I thought it would be really cool, considering the last country on my short whistlestop tour of Metal is my own homeland, if I could finish this look at Viking Metal by reviewing an Irish example, but I can't find one, or at least, one with output I can find, so I'm going for an American one instead. Believe me, it wasn't as easy as it would seem. Most of the bands that came up either had no albums or their albums were not available. So I ended up with this, which was, ironically, the very first name on the list. I skipped it because it sounded too much like Finntroll, but, you know, beggars can't be etc.
Sea of blood --- Finsternis --- 2007 (Independent)
To be honest, I'm expecting a more brutal form of Viking Metal here. Don't quite know why, but I just don't see it being anything like progressive or power or anything. More edging towards the dark side, as it were. But we'll see. This is the debut and so far only album from Waco, Texas-based Finsternis, and what a bunch of Texans has to do with Vikings you'll have to decide yourself. But then, we can't all be born in the lands of the Norse legends can we, and that shouldn't be a barrier to playing this sort of music if you have the right spirit and the talent. Have Finsternis? Got the attitude and the talent? Read on...
It's a dark, low-key, ominous sort of opening to “Resounding”, a snarling electric guitar rising through the mix as the percussion stomps in, the beat getting faster as the vocal reveals itself to be a scratchy, screechy one which I was kind of expecting. Yeah, Vitzel (they all use single names apparently) is not going to be one of my favourite vocalists. Guitar work is good, thanks to Nettie (seriously? Nettie? He couldn't think of a harder, more Viking name than that?
) and it's basically a slow plodder, not quite in doom metal territory but not too far removed from it at times. The album has only seven tracks, but with one clocking in at ten minutes and most of the rest not falling below the six or seven minute mark, we're not exactly looking at an EP here! Tempo's quickening now a little, but it's a little basic, after the violins, accordions and orchestra we've been listening to from Turisas.
“The journey” is that long ten-minuter I told you about, and it starts with a nice melodic gutar that sort of sways along though somehow I get the feeling it's out of tune, or something is, though I assume that's being done deliberately, to achieve an effect the band want to create. The guitar slows down now, almost acoustic, very gentle for the first two minutes. When Kuester comes in properly on the drums it speeds up slightly, though not that much. With the appearance of the vocals from Vitzel it takes on a faster, harder edge for a time, then turns into a sort of romp as the song reaches the fourth minute. To be fair to him, I've heard much worse than Vitzel, and you can basically make out what he's saying. His voice is certainly very powerful and I guess fits in with that sort of ragged, raw, gruff feel you get from a lot of Viking Metal. Nice little melodic guitar passage there in the eighth minute, with some fine bass from Anreischken. Then it all winds up for the big finish, throttles open and hammers down as Vitzel screams his head off. Strangely enough, it ends though on a very ambient guitar piece.
A fast riffing guitar finds us “In the halls of the wicked”, the song itself striding along with purpose, falling into a marching rhythm before slowing down at the halfway point to allow Nettie to run another of his introspective passages, Anreischken walking carefully behind him as the tune gives a feeling of building up to something. And it is. In the fifth minute Nettie winds up his guitar and lets loose, Kuester pounding in with the drums too and Vitzel roars the final verse, or chorus, or whatever it is. There's a sense of folk music to “Phantom carrack”, before it bursts off on a fast guitar line up to about the halfway point again, when it briefly slows down then speeds up again. I'd have to say though, other than the tempo changes there's not a whole lot going on here, and little to interest me.
Well, that said, there are some tubular bells or somesuch coming in there at the end, and a nice laconic guitar line to close it all out. That was unexpected, in an album that was becoming very predictable and stale. The title track is up next, and using more bells, this time dark pealing funeral ones, we have a slow moody intro on guitar with a really bleak bassline driving the tune. Now though the ambience is destroyed as Nettie starts riffing hard, and we're back to the basic sort of music these guys seem to thrive on. Yeah, I really can't find anything here to get too excited about. Vitzel is certainly enjoying himself, bellowing to his heart's content. He cuts back a little on the growls as the song moves into its last minute, more bells ringing and a faster solo taking it there.
You probably know what to expect from a song entitled “War song”, and with dour rolling drums and a groaning guitar we go for nearly two minutes of the almost seven the track runs for without vocals, other than Vitzel roaring “War” and “Death!” before it speeds up on a harder guitar, the percussion intensifying to meet it, Nettie displaying some really fine chops on the frets. Goes kind of “Children of the grave” for the concluding section, trundling along nicely and taking us to the closer, and the shortest track, “Denoument”.
Less than two minutes long, it's a relaxed, laidback instrumental with what sounds very much like violin driving it, the sounds of muted thunder overhead; an understated, low-key kind of coda to the album.
TRACKLISTING
1. Resounding
2. The journey
3. In the halls of the wicked
4. Phantom carrack
5. Sea of blood
6. War song
7. Denoument
I certainly won't say that Americans can't or shouldn't do Viking Metal: I haven't heard nearly enough to make that sort of pronouncement. But of the albums I've heard over the course of this short series this probably ranks as one of the worst, and I wonder is it coincidence that it doesn't come from the lands where the Vikings originated? But even Spanish Viking Metal seems better than this. Mind you, it does have all the hallmarks of the subgenre and maybe it's just that I don't particularly like the less inventive, straightforward Viking Metal; I'm more for Turias, Einherjer and Bathory, who put a lot of thought into their music.
Not that I'm sure Finsternis don't also work hard on theirs, but just here it doesn't show, not to me. It seems very basic and unimaginative. I would have preferred to have heard a few instruments other than just guitar, bass and drums. I feel this band is lacking something, and their songs don't seem all that well constructed to me. But again, as I've said a few times this month, what do I know?
So that's our short exploration of Viking Metal over. Hope you enjoyed it, and if you, like me, knew little or nothing about the subgenre before this then I hope it's helped open your eyes a little to this kind of music. Whether that's been for the good or the bad is of course up to you. For myself, I've enjoyed a lot of the bands here, but I've come to see that whereas I always sort of saw Viking Metal as a kind of offshoot of power metal, it's something more than that, something much different. It's primal, tribal, even brutal, but it reflects a deep understanding for and love of the traditions of the ancient Scandinavian warriors. Like them I suppose, sometimes it's hard to understand the vocals, but as when you were menaced by a Viking brandishing a battleaxe you didn't need to know what he was saying, so too the music here drives much of the enjoyment you get from Viking Metal.
It's almost always loud, often cacophonously so, but behind it usually lies a story, a tale of heroism and bravery, of gods and men, of times long past and often of a religion which sought to crush it, and which in the end did. But the names and traditions and stories of the Norsemen live on through this music, and for that we should be thankful. It's not for everyone, and it doesn't always quite click, but when it does --- oh Odin! It's like Happy Hour in the Halls of Valhalla! So if you like this sort of music, drink your fill, because the taps are always flowing, and the drink is free. And best of all, there's no hangover --- unless you bang your head too vigorously, of course!