The band has always been a Wintersun/Ensiferum-worshipping entity, but now, with a distinct lean toward more Viking/Pagan themes and lyrics, rather than cosmic, mystical, or nature themes, the transformation is complete. Song titles like “Raise All Thy Horns”, “Mystic Tavern”, or the Swedish sung “I skogens djup” (in the depths of the forest).

I know, they have always been sort of folky/pagan-y on some of their songs, notably on The Winter Way, but the last album was called Cosmic Warfare. But here, the song structures, while still certainly absolutely bombastic as fuck, and still with some of the most rousing keyboards around, are even more…..folky? The album just feels and sounds more like Ensiferum than ever before – but on steroids.

Especially vocally, where there are more beerhall-y cleans, choirs and chants. Which was a pleasant change, as I felt they were getting darker and heavier on Inane Ducum, and new member, backing vocalist Spencer Budworth, is far less involved with his deeper bellows than on the EP.

What you have on Old Gods Awaken is a peppier, bouncier, and, dare I say, ‘happier’ Atavistia. Along with Wintersun and Ensiferum, they line up even more with some of their Canadian contemporaries like Blackguard and Nordheim. Just listen to “Seeker of Time” (which could be an Ensiferum or Turisas song), “To A New World”, or “Goddess of My Dreams”, both more restrained and controlled tracks.

It’s still epic as fuck, and again, the keyboards of founder Matt Sippola are just downright brilliant. And the band still delivers 300bpm bombastic madness with tracks like “Mystic Tavern”, “Riding the White Storm” or rollicking “I skogens djup”, which feels like Finntroll on crack.

The epic 11-minute (the album’s sole ‘long’ song) album ending title track has a Finnish-sung chorus and delivers all sorts of folky atmospheres, riffs, and vocals blended in with the band’s core blistering pace and delivery, and it ends another great Avatistia album perfectly.

This isn’t their first album; they have three previous full-length albums, and I’ll be checking them out based on this release, it’s bonkers good.

From the get-go with the sublime intro “Incipit fabula” creates a swell build-up to what is to come. “Zinnsoldat” kicks off the album in earnest with a rollicking, incredibly fun Alestorm-ish track, the keyboards have a triumphant feeling that is awe-inspiring.

“Rotes Tuch” sees the band on a bit more of an Ensiferum battle-sized track, and it’s followed by my favorite track, “Sasuke” it ticks off all the boxes reminiscent of “Sahti” from Korpiklaani’s Noita album. “Meisterdieb” expands on the Korpiklaani vibes with another wave of triumphant riffs.

“Herr vom Riesenstein” has a Helloween meets Tuonela era Amorphis vibe that is infectious, and the ending riffs are fucking deadly. “Sieben” is a gorgeous tapestry of brutal and beautiful brought together in a rising chorus that’ll have your mind blown.

The other day I had a Finntroll moment and realized it was “Trollwettessen”, a fantastically fun track that I kept hitting play on, literally banging on the phone when the song ended. “Adaba” brings an Arkona “Yarilo” vibe, and it’s so goddamn catchy it should be illegal! Add to that some killer female vocals, and it just gleefully dances on your grave.

“Tamburan” starts off majestic, but once the 2:42 mark hits, it becomes a whole different song, raging, blasting, and a raging Pagan spirit that would make Eluviete blush. “Sand” burns with a crazy harmony that is part Egyptian, and I fucking love it. It soars along towards “Schnee” with it’s wings of power, it’s absolutely fucking epic and so is the album closer “Finis Fabulae”, a sublime Borknagar-ish piano-driven lull from the thunderstorm that has just been experienced. It ended, and I just let the album replay and allowed it to boost my spirits up.

At the end of the day In Fabulis is a veritable powerhouse of Pagan Folk Metal, a band that once again, I wish I had heard sooner than now, but it’s whatever. If you love any of the bands mentioned over the course of this review, then definitely give Mandragora Titania a listen. You won’t be sorry!

The word ‘rousing’, ‘epic’, or ‘majestic’ gets thrown around a lot. And I am guilty of overusing it myself. And certainly, those words do fit on occasion, for example, Soar’s fine recent effort or 2024’s The Mist From The Mountains album, but I doubt you’ll a more fitting use of those words here in 2025 than on Havukrunnu’s stupendously good fourth album, Tavastland.

Based on the Tavastian uprising of 1235-1237, where a province of Finland rose up against The Kingdom of Sweden and the Catholic Church, the subject matter alone calls for some rousing (buckle up, I’m gonna use that word a lot), epic, and majestic metal, and holy shit do Havukruunu deliver.

The band’s sound, which still consists of atmospheric/pagan black metal mixed with Viking-era Bathory, and a less long-winded Moonsorrow (though they do have a 10-minute song on this album), a sound they and fellow Finns, Marrasmieli have mastered, has been finely honed and crafted to deliver 53 minutes of sheer, blood pumping, truly rousing black metal, heavy metal, power metal mash-up that could cause you to rise up and revolt wherever you live.

“Kuolematon laulunhenki”, starts off the fracas with a stern, mid-paced stomp rife with rousing, Hammertheart-esque clean choirs which are prevalent on almost all the songs, and it sets the tone for the next 7 tracks of sheer perfection, as it weaves a rousing, majestic path through the marching prose and eventual more urgent black metal pacing.

Going through the next 7 songs, seems mindless, as they are all simply brilliantly written and performed, and you should experience and feel them for your selves, blind, without my blathering. That said, the pure Bathory worship of “Yönsynty”, the more fierce “Talvenvarjo”, the title track’s downright blood-pumping chorus, and the vitriolic melodicism and majesty of “Unissakävijä” and its Iron Maiden ish jaunt/solo about 3:30in, are all just fucking amazing. Then, the penultimate song “Kun veri sekoittuu lumeen” feels like a Bathory tribute or medley/cover song at times, especially the closing choral moments which I think are pulled directly from Hammerheart.

11-minute closer “De Miseriis Fennorum”, gets close to being a little much, considering the album’s already pretty long run time, especially with the final 3 minutes being largely windswept atmospherics and instrumental.  However, I imagine it ends the story of the Tavastland uprising in perfect fashion (my Finnish isn’t that great), and ends another sure-fire album of the year contender from these absolute masters of their craft.

And I mean come on! Look at that gnarly friggin’ cover art! While it can never be questioned what Ensiferum‘s contribution to the world of Folk Metal has been, it’s also fair to look at the band’s earlier work and wonder what the message they were trying to send the world was with their first string of album covers. Lots of white-bearded dudes, just kinda standing around in fantastical landscapes. At least on Victory Songs they had him looking pretty mighty on horseback, but honestly it all sorta looked like some medieval warrior showing slides of his vacation around Middle Earth.

Does cover art actually matter to the quality of work on an album? I mean, no. Obviously not. But I think it’s fair to say it can serve as a real tone-setter, and Winter Storm, I reiterate, is clearly not fucking around. This dude and his wolf friend? They’re tearing fools apart. They’re on the war path. They’re clearly making it a problem for these jamokes that they decided to wake up today.

And right away on “Winter Storm Vigilantes,” Ensiferum is hitting with the heavy artillery. Mighty-as-fuck guitar melodies ring in the track with a confident burst, with Petri Lindroos deploying all his tricks of the trade with familiar raspy vocals, and Pekka Montin’s soaring Power Metal singing leading the troops into battle. But it’s when the band launches into it’s ferocious trademark thrash folk riffing that it all becomes clear that the band is ready to take it full throttle. Fire up the circle pits and strap for battle because by the time Ensiferum launches into their full-band-backed chanting I’m about ready to burst through some wall of ice, swords blazing and ready for blood.

After the band flexes it’s more Power Metal-focused muscles on “Long Winter of Sorrow and Strife,” “Fatherland” lays back down on the accelerator with more ferocious riffing, and an all-timer of a chorus that, though I’m sure some weird war-painted right-winger will try to use this to make some overtly racist video edit on YouTube (we obviously can’t have nice things), should bring a welcome swell of vigor and might to any listener’s chest. It’s a doozy you just can’t help but sing along with, probably whilst raising some stein of beer or mead in celebration.

The sense of growth and confidence in the band’s songwriting is shown in spades on the more melancholy but really lovely “Scars in my Heart” (featuring Madeleine Liljestam of Eleine) which has the band throwing down a heart-wrenching tale of love lost and tragedy (that’s right it’s not all fields of battle and glory here, heathens). Even the more mid-paced “The Howl” (which, funnily enough, with it’s catchy keyboard melodies doesn’t sound so far removed from a Powerwolf track) is delivered with such confidence and strong songwriting that once again you can’t help but get just as whipped up in its powerful charm. If you’re not indoctrinated into the Ensiferum army  by the time album closer “Victorious” comes marching through your headphones or speakers, I’m sorry to say there’s no resistance. You’re going to war whether you like it or not. A clear throwback sledgehammer, this is the kind of metal anthem that we all knew Ensiferum perfectly capable of, but will no less get your dead heart racing with Heavy Metal pride.

The gauntlet thrown down with Thalassic as the band’s sort-of reinvigoration has proven to be just the start of Ensiferum’s reclamation of the Finnish Folk Metal throne. The vets have come back swinging and thoughts in prayers to any who dare step in their way. My soundtrack for the oncoming, inevitable fury of another northern winter has dropped just in time, and damned if I’m not good and ready to face it head-on.

With each release they have surpassed themselves, evoking images of their gorgeous homeland through the music. Albums such as 2009’s Goi, Rode, Goi! With the infectiously heavy, yet fun as fuck “Yarilo”, 2014’s Yav and 2018’s Khram have seen the band grow like a mighty oak. Somber passages lead to blasting upheaves on their recent magnum opus Kob’ (‘Sorcery’), an eight-track Pagan Black Metal beast with a flaming heart.

From spiritual opener “Izrechenie. Nachalo” (‘The Speech. The Beginning’), flows into the title track with the force of raging rapids. If it seems like I’m on an arboreal trip here it’s because Kob’ makes me feel like I’m walking in some Kincade painting of a mystical European forest, I’m talking fairies and shit, like if Princess Mononoke was set in Russia. So, continuing in that train of thought (and since I’m a creative writer at heart), there’s the epic core of the album in “Ydi” an 11.48-minute assault that shifts tempos so many times it’s like an attack from a fucking bear.

“Ugasaya” (‘Fadin’ Away’), begins with ominous spoken word and an atmosphere thick with menace before this sick as a dying sonofabitch passage with just the bass and the drums doing this hypnotic beat and when this song soars it fucking goes high as an eagle, in true Arkona fashion once the blast from Alexander Smirnov comes in and Masha switches from Black Metal to soaring vocals before the end.

“Na Zakate Bagrovogo Solntsa”, “Razryvaya plot’ ot bezyskhodnosti bytiya” (‘Tearing the flesh owing to the despair of being’) and the soothing “Izrechenie. Iskhod” (Eng. The Speech. The Conclusion) closes out the album in grand fashion; the former two are Black Metal creatures pulsing with the blackest blood, while the latter is like a soothing pond.

I did multiple listens to this album, and each time I heard a different thing; sometimes subtle as a time change or a riff that I hadn’t picked up on previously and that’s what makes Arkona genre leaders at what they do. They’re consistently good and keep the listener captivated. I could complain about this being a streaming-only promo which made it a tad bit hard to navigate back to the album if I had closed windows or something like that (look at that, I did complain), this in no way reflects on the band or their music…

Anyway, enough of that whining. Ultimately, I have nothing negative to say about Kob’ so that’s the moral of this story. A ‘For fans of’, section might seem pointless, because seriously if you like Arkona you’re probably already a fan of Eluviete, Varmia, and Bathory’s Nordland saga in terms of the music painting a picture as each song progresses and adds color to the work. Clocking in at just a couple seconds over an hour Kob’ is long, but not dauntingly so and it’s an album that could be put on repeat to let the beauty wash over your eardrums. So, get it when it comes out, I hear Napalm Records is doing a wood collectors box that would look good on any bookshelf. Just saying.

Arise is the second album from newish Swiss act, Nidhoeggr (the dragon that’s eternally chewing on the roots of Yggdrasil in Norse Mythology), and it’s a fun, catchy little record that mixed two of my favorites and two of the genre’s better bands Heidevolk and Svartsot.

By that, you get crunchy melodic death metal of Svartsot, with deeper, gruff vocals and the cleaner, bouncier aspects of Heidevolk’s folk instrumentation/keyboards and occasional clean vocals. You also get the occasional more despondent vibe here and there (i.e “Onwards”, the first half of “Rise and Fall”) and a few injections of more impish Svartby-like romps, and it all comes together for a varied and impressive, but more importantly enjoyable album.

These guys are definitely are a bit more fun than the pagan/Viking/folk serious subject matter they sing about (they had an EP in 2013 called… Ragnarok n’ Roll…). Especially in the album’s first half where after the intro you get “The Journey”, which has a great little Svartby/Finntroll stomp, which surfaces again in “Twilight Zone” and the playful bounce of “Scorched Earth” and urgent, catchy canter of “Mighty Willow”, and is clearly when the band is at their best.

But the latter stages of the album take a darker, more depressive turn with “Desolation” and “God of Lies” which both have more of a recent Thyrfing sternness to them, even with the lush keys, they are far less uplifting than the earlier songs. The last 2 songs, “Winter’s Wight” and the title track, cement the late album mood swing with the latter being an almost 6-minute ‘dark’ ballad which rally imbues a sad Heidevolk .

Art Gates has dabbled in Viking/folk metal before with the likes of Sovengar and recently, the solid Havamal, but with Nidhoeggr and Arise, they might have found a real gem in a genre that really needed an injection of fresh new blood.

But since that booming heyday of Folk Metal’s glory day, it’s been a bit of a mixed bag. It may be one thing for a band to begin integrating folk elements to expand their own boundaries, but where do you go when you start squarely in the realm of fiddles, tin whistles and accordions? When your starting point is already a little bit “out-there” for metal, how do you progress?

Well, for one of Folk Metal’s more (relatively) consistent and successful acts, Finland’s Ensiferum took a more cautious approach toward change and experimentation, with later albums seeing the band seeming to attempt to take a more “mature” and “serious” approach to their sound, starting most notably on 2012’s uncharacteristically moody and mid-paced Unsung Heroes. Perhaps wondering if maybe they took things too far in that direction, the band returned three years later with One Man Army, bringing back a bit more of the more rollicking nature of their earlier work, but adding some… uh… quirky elements to their arsenal, most notably on the song “Two of Spades” which featured… there’s really no other way to put this… a disco-folk break mid-way through that, in what I believe was an attempt to be fun and cheeky, just came across as weird and ill-fitting. 2017’s Two Paths saw the band seeming to get the ship at least pointed back in a better direction, with more of an emphasis on frolicking, folky fun that made their earlier work so good, although not without its own bit of awkward growth – this time showing a greater willingness to run with clean vocals. This in and of itself isn’t an inherently bad thing, but the cleans just felt unpolished and not quite sure of themselves here.

I know it took me a long time to get to this point, but here’s the ultimate upshot to all this backstory: On Thelassic, Ensiferum have taken the lessons learned from an entire catalogue’s worth of successes and misses, smoothed out some of the jagged edges, and have finally put everything together into one complete, thoroughly entertaining and impressive album that, to me, is absolutely their best work yet.

First thing’s first – they certainly haven’t left the fun behind on this one – the album’s first proper track, “Rum, Women, Victory” serving as a prime example of what happens when these guys are able to put the whole package together. Wonderfully epic and infectious melodies, a super fun, sing-along hook, and some serious musical ability on full display has this album kicking in the door and blasting your skull with a 10 mega-ton hammer blow right from the jump. And credit where credit is due, the clean vocals (from new keyboardist Pekka Montin) on this track, and throughout the entire album, have been MASSIVELY improved, making for a truly enjoyable component to the band’s already vast repertoire.

I also love that the band seems to have simplified how they utilize their folk elements. They haven’t tried to make folk-disco or folk-funk or any other monstrous concoctions, they’ve just stuck to the basics and let the folk influences flow much more naturally into the song structures and melodies. As a result, songs like “Andromeda” and “For Sirens” carry a distinctively Amorphis-like vibe that totally make the more emotional moments on this album feel more deep and sincere. They also help create a beautiful balance to the more upbeat, bombastic tracks like “The Defense of the Sampo” and “Run From the Crushing Tide” that are more purpose-built for the kind of crowd-pleasing energy that has always made this band such an engaging listening experience. Conversely, the more folk-forward “Midsummer Magic” still manages to avoid feeling silly or misplaced – it’s a fun, beer-swilling, grab-your-buddy-and-sing-along tune that would feel right at home in some middle earth pub’s jukebox.

Ensiferum have pulled off a clever trick here – they’ve managed to blend the mead-chugging fun of Korpiklaani, the technical wizardry of Wintersun, and the epic might of Moonsorrow into one cohesive, expertly crafted package. They’ve managed to find that Amon Amarth sweet spot of being able to be sort of all things to all metalheads – a legit display of metal mastery, with enough accessibility to make this a truly memorable, lovable record. Grab your drinking horns, don your shields, and get those fists pumping in the air, friends! Ensiferum have made a truly awesome folk metal masterpiece.

But fuck it, I’m lazy , so…..they are an Amon Amarth rip off. The stomping, epic riffs, the hulking front-man with gruff bellows, the viking themes? Yeah, they aren’t even subtle about it. I said it.

That said, they are a  really good one, and the comparison is fair. And to be honest, some of the material on Die Wilde Jagd (‘The Wild Hunt’) is often better than Amon Amarth‘s lazier efforts. I mean one listen to some of the tracks like the opening title track,  “Seite an Seite” (with a chorus that shares more than a little with Amon Amarth‘s “Raise Your Horns”, and has an extended version tacked on the end of the album), “Irminsul” or moodier “Drachentöterand” it’s hard not to think of Once Sent From the Golden Hall.

There are a few more black metal blasts here and there such as personal favorite “Codex Gigas”, “Penumbra” and “Wolfshunger” but they still generally reek heavily of their Swedish peers.  Truly, only the more traditional heavy metal stylings of “Weder Gott, noch Könige” or “300” do not have that full on, instantly familiar tone., though its still a little present.

But still, armed with a really powerful, beefy production (arguably netter than some of Amon Amarth‘s recent releases) from Jörg Uken (Aposento, Dew Scented, Sinister, God Dethroned, Weak Aside) and plenty of rousing, mead swilling, sword swinging tunes, Die Wilde Jagd  is a damn good album that I’m giving lots of listening time to. And they do say mimicry is the highest form of flattery, so Amon Amarth should be well and truly flattered by Asenblut and Die Wilde Jagd.

Of course, don’t fret- it’s still an Amon Amarth album, highly polished, often rousing, melodic Viking death metal, but often a bit safe and predictable. And honestly, they haven’t delivered a truly bad album in their long discography, and Berserker is not a bad album at all, but it continues the more melodic trend heard on 2016s Jomsviking.  And like that last album, there are a few ragers, some filler, and some downright commercial numbers, but all of it instantly recognizable as Amon Amarth, good and bad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H24S0nym-pE

Let’s start with the good, as with all of their albums that a couple of tracks that just get it right, delivering, blood pumping, fist pounding anthems of Viking furor: opener “Fafner’s Gold”, standout “Valkyria”, first single “Raven’s Flight” and “Ironside” see Amon Amarth at their melodic, heaving, hammering, viking  best, while the trio of “The Berserker at Stamford Bridge”, “When Once Again We Set Our Sails” and closer “Into the Dark” add a little somber atmosphere to the fray with good effect.

But there are also a few tracks of sugary, bouncy, predictable, almost arena/radio friendly rock, only made death metal by Hegg’s coarse growls: “Crack the Sky”, “Mjölner, Hammer of Thor”, “Shield Wall” and “Wings of Eagles” (which could be an Unearth number without the Viking vocals and lyrics), while certainly expected Amon Amarth numbers are just a bit too light in the pommel for my liking, despite some undeniable catchiness (especially “Skoll and Hati”).

There’s an old saying in (American) football: “Looks like Tarzan, plays like Jane”, and with the cover artwork adorning Berserker and then the music contained within, it seems a appropriate here as Berserker is the band’s least impressive album in while. But no doubt it wont stop the Viking juggernaut from continuing to make consistent albums for the foreseeable future, I just hope they have a bit of an uptick for the next one.

So, I decided to check out the band’s 13th conceptual album (that continues an over aching story from the prior 3 albums- i.e Odalheim had a song called “White Christ”), from late last year, just to see if one of the remaining holdovers from the Swedish death metal explosion of the 90s still had it after all these years , and boy do they!  With the same lineup since 1995, the sound is essentially the same as almost 30 years ago, but the band has smartly modernized the production and such, giving their dusty old Viking death metal romps a nice sheen and shine, like a rusty old sword polished up and sharpened for battle.

The opener “Lead Us Into War”, (the song that lured me back in) gets things going right away, with one of the band’s best songs in years, and an apt, rousing opener, with a killer marching chorus and some nice lead work. The next 10 tracks deliver classic Unleashed with a modern edge. From the fierce “You Will Fall”, one of my favorite songs, “Gram” with a classic headbanging riff in the chorus, moodier, almost middle eastern “Terror Christ”, mid-paced crunch of “By The Western Wall” to closer “Open to All the World”, the albums longest track that has a little of everything in Unleashed’s arsenal. There seems to be a slightly less black metal influence than Odalheim, and more control and leads, but its all undeniably and instantly recognizable as Unleashed and you can’t say that about many bands nowadays (even some of their 90s peers).

Hedlund has the same vocals he had in the early 90s, and all the lyrics are all focused on Vikings and battle etc, missing the odd forays into real world, non-Viking stuff that the band dabbled in a few albums ago. Also, the fact the seminal bands they came up with in the 90s (Entombed, Grave, Dismember) are defunct, dull or split in half,  and these guys have truly stayed the course with only a  misstep or two, is a testament to Hedlund and Unleashed’s staying power.  Consider me fully back on board the longship.

Well, early in 2018, Dalriada ( my new favorites in the genre)  Frost Giant, Battlesoul and Swedes Grimner look to continue the trend with their 3rd album, Vanadrottning. These guys got my attention back in 2016 with Frost mot eld,  and the new album continues with that high quality. It’s in the more bouncy/catchy/happy, almost Finnish realm of lavishly produced, face painted, folk/viking metal with lots of keyboards, flutes (lots), Mandola, bagpipes, clean vocals, etc rather than the more blackened pagan realms of say Drudkh or Wallachia or more folk death metal crunch of Svartsot  (though both enjoy the same prevalence of pipes/flutes).

And catchy as fuck it is. There’s are handful of tracks on Vanadrottning that are just ridiculously catchy and will make many a folk/viking metal warrior or warrior-ess sway and jig with glee. The duo of  third track “En fallen jätte” ( the 2:33 mark is pretty much the perfect folk metal romp) and fourth track “Kvällningssång” with its Finntroll ish like march and bounce deliver some downright silly addictive folk metal moments. It’s too damn good and both bring a smile to my face everytime I hear them.

Later in the album, epic trot of “Fafnersbane”, upbeat gallop of “Dödens dans”, “Ägers salar” with its sing along chorus and crunchy mid song break and bonus/last track “Freja vakar” with its almost disco like break deliver more of the same, with the same grin cracking results.  It’s disposable, fun stuff that the band has perfected. They only really ramp the fun factor down once of the album, the penultimate track “Sången Om Grimner”, a ballad of sorts, but it ends a pretty damn good album rather fittingly.

Listen- there is a lot going on here- not just epic folk /viking metal with some tangible  Finnish (Turisas/Ensiferum/Brymir) and Canadian (Nordheim/Vesperia/Blackguard),  blackened, power metal influences. There’s prog ,thrash and even some hardcore thrown into the mix. You could look to fellow Pennsylvania act Lör for some reference as far as all the elements delivered here.

At the heart of Frost Giant‘s epic varied sound is the vocals of Matt Frost, who amid typical blackened screams are some superb clean ‘wiking’ vocals (along with gang chants, growls, female vocals etc), which really give many of the standout tracks some depth. Case and point , second track (after the instrumental opening title track) “Forgive Me Not”- a simply gorgeous chorus and vocal line bolsters some Finnish blackened epic riffage and rousing keys. “Curse of Doubt” delviers the same sound but adds a somber mid section and solo. After an interlude (more on that later) we get “Prisoner of the Past” , where the album takes a fun, romping Finntroll-ish turn, complete with kazoos. Yes, kazoos.

While the whole album is damn good, the album’s standout is easily, “Of Clarity and Regret”, a 7 minute, almost full on power metal number that delivers more  superb clean vocals and a second half that will end up making it one of the more uplifting songs of the year. The album closes (outro not withstanding) with the almost 10 minute “Monuments to Nothing”, a rangy, epic number that covers all the bands bases with some excellent female vocals and added lei lei lei’s (admittedly a guilty pleasure of mine) thrown in for good measure and damn good fun.

On the very minor downside, Frost likes his interludes, with 5 of them appearing on the album. I get the opener and closer (“Perpetuum et Aeternum”), but the other three  break up the rip roaring momentum, other than “An Exile in Storm” which utilizes Frost’s voice, so I’m OK with that. But ultimately the album kills and is none of the more promising US debuts I’ve heard in a while, and certainly a band I will be keeping and eye on.

However, the US (and certainly Canada for that matter) has started to see an increase in such acts, with the likes of Blackguard, Crimson Shadows, Nordheim and Vesperia — each having delivered rather solid releases, showing that this continent is perfectly capable of delivering the Viking/folk goods.

Hammer Horde are certainly the cream of the thin American crop though. Their delivery and grasp of the genre is as authentic and rousing as anything from Scandinavia and retains the influences mentioned in the opening  paragraph. And with Vinlander the band has added just a little bit of control and pacing amid the blustery melodic blasts. They have also shortened and focused the songs just a tiny bit (the album is 54 minutes long versus the full hour of the debut) so the impact and dynamics don’t overstay their welcome as they did a little bit on Mighty Oath.

As a result, Vinlander is a perfect example of the genre. Though still, a fairly full throttle affair of power metal meets melodic black metal with Viking/folk tinges, some controlled choruses, clean vocals amid the hawkish rasps and a few slower moments give the album a truly epic feel.  And while 54 minutes is still a bit long for this kind of album, every note and riff bounces and blazes with energy and rousing anthemic aplomb.  The clean vocals, as with the debut heavily imbue Forefather, which is a pretty strong reference point.

But the focus of the album  is the high octane blackened melodic moments that fill a majority of the tracks such as blistering openers “Infinite War Thirst” and “Vinlander” and super frenetic “Archaic Offerings” . Third track “Hero’s Heart”,  while still a full on number, adds a little more somber mood to the riffage before “Oathkeeper” slows things down proper (for the most part) with a really heavily Forefather influenced jaunt. “Hymn of the Fjords” is a mid-album instrumental break before “Riders of Annihilation” delivers one of  the album’s standout track with patient, epic canters bleeding seamlessly into several truly rousing moments. “Led by the Ancient Light” is the album’s other ‘moodier’ (relatively speaking) track, injecting some nice folky acoustics to the mix. The there is the requisite party, beers’n’mead number in “Midgardian Revelry”, though it never fully steps into Korpiklaani-ish frivolity. The album closes with another instrumental (“Hoddmimir’s Holt”) and “The Curse of Andvari” a pretty standard Hammer Horde number, which admittedly at the 50 minute mark is starting to repeat itself.

Despite the length, the album is damn fun.  The production is crisp , with some nice crunchy guitars and the keyboards are subtle rather than beating you over the head with folky symphonics is more common place with their European brethren. And the end result is a fine  effort showing Hammer Horde is more than competent at competing with their European counterparts and adds a confident American tinge to an otherwise dry year for Viking/folk metal.

Originally self-released back in 2010 and now reissued by Maple Metal Records, Lost in the North delivers everything in very similar fashion to Bolero (who just changed their name to Vesperia)  and America’s own Hammer Horde or Blackguard; that’s to say very heavily Ensiferum/ Turisas/Equilibrium  influenced epic and melodic folk, viking metal with a bouncy black-ish power metal gait and lots of rousing synths, ‘Viking’ vocals and such.

Admittedly, Lost In the North doesn’t start so impressively with a couple of tracks that do little to rouse or inspire as the instrumental title track and “Nightborn” do little than rehash second tier Ensiferum leftovers with a sloppy energy. However, things do start to get better, and in the end the album ends up being a decent little slab of the genre. Certainly not a special act, and certainly not quite up to par with the bands mentioned above, but a fun little release nonetheless.

“Far Away” starts the albums improvement with a nifty mid-song chorus and stern march. But then “Beer, Metal, Trolls and Vomit!” really takes off with a super catchy, Korpiklaani-styled romp, and also shows that Nordheim have a little mischievous undercurrent in their cliched sound. Things make a more somber turn for “Promise to  the Gods”, which is a moody slower number. Then “Glorious March” delivers a varied but drawn out and slightly stale number. But as is par for the album, things pick right back up with the excellent seafaring  “Sailing the Drakkar”, and segues into “Old Crazy Man”, with another dash of humor and another high octane, bouncy catchy number.

The album closes with the duo of “Beyond the Howling North”, an majestic, anthemic number I picture as a popular live set closer, and “Blessing from the Stars” a rousing mid paced number I also envision as a popular live number. With these two tracks and the better tracks scattered around the album, Nordhiem show some potential in the genre and when they plant their tongue firmly in their cheek, they certainly fill a niche in the genre. I look forward to them developing and tightening up their sound a little more.

Bouncy happy amicable metal is the order of the day with a power metal back bone beefed up with melodic death metal and some harsh rasps and growls. Of course, it’s all backed by plenty of sweeping synths and folky instrumentation here and there (mouth harp, accordion etc) and a lavish production and presentation

There’s nothing on the album that’s going to reinvent the genre or convert folk/viking metal detractors, but I have to admit the album is a very fun listen. Admittedly, opener “Lex Talonis” is actually a pretty bland number hardly setting great expectations, but with the rousing, following “Arminius” Nothgard hit their stride and never look back, despite a little repetition towards the albums end and songs that are about a minute too long . “Under the Serpent Sign” is downright catchy, with a killer opening and mid song jig a that might be the band’s signature song. “Einherjer” slows things down a little with a moodier, mid-paced Amon Amarth -ish march before the albums middle point spoken word interlude “‘Shadows Arise”.

“Blackened Sky” gets things going again with a pretty standard epic number before “Victory” delivers yet another of the albums standouts, and feature a few more deeper vocals. These two tracks highlight that Nothgard are simply more enjoyable when delivering shorter sharper, mire direct bursts of bombastic folk metal (later seen again for “Spirit” and “Rise after Falling”) rather than dragging out their songs to 5 and 6 minutes (“Warhorns of Midgard”, “Ragnarok”), though they are still enjoyable.

The comparison to the bands mentioned in the opening paragraph are more than likely enough to convince folks if Nothgard are worthwhile or not, but personally the band, along with Skalmond‘s debut, show that folk/viking metal in 2011 has some promising and energetic young acts to continue fighting the battle.

Although hailing from Sweden, Dibbukim play………”Yiddish folk metal.”

I’m going to let that sink in.

Yep. Yiddish metal. All lyrics are in Yiddish the album mixes original songs as well as metal  covers of traditional Yiddish songs. Initially, you’d think that Dibbukim are some sort of shallow gimmick band, but the band consists of members of other respectable folk metal acts like Yggdrasil and Folkearth, so there’s some musical credibility here.

Stylistically, Dibbukim‘s sound is fairly lite, lying somewhere between In Extremo and Korpiklaani as far as the metal backbone is concerned. But of course the structures are all Yiddish in pace and gait. I can’t really explain it, but if and when you hear it, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Listen to  Dibbukim‘ s take on “Papirosn”, a traditional Yiddish tango/waltz of sorts, which some may recognize, to get my gist. It’s the same way some bands simply sound ‘Finnish’ or ‘Romanian’.  The main vocals are female, and all clean, delivered by Ida Olniansky with some backing male help here and there. Olniansky isn’t the strongest singer, but she has a somber restrained tone that’s quite sorrowful, even during the more upbeat Yiddish jig numbers, and she’s often helped out with her male associates, covering her weaknesses.

I had to do some research to find out what were covers of traditional Yiddish songs and what are original songs, as my knowledge of Yiddish song craft is fairly limited, but to their credit, Dibbukim blend the two seamlessly, and the casual, non Jewish listener simply wont be able to tell. That being said, after multiple listens and some research the 5 original songs (“Hinter Dem Tol”, “A Mabl Fun Mashke”, “Der Tants”, “Khaloymes” and “Der Rodmakher”) do tend do come across as a bit more forced and traditionally metal. The other 7 cover tracks do have a little more folky bounce and traditional gait (“Csárdás”), but again, that’s only after looking them up and many listens. They also sound much more somber  and hymnal as “A Mol Iz Geven A Mayse” and “Oyfn Veg Shteyt A Boym” show.

There is some decent music here and I can’t fault a band wanting to do something so different in the realms of metal. But to be truly honest, it’s hard to recommend Az A Foygl Un A Goylem Tantsn as more than a curiosity or oddity. Beyond the Yiddish influence, the music is actually pretty average folk/heavy metal that leaves little impact, but I still applaud the ambition and I’m curious if they will stick around and release more records.