated epic metal was going to procreate as the medium has once again grown in popularity around the world, but at least we've got some bands giving it their best. Equilibrium are no geniuses, but if you can shut off your mind for an hour then you'll find enough meat here to marinate with your delusions of historic grandeur and battle. Again, Sagas is a better representation of the band, but Turis Fratyr has a share of quality moments amidst the rather middling cavalry breaks.

Highlights: Widars Hallen, Met, Toten Heldensagen

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

http://www.equilibrium-metal.de/

I - Between Two Worlds (2006)

With an album title as fitting as the worthy marriage of styles found within, I was the new project of Immortal members Abbath and Armagedda, with Demonaz contributing lyrics. Ice Dale of Enslaved joins on the drums, and T.C. King from Gorgoroth on the bass. Since the material is quite close to Immortal's output before the hiatus (in particular, At the Heart of Winter and Sons of Northern Darkness), you could almost just consider it an Immortal album. After all, it retains the heavy and thick guitar tone, the only difference here is that the band have inserted the influence of bare bones, raw heavy metal. I've likened the record in the past to a Thor meets Immortal, and the comparison remains for me: bombastic, driving guitar rhythms and always a hook.

Like a lot of other Norse works, this was not an album which immediately caught me. It took several subsequent playthroughs before its hooks really started to sink into my skin. Apparently, my initial reaction was outside the norm, as I garnered a positive reaction from many upon contact. In retrospect, it's not difficult to understand why. All the hugeness and nigh 'fantastical' majesty of Immortal's later work with an even more accessible vantage point, where the previous band was already poised on massive success (through not only their musical output, but their images becoming internet memes via a bunch of ironic fuckwits who actually thought the band were taking themselves that seriously). No, there has always been an aspect of 'fun' to what Immortal did, but tempered in the cold steel of their warlike, epic grandeur. Between Two Worlds renews this spirit for the 21st century, and I hope this is not the only album we'll hear out of the collaboration.

"The Storm I Ride" strikes out immediately with a mid-paced gallop, enormous guitar rhythms dancing across Abbath's gritty but recognizable vocal rasp. There is a Viking-like folk subtext to the track which becomes apparent through the notation, and a great driving melody over the almost thrash-like bridge, which swerves into balls-out blues fury. "Warriors" cuts down the tempo to a glorious cruise, like a longship slowly making its way through the grating, fragmented ice across the northern waters. It lumbers, but the men aboard press forward, and the song itself has some excellent, hammering rhythms offset with graceful, small glistening licks. The title track falls between the first two in speed, the riffs fully coherent as if to bridge them. Once again, it's hard to imagine Abbath fronting anything more glorious, and the middle of the track slows into a penetrating crawl of choppy riffing, like the frostbite gathering on your weary toes and fingers. After this, "Battalions" is a pure throttling which would have seemed right at home on Sons of Northern Darkness, with some drifting bass lines and more of the shimmering fields of bludgeoning guitars. The riff at :40 is one of the best on the album, and it transforms into an even more epic pattern of descending majesty.

Magic moments magic times
Barbarians born to stride
Ride with splendor for the war
Battalions at our side

The latter half of the album holds up, with the epic "Mountains" recalling the very best of Bathory's post-Blood Fire Death period. Acoustic guitars lambasted in huge chords that truly ascend the heights of its namesake. Another of the album's absolute pinnacle riffs comes in after 1:10 in the track, and therein all is beautiful. "Days of North Winds" has a biting groove to its deep, slow thrashing, an evocation of savage natural mystique against the rise and fall of civilization. "Far Beyond the Quiet" is another track I would have pictured straight from Sons of Northern Darkness Pt II: Nephews of Northern Darkness, rousing and splendorous, slow rhythms that manage to confine both sadness and pride for the fallen and the living. I have realized by this point that Abbath is really doing a sort of hybrid of his own snarl with Quorthon's later, cleaner harsh stylings and the grimy edge of Lemmy Kilminster. It is no surprise that this track is a tribute to the Bathory frontman. "Cursed We Are" finishes the fight with yet another of the album's best, catchy rhythms, summoning an almost warm tone through the pummeling harmonics and searing winds of the bridge, and the heavy metal uprising of the chorus.

In three short years, this album has really snaked itself about my memory. Yet something holds me back from giving it a perfect score. Perhaps its the rather safe song structures that don't often meander into the unexpected, perhaps 1-2 of the tracks are not as steel solid as the rest. The album sounds phenomenal, furthering the direction of the (previously) final Immortal record. Brazen guitar rhythms that carve out the ice and ash, solid drumming and some of Abbath's best vocals are all hallmarks of the titanic sound. Though we've now got Immortal back, and they have released a killer new album All Shall Fall, I do hope this is not the end for I. This is a huge effort, well worth the time if you haven't yet heard it.

Highlight: best taken with mead, which will probably cost 3x as much as the album

Verdict: Epic Win [9.5/10] (many miles to walk here)

http://www.i-metal.net/

Ragnarok - Arising Realm (1997)

It's always surprising when a band you think is going to be huge just doesn't seem to pass that intangible scene test which separates the chaff from the wheat. For me, Norway's Ragnarok will always be the wheat, the whole field, as they are one of the few bands that has never put out an album to disappoint me. I can't even say the same for their peers like Emperor, or Enslaved, who have each released efforts I found middling to the extreme (if well in the past). The arrival of the debut Nattferd in 1995 was another breath of fresh hell from the Norse hordes. It showed enormous raw potential, which the band later polished for their next effort, Arising Realm.

An increased use of keyboards is noticeable here, and they make a wonderful contrast to the band's raw, primal punishment. I really adore the atmosphere of the album, in particular the vocals of Thyme, which were among the best in black metal. Also of note are the sharp, buzzing guitar tones and the huge reverberation the album creates, setting up the synth tones which pulse through the backdrop, a landscape of forgotten haunts. Ragnarok were also eschewing the epic length of their peers' compositions to craft manageable chunks of vitriol.

The intro to this album sets the stage through a dirge-like keyboard piece that takes a shift to the glorious at around the 1:20 mark. The synths of Arising Realm were performed by Pål Espen Johannesen, as well as Shagrath of Dimmu Borgir, and they do bear some semblance to what that band was releasing at the time. "God is Wasted" arrives on the wings of crashing thunder, and immediately creates the stark atmosphere that will dominate the remainder of the album, like a raw, snarling upgrade to Hellhammer. Of particular importance in this track is the riff at 2:00, miserable and beautiful, evoking a trance-like suicidal euphoria. "Searching for My Dark Desire" is lavish and desperate, a charge action given strength by the weight of its excellent, morose depths (I speak of the riff around 1:30, with the somber keyboards to back it). "En Verden Av Stein" crashes with melody, Thyme's rasping vocals like a lost emperor wandering the barren frostlands. "Time Before Birth of Light" is another forward blitz, conjuring a touch of Bathory and Hellhammer, though heavily saturated with majestic melody. "My Hate is His Spirit" swaggers like a drunken storm giant, erupting into another of the band's thrust maneuvers behind Jontho's kit abuse, and then a fine section where the guitars briefly drop to let the synth and bass take center stage.

In the twilight of the day
do I see the sun disappear
behind the bloodred horizon
I can feel the insatiable night
consume all light

The band has prepared two more hammerings in "My Refuge in Darkness", which opens with some epic acoustics, and "The Reflection from the Star World Above", a barrage of bestial expression with a solid, atmospheric break that spews a sad guitar melody and ends with a deep synth grinding against its final pleas. "The Fall of Christianity" accents its teachings with some orchestral piano strikes, and "The Predicted Future" paces out the album at over 7 minutes of the band's somber, thundering melodies. Though most of the record is nigh flawless, it saves one of its more emotional tracks for the climax, "For the World I Am Blinded". Post-climax, the acoustics and keyboards of the outro fuse to carry us away from Arising Realm's dark empire.

Again, I'm not sure why this album (and this band) did not create a larger stir. Perhaps it was due to the proximity of Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk, or Enthrone Darkness Triumphant, but in the end, I have enjoyed this more than either of those crowd favorites. Arising Realm would set no record for extremity, in fact the ground it was treading was rather secure...tap the best of both the underground savagery of Norse black, and the subtle textures of symphonic accessibility that were accruing popularity for Borgir or Cradle of Filth. To my ears, it still musters up memories of grim glory, undeath and mysticism, and it's one of Ragnarok's very best, alongside the successor Diabolical Age.

Highlights: God is Wasted, En Verden Av Stein, Time Before Birth of Light, The Fall of Christianity, For the World I Am Blinded

Verdict: Epic Win [9.5/10] (defeat is not a word of his world)

http://www.ragnarokhorde.com/

Graveland - The Fire of Awakening (2003)

The Fire of Awakening is the 7th full-length from Rob Darken's legacy under Graveland. Like most of his work, it's an acquired taste with a number of flaws, which taken in context, are not exactly flaws...but still have a tendency to test the listener's patience. What happens here is the natural union of some lush, amazing atmosphere bathed in angelic synthesizers, and the barbaric, plodding, often quite boring guitar rhythms that broil below. Add to this the relative length of each track, from 8-10 minutes long, and the fact that most of the album slides along at the same general pace...and you've got either a recipe for headache, or a brilliant 47 minutes of heathen glory.

Although I find myself leaning towards the latter concoction, I cannot say that this is one of the best of Graveland. It's good, and shows a marked improvement in Rob's ability to conjure atmosphere through very minimal means...but the guitar riffs afford so little interest, that their mere bludgeoning alone cannot support them. What I do appreciate is the way the entire album sounds like a steady war march, if you listen carefully, with eyes closed, the rhythm of the crashing drums can often become hypnotic, sucking you straight into the ages past, your boots tramping through the sludge of human carnage and the cold moors. The keyboards are really well played here, though they create nothing but simple, ethereal lines that truly sound like the valkyries calling you skyward after an honorable death. He'll often use a subtle melodic guitar line speed picked along the synth notes to create a great harmony. The album definitely has its moments, but 47 of them?

"We Shall Prevail" begins with the choir of valkyries, before a slowly paced sludge rhythm drives straight through some smaller, melodic lines. This slowly builds in momentum, like a charge that never fully breaks, and though broken up with more atmospheric provisions, the track doesn't really meet a satisfactory climax. Instead, it bowls over and the "Battle of Wotan's Wolves" takes over. This is my least favorite track on the album, though the most raw in terms of just pounding away with the guitars. Darken is wielding his standard garbled, harsh vocals, never quite so aggressive as many other singers in the genre, but sufficient and no surprise if you've heard his past albums. "In the Sea of Blood" is the most mercifully brief track, under 8 minutes, but the style does not defer from what has come before. More trudging. More guitar melodies skirting alongside the slow march of the cavalry like starved and hungry hounds that seek the mercy of their drivers.

No more love, neither mercy
The red Sun has hidden herself
Their fear born from our hate
Kindles fire and ash

If you've survived this far, then you can probably handle the final two tracks, which are both 10+ minutes in length. "Die for Freedom" is quite extravagant, with epic battle percussion and more of Rob's graceful synth work. It breaks for rations by the midpoint, but wastes little time in retrieving the thunder. I can't help but feel 2-3 minutes less here would have condensed the song into a superior force, because it seems right as it grips you it just keeps rambling on. The closer, "The Four Wings of the Sun" arrives with an extremly glorious opening riff, slow and crunchy and slathered in great picking lines. Again, over 10 minutes, but have patience, and you will be rewarded, for the synths in this track are yet again beautiful over the crashing percussion and the stable if repetitive guitars. The tranquil break at around 6:20 is emotional and helps reel you back in, and this is the strongest overall track.

If an entire album of slower paced, barbaric majesty set aloft by some refined synth ambience is what you find yourself in need of, then look no further. The Fire of Awakening offers little else. Some better guitar riffs, and more diversity of tempos would have surely livened the effort, but Graveland fans should still be pleased. I should mention that the two albums after this, Dawn of Iron Blades and Fire Chariot of Destruction, are both better records, some of the best of his career. If it's your first exposure, you may want to track those down instead. Otherwise, I'll meet you by the morning fog, cold spear in hand, cracked and frosted helm, and the end in my eyes.

Highlights: In the Sea of Blood, The Four Wings of the Sun

Verdict: Win [7/10] (to protect me from the shine)

http://www.graveland.org/

Satyricon - Nemesis Divina (1996)

Nemesis Divina is an album I truly wrestled with in the previous decade. Upon its release, many of my friends took to it instantly. It was one of the most popular black metal works among the (admittedly) small circle of fans at University, but I remained steadfast and unimpressed for years. For some reason, I just didn't grasp it...I felt it to be chaotic, disjointed and unmemorable. Ambitious, perhaps, but lacking that secret something.

In hindsight, I must have had a bit of a gray matter leak, because years later, as I was in a recording studio myself, "Mother North" came on the stereo during a snack break. I instantly recognized the song, but then, before indifference could sink in, it finally just dawned me. Damn. From that point on, I dusted off my hard copy and it re-entered my regular rotation, and it has since become my favorite release from Satyr and Frost.

Nemesis Divina is a lot of things. It's atmospheric. It's pretty complex (at least when compared to most black metal of the era). It's evil, but at the same time, majestic. It stands at that precise crossroad where the raw and wicked, unrefined sounds of the black metal underground met the larger studio budget works that were only being produced by a few bands of the genre at the time. This was a record which was nearly at the level of a Transilvanian Hunger, or In the Nightside Eclipse. And yet, it is more accessible than either, with a sensitivity for melody and light synth touches that add only a malleable depth to its bevy of savage riffs, which stuck at you like the pinions of ravens' feathers.

Better late than ignorant forever.

"The Dawn of a New Age" is fittingly titled, as a few lurching chords strike like red rays of clouded sunrise before the cry This is Armageddon.... and what follows is a beautiful, glistening nuclear holocaust of Frost blasts and well written guitars, like the infectious passage at the 1:50 mark. Satyr is assisted in the guitars here by Nocturno "Kvelduv" Culto, of Darkthrone, so it was only a matter of time before I submitted. "Forhekset" kicks in for a brief volley of acoustics before a truly leveling rhythm of hellish, thick melody. The guitars writhe below the verse and bridge, along a demonic current that transforms the heart into ash. As with most of the album, the synthesizers here are very minimal, used only to create an elevation behind particular rhythms, and never central. "Mother North" hardly needs an introduction, as one of the more popular Norse black metal tracks in history. The rhythm guitars bleed here, both the glorious lifeblood of the land. Sinister, biting like the wind, burdened below the transcendent synthesizers and clean intonations of the backing vocals. Even through its latter half, each new riff provides a desolate and thundering layer to the charge. "Du Som Hater Gud" features lyrics that were written for Satyr by the other half of Darkthrone, the immortal Fenriz, and the track is more of an eerie, straightforward black metal peace, still adorned with serpentine riffing and some fine piano touches near the climax.

Forever in warfare my heart is
With my passion of despair
Still though I was there when the hills were born
And when the wind blew for the first time
So there are reasons for my existence

"Immortality Passion" is festooned with symphonic bombast and warlike drum battering, over the sneer of gently crashing cymbals and a twisted, hypnotic guitar rhythm. The percussion and anthemic march of the bridge mark some of the more glorious moments on the album. "Nemesis Divina" itself is perhaps the most grim piece on the album, with Frost's calculated chaos and some jarring, sawing riffs that slice right through the ghostly atmospheric keyboards. The track picks up into kinetic violence, an excellent slew of riffs which conjure up the aggression of fast 80s speed/thrash. "Transcendental Requiem of Slaves" marks the closure to this epic beast, an instrumental with some lush guitar work that culminates in mesmerizing, hypnotic chords and synths that lead you off into the dusk.

Nemesis Divina is far closer to the style of its predecessors (Dark Medieval Times and The Shadowthrone) than anything the band has released since. While I'm a fan of their modern, black rock impulses, making for some vile grooves, I can't help but feel this album was the pinnacle of their output. The irony that the object of such initial indifference has grown into my go-to Satyricon record is not lost upon me. It's a damn fine record, and being wrong rarely turns out this well.

Highlights: The Dawn of a New Age, Forhekset, Mother North, Immortality Passion, Transcendental Requiem of Slaves

Verdict: Epic Win [9.25/10] (seems like I dwell in a circle)

http://www.satyricon.no/

Sólstafir - Til Valhallar EP (1996)

Newer listeners, whose entrance to the Sólstafir sound begins at the amazing Köld, might be quite perplexed if their curiosity takes them back through the years, for the amazing atmospherics the band is conjuring today are far removed from their primitive origins. Til Valhallar was the band's first formal release, an EP boasting 6 tracks of raw and aggressive black metal with only the barest hint at the voluminous, swelling guitars and terse atmosphere of future offerings. Yet, if listening through their work chronologically, one would not find it so difficult to trace a line through the albums and notice a very natural, positive trend to their evolution.

Sólstafir have always been a different band, and though the writing here fits every familiar definition of the 'black metal' medium, there are some subtle differences in texture and approach. These could be conscious decisions, or these could be cultural and regional (there has always been something to the band's that simply howls of their homeland) influences. For one, there is a noticeable punk and post-punk taste to the riffing. Though it doesn't neglect the speed and fury of the band's metallic kin, the raw fervor feels wild and uncaged. Aðalbjörn Tryggvason's, while similar in tormented tone to something like Burzum, also carry this off the hinge feeling that recalls screamy underground punk and hardcore music. There is also an influence for moody folk, delivered through the band's streaming, melodic acoustics. The tin of the drums and the popping bass really carry the taint of these outside influences into the Viking themes, and Til Valhallar is rather something to behold in its brighter moments.

The surly and beautiful sample of a folk singer inaugurates "Ásareiðin", which then proceeds through a mid-paced shuffle under the surging, buzzing guitar lines. While the band is raw as fuck, there is a melodic, sovereign grace carried through the chords which betrays the rather simple and straight forward barking of the vocals. A synth drops in briefly for the bridge, to highlight a simple rock chord pattern, before the track once again enters its rapid fire verse. The title track "Til Valhallar" opens with a churning, post-punkish guitar scape, like an Icelandic Sonic Youth, over the driving drum rhythm and the bloodied ice. Again, the track breaks for a mellower bridge segment, in which the guitars soar, but the track is really made interesting through the bass and drumming. "Dauðraríkið" is an even more impressive song than either of them, for it swells with sadness, turbulent and raw double kick hammering, and carries more of a Viking feel. The bass thunders, the guitars are ripping like a longship across the cold sands of the shore, but what really shines is the gloomy, psychedelic acoustic breakdown, that abruptly blasts forth once again into the chaos. "Hovudlausn" is an instrumental piece that closes out the original release of the EP, with acoustic guitars flowing into some heavier chords like the first waves of spring that break through the ice on the North ocean surface.

The re-release of the EP also contains two bonus tracks. The grungy, aggressive "Huldulandið" once again features the punkish angst, while the "Í Helli Pólýfemosar" is a morbid, crawling piece which uses several vocals in tangent to create an unnerving effect. Here, Tryggvason straightens out his vocals to a more Viking-like level, and then astride there are another dub of deeper vocals which feel like they are talking along. The track also breaks out into a straight, crunchy punk rhythm. It's very interesting, in fact the most curious piece on this release, and in some ways this also best foreshadows the band's later progression.

So, while Sólstafir's sound was not nearly at the range of moody post-rock influence it currently dispenses, there has always been something tweaked, something strange about the band. This was a grim and wondrous introduction to a band that was, both geographically and pscychologically, left of the scene ongoing in mainland Scandinavia. I'm not entirely enamored of it, but I certainly appreciate the ground that this unsusual act has and will travel.

Highlights: Dauðraríkið, Í Helli Pólýfemosar

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://www.myspace.com/solstafir

Thyrfing - Valdr Galga (1999)

I have long considered Thyrfing a band which hovered on the very edge of parody; their use of the keyboard as a fake orchestra is so central to their style that one can often not help but laugh as the reach exceeds the grasp. However, over the many years of perusing countless thousands of metal albums, I have developed a sense of deeper awareness, or 'cheese goggles' as I prefer to call it. The theory is that you put them on, and can penetrate the silly exterior of a work of art to find any intrisic value lying beyond. In the case of Sweden's Thyrfing, they do possess enough value to let down your guard and simply enjoy (as do their bastard stepchildren, Turisas, who arrive later with an extremely similar style).

Valdr Galga is the second full-length effort of the band, capitalizing on the buzz that was spread through their self-titled debut album a year prior. The album plays out like a bitter 13 year old's escapist visions of a mead lodge against the sounds of brutal conquest and warfare. This is both the strength and weakness of the material. The band is not lyrically fucking around, but the way the synthesizers interact with very simple guitars (which generally offer very little on their own) creates a rousing, playful environment which recalls a lot of the sillier symphonic black metal. But there is just enough skeleton holding the blood and muscle together that I have a good time listening.

A few chugs and screams of battle, and the flighty keyboards of Peter Löf and "Storms of Asgard" immediately take command, issuing their orders to the rhythm section and the guitars that now serve only to provide a lower range mirror to the driving atmosphere. The synth tones used are extremely reminiscent of Bal-Sagoth, minus the complexity of Johnny Maudling's typical performance. Thomas Väänänen sends his black barks flying through the mix, and most are passionate enough to stick, as he can shift from the deeper tones of the voice to the biting edge for a subtle variety. "From Wilderness Came Death" has a brief acoustic intro that transitions nicely into a heavier guitar rhythm...and lo and behold, the keyboards let the guitars have a little room to breathe here, at least up front. "Askans Rike" flows through a sequence of familiar descending and ascending chords, all smeared in swollen keyboard butter, though the guitar melodies peak through, and there is a silly if endearing high-pitched flute synth that parades about the growling glory. The title track is one of the better pieces on the album, I really enjoyed the keyboard composition and the attempts by guitar to duel along with it, as well as the mug slamming finale.

I know that I hung in this tree
All of nights nine
Wounded by the spear, given to myself
Enlightened I'll become

But the latter half of the album truly ups the ante, beginning with the excellent "Firever", with its charging and uplifting orchestration, and surge of raw chords and great barking vocals. "A Moment in Valhalla" is packed...basically an orgy of vikings and valkyries set to pompous metal music. I laughed my ass off several times in this track, but I would still drink to it. "Mimer's Well" is another of my faves, highly atmospheric, giving all its instrumentation plenty of space in which to breathe, and it also breaks out a nice charging rhythm. "A Great Man's Return", the final track, also offers some festive Viking gang shouting and almost caustic punkish guitar rhythms.

Valdr Galga has a decent mix to it, and I don't think the keyboard dominance can be pinned on anything more than the band's decision to give the guitars the backseat. They're audible, but really serving as the rhythm to Löf's lead. All of the other elements...samples, vocals, and even acoustics sound pretty swell. I would like to hear more songs where the guitars provide a more central role, and this would in fact happen on some of their later recordings. Thyrfing is Viking metal for those who don't approach the genre too seriously. It's festive and fun, while lyrically serving the subject matter better than some other bands in the field. "Firever" was my favorite track, 3 minutes of glory that I'd probably paste into any compilation of symphonic metal, but the whole album is consistent enough for some drunken appreciation.

Highlights: Askans Rike, Firever, Mimer's Well

Verdict: Win [7/10] (tales spawned by enemy blood)

http://www.myspace.com/thyrfingband

Angantyr - Hævn (2007)

Danish maniac Jakob Zagrobelny is clearly a very talented individual, and his band Angantyr is one of the best of the black masses to take Bathory's primal Viking core from the Blood, Fire, Death album and just run with it, or rather, sail with it... Hævn is the 3rd full-length, on which Zagrobelny, or Ynleborgaz, or whatever he is calling himself, has polished up the more repressed, buzzing atmosphere of Sejr into a more accessible whole. That is, more accessible if you enjoy hostile Viking black metal with no light at the end of the tunnel. There is a purity and longing in his compositions that I find refreshing, even if they are not stylistically innovative. Aside from the guest cello, all instrumentation is handled by Ynleborgaz alone, and one must admire this rather painstaking process, especially when the result is the very muster (or better) of many fully formed black metal bands.

Grim and endless. These two words define the focus of Hævn's 7 tracks, many of which run between 8-11 minutes in length. Indeed, this is over 70 minutes of music, so if your attention span sputters at reading beyond the first few paragraphs of this review, you're probably not cut out to lose yourself in its moribund, maritime pleasures. The songs do not offer a large variety of tempos, each is self-contained but will often batter away repetitiously for moments at a time without even the subtlest of changes. It's a formula that has failed a great many black metal records, but somehow it succeeds here.

"Et Varsel Om Død" provides the first 8 minutes of the album, commencing with the aforementioned cello player, then rattling into a hostile blaster hymn at around 1:40. The notes are chosen for their streaming sorrow and conjuration of epic death; while you may be hearing them often, they rarely grow tired, and Angantyr will subly shift back and forth and then to a slower pace for the climax. "Thulens Ord" feels as if the first song were interrupted so Jakob could take a breather from his black jeering, grab a drink, and then charge directly back into the fray. Breaks in the drumming create a sad, emotional onslaught, like a drowning man who dreams of a shore just out of reach. The opening rhythm of "Baghold" has a powerful, if understated majesty which is very reminiscent of Bathory, and the track only gets denser as it progresses. "Tågefolket" follows at 11 and a half minutes of spewed venom, and can grow trying on the patience, as it only lets up for a warlike vista and then a return from the cello near the end. Fortunately it's good enough to never fully engage your sleep mode.

The latter half of this burning longship is initiated by "Danermordet" and its howling sample, and more of the mid-paced, swaggering riffs that Quorthon could have crafted nearly two decades before. Again, no light at the end of the tunnel. No overarching melodies, just the melancholic thundering with the rhythm guitars carve into the forceful thrust of the drums. "Fødslen Og Byttet" follows suit, the last fraying ends of sanity dissolving at the nearly 10:00 mark, before the real epic of the album sets in. "Blod For Blod, Liv For Liv" is the 17+ minute crown of this work, ranging from the faster pace to the rolling marches of everything previous, and then to finally rest in an extensive cello/synthesier segment.

Despite its superior standards to any of the previous Angantyr records, Hævn is just black enough to get on your nerves, if you aren't prepared to commit yourself to its bloodstained, atavist depths. Even taken individually, the tracks are an 8+ minute investment of time. But the writing is solid and there is just enough variation in the rhythms to hang you at the edge of attention. This is not a band to break tradition, and there is nothing here that you haven't likely heard already, but overall the album is well-done, and if you can stick with it for its entirety, you are guaranteed to lose all hope.

Highlights: the long, sweet collapsing of lungs as all oxygen and life emigrate your tired body

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://www.angantyr.dk/

Unleashed - Midvinterblot (2006)

Coming off a stretch of abysmal offerings in the mid through late 90s like Victory or Warrior, there was only one inevitable direction for Unleashed: to return to their roots, and write the albums that earned their reputation in the first place. After a 5 year hiatus, they began to do so, beginning with 2002's Hell Unleashed, through Sworn Allegiance, and into this 2006 album Midvinterblot. While I can't compose a long stream of accolades for this album (and never could, for any of their work), this was a solid offering which at least had the band full circle to the level they were at with some of their earliest albums. Possibly, even surpassing those. And in contrast so many old school Swedish death metal bands in the crowded field of today, Unleashed were back to sounding like themselves...rather than aping somone else.

Unleashed maintains the same lineup as their previous record, with Johnny Hedlund on the bass/vocals, Fredrik Folkare & Tomas Måsgard on the guitars, and Anders Schultz drumming. Unlike many of their peers, Unleashed have kept a steady roster through most of their career, with only a few changes in the guitar department. These four know exactly what the band should sound like, and through Midwinterblot they hammer out 15 tracks in around 46 minutes. Yes, Unleashed keep things appropriately brief, which suits them, since they aren't exactly moguls in the riff factory. You may get 2-3 solid riffs per track, and a lead, but the band is not in the business of complexity.

"Blood of Lies" and "This is Our World Now" are quite an energetic one two combination to anoint this 7th full-length album, as both possess a thrashing energy and a decent, brief lead. I won't say that either of them is truly catchy, but they're enough to get the blood flowing and fists pounding. "We Must Join With Him" is a Tolkien-inspired track with a rolling verse rhythm, and some nice echo to Hedlund's chorus: We must join with Sauron. The title track is a stomping bruiser, similar to some of the riffs they did on their dull albums in the later 90s, but better. The speed of "In Victory or Defeat" is welcome, and the "Triumph of the Genocide" also delivers a sound beating with some nice thrashy speed along with its Rwanda massacre lyrics. "The Avenger" builds a good groove to it, with a nice break for melodic death in the chorus. "Salvation of Mankind" continues this melodic tendency with a solid charge, the lyrics espousing the clear, anti-Christian stance of the band:

Yeah, resurrect so I can vomit on the
The body of Christ

The band continues to build their speed further, with the scorching death/thrashing of "Psycho Killer", before another slowly chugging, groove-leaning track in "The Witch", with some rather lascivious, seductive lyrics. "I Have Sworn Allegiance" gallops along with a renewed fervor, the lyrics serving as a foreshadow to the whole 'Hammer Batallion' fan club schtick that would arrive with the album after this. "Age of the Warrior" opens with some Slayer-like speed chugging, and "New Dawn Rising" is another fist of thrash which occasionally bursts into winding death rhythms. The album ends with two of the stronger tracks of the 15, the rolling juggernaut that is "Loyalty and Pride", and the eerie yet glorious "Valhalla Awaits", which may have been my single favorite in the entire experience.

What you have is a long series of tracks here which are all served well by the honest tones and anchoring crunch of the production. Hedlund's vocals have rarely sounded better than here, and the riffs flowing beneath them tend towards a moderate to decent quality. Individually they might not excel, but they're forged into iron hymnals, and as a result, there are much worse albums you could kill 46 minutes with. The short length of most tracks ensures that they are kept exciting, and Midvinterblot is one of the best efforts in this band's entire career.

Highlights: We Must Join With Him, Psycho Killer, Loyalty and Pride, Valhalla Awaits

Verdict: Win [7.75/10] (dripping from her eager cleft)

http://www.unleashed.se/hammer/index.php