Having last time picked a band I already knew, it seems only fair to conclude this part of the section with one I have never heard of, although I'm sure there are plenty of them around. I can't say for certain if this subgenre is for me --- vocals are hard to get around sometimes --- but the lyrical matter is like candy to someone like me, brought up on the myths and legends of the Norsemen and further, being a big fan of The Mighty Thor in Marvel comics when I was growing up. And so the band I chose happens to reflect that sort of songwriting, which I assure you is pure coincidence...
Hailing from Norway, perhaps the true spiritual home of the Vikings, Einherjer apparently means “one in an army” or “one who fights alone”. How those things are not mutually exclusive I don't know, but then I don't speak Norwegian, so maybe it's some weird idiosyncrasy endemic to that language. At any rate, Einherjer have been around since 1994, and unlike some or indeed most of the other bands in the subgenre they don't seem to have evolved from black metal beginnings. Some of their music does lean, I'm told, in that direction, but even their first album, “Dragons of the north” was a Viking Metal album --- well it would be wouldn't it, with a title like that? -- with songs about warriors, raids and gods. That however is not the one I'm going to take a look at.
Odin owns ye all --- Einherjer --- 1998 (Century Media)
This is their second album, and thankfully for me, all the lyrics are in English. It opens, oddly enough, with a strong organ from Gerhard Storesund, and it's a slow, marching beat, very cinematic, almost reminiscent of one of those operas of Wagner, and yes it's a short intro before it breaks into a real guitar assault and the drums pound in as “Out of Ginnungagap” kicks its way into the album. The vocal is raw and hoarse but very listenable. The tempo remains hard but slow, and tells the story of creation according to Norse myth, where Ymir, he Frost Giant, is slain by his three sons, one of whom is Odin, who builds the earth, known as Midgard. For this reason vocalist Ragnarr Vikse tells us
”Odin owns us all, and we owe all to him.” Some great guitar work from Frode Glesnes, who then leads in “Clash of the elder” on a much softer guitar.
The vocal is cleaner too, the beat still heavy but slow, some very nice tinkling piano adding to the atmosphere of the song. Breaks into a sort of warrior chant for a while, getting into something of a groove before the keys come back in. There's kind of a progressive metal edge to the song, mostly due to the often incongruous-sounding keyboards. The song itself seems to tell of the rise to power of Odin and his war with the Vanir, their enemy gods. The title track then rides on a hard guitar line that continues to drive it as the vocal makes its entrance and with slightly neoclassical twists in the melody it tells the lament of an old warrior left to die, perhaps of old age, as his friends have all fallen in battle. Ol' Glesnes then rips off the opening riff from Maiden's “22 Acacia Avenue” as the song piles into an instrumental on which he demonstrates his dexterity on the guitar.
“Remember Tokk” refers to a disguised Loki, who refused to weep for Balder, the most beautiful of gods, and so condemned him to remain in the Underworld. It's a slightly faster track, with elements of power metal in the melody, although I must say I don't hear the keyboards here at all, where I would have thought they would have been quite prominent. Glesnes (no I will
not call him Frodo!) makes up for their absence with a powerful and melodic solo, but then Storesund brings his rig in to add to the tune. It is a guitar-centric piece though, fuelled by the mocking laughter of Loki as he envisages the end:
”Hark! Is that the battle horn?/ Has Ragnarok been born?” An event that every other god in Asgard dreads and fears is that which the evil half-brother of Thor looks forward to with ghoulish glee, when he will lead his dark forces against Odin and the gods.
The greatest achievement a warrior can reach is celebrated in “Home”, as the brave are led into the halls of Valhalla. As you might expect, it's a fast, joyous tune, powering along on Glesnes's guitar, as a warrior chant welcomes the honoured dead to their final resting place. I can't say an awful lot about “The pathfinder and the prophetess” though: it's a little bog standard though it does have some pretty freaky 70s-style organ which almost saves it, and a decent warrior chorus. Yeah, not bad, just not as good as the tracks before it. “Inferno”, now, has a dark, menacing vibe about it as it strides along purposefully, like a warrior mowing down enemies on either side as Ragnarok finally descends upon the world. Touches of both Sabbath and Dio in the music, with a sort of Egyptian style riff that should really be out of place but somehow manages not to be.
Lush keyboards and serene bass drive the closer, “A new Earth”, as the gods are swept away and the only survivors, a man and a woman on Midgard, are left to rebuild the human race without the tutelage and/or interference of the Aesir. A triumphant march, perhaps glorifying the chance of man to stand on his own two feet, runs through this and it begins to gallop along, exulting in the birth of humanity, or at least a humanity that has its own destiny in its hands.
TRACKLISTING
1. Leve Vikingeaanden
2. Out of Ginnungagap
3. Clash of the elder
4. Odin owns ye all
5. Remember Tokk
6. Home
7. The pathfinder and the prophetess
8. Inferno
9. A new earth
This section seems to show in the end that there are many facets to Viking Metal, from the roaring, growling, unintelligible vocals of Enslaved to the more power metal approach of Tyr, and Einherjer manage the almost unimaginable feat of telling the entire history of the Norse gods, from the creation of the world to the Twilight of the Gods, in one album. Certainly a versatile subgenre and one that merits a lot more investigation, but I have not that much time so the next section will be the last before I wrap this up. So far though, I'm pretty impressed on the whole.