| Thyrfing Hammerheart , 1998 Lord Pale : Thyrfing are a Swedish viking metal band who use heavy , agressive , rocky riffs and cheesy synth to conjure the spirit of the high seas . Thyrfing have a fairly energetic and powerful sound with a strong production but lack the neo folk pagan atmospheres typical to the genre . Six of the ten tracks presented are in English , the rest are in Swedish , all delivered in a blackmetal rasp with a grating quality . Generally all of the material on this album is of a similar tempo and sound , sitting in the short yet comfortable 3 to 4 and a half minute range making picking any standout tracks very difficult . Apart from their artwork , lyrics , and a few medieval style synth passages Thyrfing could easily be overlooked as a b grade synth blackmetal band due to their lack of obvious viking sounding music . Overall a fairly poor release . Favourite Tracks - En Doende Mans Forbannelse , Going Beserk Mark - 5/10 Thyrfing 'Hednaland' Hammerheart , 1999 Lord Pale : Hednaland is a 10 track mini cd limited to 2000 copies of Thyrfing's early demo material . Essentially just a blend of fairly simplistic riffs , the occasional melodic overlays and a large dose of synth encompassed by a clean but fairly raw production . The vocals are a throaty rasp and never really vary throughout the course of the cd . All the viking themed lyrics are written in the bands native Swedish dialect but the music itself lacks any real epic viking atmosphere . A fairly consistant unvarying keyboard sound doesn't help the tracks to form any seperate identities , and most surprising of all the 4 songs that were recorded on a 4 track have more atmosphere then the 6 that were recorded in a studio . Overall an unnecessary release . Favourite Tracks - Fard Mot Thruduang , Slaget , Solen Svartner II Mark - 4/10 Thyrfing 'Valdr Galga' Hammerheart , 1999 Lord Pale : Thyrfing's new album Valdr Galga sees a few changes in their sound that improve their musical prospects successfully . Firstly the vocals are much better , more varied and interesting , and secondly the band have a more epic sound ( although a lower production ) then their first release . The song writing and structuring is far superior to that of their debut and the songs no longer seem like short tracks of music with a few ctachy riffs and synth passages . Samples of battle are introduced into the brilliant opener 'Heading For The Golden Hall' which clocks in at over 7 minutes without getting boring due to the synth on Valdr Galga being more varied and better suited to bringing out the majesty of the lyrics . Valdr Galga also displays a wider variety of tempo's with riffs ranging from the folky , to the heavy , to the rocky giving it a full and entertaining sound . Overall a vast improvement over the previous release and a good start for the band to start creating their own style . Favourite Tracks - Heading For The Golden Hall , Valdr Galga , Mimor's Well Mark - 7.5/10 Thyrfing 'Urkraft' Hammerheart , 2000 Lord Pale : Urkraft combines the heavy brutal production of Thyrfing's debut with the epic flowing synth of Valdr Galga , and mixing all this with some folk elements , bouncy ale swinging chorus' and some nice clean vocals . The vocals are again hugely varied , from drunken shouts , to black rasps , to deathy growls , to clean epic singing , and the newly developed main vocal style sounding like a deep raspy yell . The riffs occasionally sound like the folky less melodic heavy moments of Mithotyn , but still go through the range of the rocky , to the heavy , to the dark and doomy riffing of 'Sweoland Conqueror' . Thyrfing's music seems to focus on the drunken rowdy side of the viking culture and not the pagan , heroic , battlefuelled side of their nature that bands like Falkenbach align themselves to giving Thyrfing a fresh sound amidst its competetors . However with the album having 12 tracks the soundcan become a little samey towards the end until the brilliant 'Urkraft' rolls in , and the album is then finished off by an amusing clean vocalled rendition of 'Over The Hills And Far Away' . Overall another solid release . Favourite Tracks - Mjolner , Urkraft , The Slumber Of Yesteryears Mark - 7.5/10 Thyrfing 'Vansinnesvisor' Hammerheart, 2002 Lord Pale : Thyrfing's forth full length album sees the band get more aggressive even incorporating some deathmetal into their slightly folkish viking metal . Vansinnersuisor is produced much in the same vein as Urkraft ( perhaps even heavier ) , and contains 8 new tracks that effectively brutalise the bands back catalogue and presents a more guitar drum orientated sound . The vocal delivery is again excellent and varied with a variety of deathy growls , blackened snats , drunken yelling , and clean vocals make a short appearance on a few tracks as well . The synth is not utilised as heavily as it was on Urkraft , instead it is used in sparse little tinkles here and there but creates a good atmosphere and better suits the new material . Like previous release short acoustic passages crop up now and then as well as some great mid period Satyricon riffing which complements the deathy influences superbly . The musical backbone is still intact however , with folky dirge riffs and the trademark Thyrfing sound so fans of the bands previous works won't be disappointed . Overall a good solid release and my favourite from this band so far . Favourite Tracks - The Voyager , Digerdöden, The Giant's Laughter Mark - 7.5/10 |
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