Bathory was one of the first bands to use lyrics based on viking heritage and Norse mythology.
Unleashed came shortly after with their viking influenced death metal, but both of these bands could never been labelled as ''pure'' viking metal. People often says that
Amon Amarth has or is the essence of viking metal but it is the same problem there as well.
Amon Amarth is melodic death metal with lyrics based on viking stories and such. Viking metal (according to facts that I've found) is actually a sub-genre to black metal. The original sound of viking metal is almost the same as black metal. The only differences are of course the viking lyrics and that melodic oriented guitars and keyboards has made the music a bit easier to get into. The tremolo picking patterns, blast-beats and black metal shrieking are some of the black metal elements that are still used in the music.
Mithotyn and
Thyrfing are two very important bands in the viking metal genre but people doesn't seem to care about them.
Thyrfing was one of the bands that I thought was very interesting. One reason was that the band had such huge musical differences between their albums. Their self-titled was more or less a rough blueprint for viking metal,
Vansinnesvisor became more extreme but also very influenced by folk music. In 2008 the band released
Hels Vite, their sound was still extreme but this time the music was a lot more darker instead of being mixed with folk music. Anyway,
Thyrfing's music has always been based on hard hitting and simple guitars, prominent keyboard melodies and the small use of folk music elements. To make this a bit more simple,
Thyrfing is basically folk-influenced melodic black metal. The band has been going strong for a very long time and the album that impresses me the most has to be
Vansinnesvisor.
Vansinnesvisor or ''Insanity Tales'' is an album where folk music and extreme metal is at its finest hour. Almost all tracks are sung in Swedish except for
The Voyager and
The Giant's Laughter, and this has been a trademark for the band ever since they started. I don't know why they have chosen to mix Swedish and English but I think it keeps the music more interesting compared to bands that usually uses only one language. One reason why I like this album so much is because of its huge track variety, and I really mean it when I say that no track sounds similar to another.
Draugs Harg is a real power load of intense melodic black metal,
Angestens Hogborg is a very heavy track but it has strong folk-ish traits like the powerful violins and calm flute melodies.
The Giant's Laughter follows a classic
Thyrfing pattern, the song has a quite simple song structure based on heavy guitars and rhythmic drumming. All the tracks have their own unique sound but the vocals are also quite diverse. The main vocal style is a harsh black-ish scream, but the singer has the ability to go deeper in his vocal register as well. In
Kaos Aterkomst and
Varldsspegeln he uses a loud sort of shouting which also sounds pretty good.
To be honest with you, I can't detect any specific flaws in this album. The sound production is great and there are both great vocal and instrumental dynamics. This time it is only my own personal tastes of the songs that hold back the final rating. There is only a track or two I can't enjoy as much as the others. The use of intense extreme metal and strong folk music influences makes
Vansinnesvisor to really stand out from the crowd. I really hope that more people will recognize this band because I think that they deserve some respect. They were not the first viking metal band but they were one of the first that perfected the viking metal genre. So if you like any kind of viking metal as well as folk metal then I highly recommend that you check out some of
Thyrfing's music.
Positives
+ Almost perfect balance between extreme metal and folk music
+ Incredible variety among the tracks
+ Awesome vocal performance
+ Great sound production
Negatives
None this time, in this case it is only about personal taste.
Recommended Tracks
-- Kaos Aterkomst 5/5
-- Angestens Hogborg 4/5
-- Vansinnesvisan 4/5
-- The Voyager 3.5/5
Final rating will be a: 4/5
