Yesterday I also went thrift store shopping and found three CDs for a combined price of $5.50 (James McMurtry, Bonnie Raitt and Clannad). More on those on some future date when I randomly roll them for review, but feel free to be excited immediately.
Disc 1929 is…Norron
Artist: Einherjer
Year of Release: 2011
What’s up with the Cover? Two woodland beings emerge from the roots of a tree. I was initially inclined to say this was Yggdrasil, the enormous tree central to Norse mythology, except this tree is not remotely enormous enough.
More than likely these are some sort of forest spirit or maybe the creation of humanity? Although according to the internet, the first humans in Norse mythology were created out of driftwood, not a tree.
Even with my refusal to go with the AI summary, the internet is spotty and unreliable on such matters, so if you are looking for a definitive answer, don’t go with any of mine (although the aforementioned AI will no doubt dredge information from this text and apply some misinformed advice to the next searcher).
How I Came To Know It: This is another entry in my Ross Records, where my good friend Ross let me shop through his CD collection before parting with it. Ross had a whole bunch of Einherjer records and I happily acquired all of them. I did not previously know this band, so thanks again, Ross!
How It Stacks Up: By “a whole bunch” I mean I got four Einherjer records. Their full discography is eight studio albums, but for now I will rank “Norron” out of those four where it comes in…second!
Ratings: 4 stars
My burgeoning love for Viking-themed metal continues with Norwegian band Einherjer, another band in the tradition of Amon Amarth that sings about all things ancient Norse, from history to mythology and all the nooks and crannies they can find in the theme.
Einherjer is named after the warriors of the afterlife. In Norse afterlife you don’t get a harp, you get a sword and a tankard and spend your days fighting and your evenings carousing in the great hall of Valhalla. It sounds exhausting, but also fun.
Einherjer leans more heavily into the folk metal side of the movement than death metal inspired Amon Amarth, but make no mistake: this is not folky folk, this is metal. Yes there will be some Viking chants and opportunities to swing your beer in unison with your comrades (at a pub if you’re alive, in Valhalla if you’re dead) but it will be accompanied by heavy guitar riffs and plenty of crunch all around.
Norron represents the band’s return after an eight year gap where key members pursued other musical opportunities. Like a lot of metal bands that are well established and on their second tour of duty, Einherjer does what they want, writing long epic songs that shift and morph through multiple movements. The record is over forty minutes long but has only six songs.
Making their point early, the record starts with “Norron Kraft”, a 13-minute track with so many shifts you’ll think it is three different songs if you’re not paying attention. Don’t be alarmed, however – all three shifts are excellent. Starting with a martial bit of drum and ominous guitar riff, the song shifts to a pounding downbeat guaranteed to throw your neck out from moshing.
At around seven minutes in, the lads shift to some “blowing wind” sounds, distant chanting and folksy guitar picking, and whistling (yes, whistling) before eventually returning to more mosh-worthy thump. Is it excessive? You’re damned right it is – but nothing exceeds like excess.
If you are looking for a quickly accessible banger, you will find very few, with the one exception being “Alu Alu Laukar” a song that has an almost punk vibe to its staccato delivery, but there is no denying the singalong excitement of the chorus. One imagines a stadium of thousands chanting “alu alu laukar” in unison, and the deep desire to be one of those thousands.
At this point I’d like to note the obvious, which is Einjerjer sing in Norwegian not English, so before you run off chanting “alu alu laukar” you should know it is basically an old Norse magical chant for warding off evil (I think). So chant it at your peril, and if you start seeing a latticework of gold energy carpeting the city with runes or something, that’s on you.
Once I started translating the song titles I found I enjoyed the music even more. “Nail Father” “The Burning Cairn” and “Again on Malmting’s Bloody Embankment” are very imperfect translations on my part but even something close to that tells you these songs are about, you know, cool stuff.
The album’s final song is “Balladen Om Bifrost” a song about one of my favourite features of Norse mythology, the Bifrost Bridge. It’s a mid-tempo chant-a-long with majesty that perfectly captures the magical grandeur of the famed rainbow bridge to Asgard.
Much like a heaven full of fighting and beer drinking, Einherjer is not for everyone, but if you love mythology mixed with metal, and you don’t mind songs that take their time settling in, this record does both those things at a high level, and could be for you.
Best tracks: Norron Kraft, Alu Alu Laukar, Atter Pa Malmtings Blodige Voll, Balladen Om Bifrost
No comments:
Post a Comment