It is unbelievably difficult nowadays to release a folk metal album that sounds original. Big names in the genre, like Falkenbach, Finntroll, Ensiferum, Tyr et al., are staying inside the confines they've already set themselves with their previous output, while no new folk metal band has made a breakthrough in recent years. It does indeed seem to be that folk metal is a dried-up pond in the music world. Nevertheless, the genre still provides comfort zone fun for the battle-ready metalhead and the veteran bands in it constantly put forth solid material. The former of the two is also the reason why Skalmold's debut looked worthy of checking out in the first place. I absolutely didn’t expect it to be original in any way, shape or form, but I did want it to feature some good folky jams that I can either shout along to in a live setting or put on when I’m feeling like pillaging the nearest pub. Unfortunately, Baldur is just not that jammable.
The whole problem with Baldur is that it’s not endearing nor fun. While the latter may seem a bit of an odd criticism at first, folk metal’s main goal has always been to entertain. You don’t spin Arafel when you have broken up with your girl and are feeling sad, you spin it when you’re out with your fellow metal comrades; you don’t play Tharaphita when you’re pondering about the meaning of life late at night, you play it when you're camping in the woods etc. Point is, if the record’s not fun, it’s already at a disadvantage. Now, in general, Skalmold do play a more serious style of folk metal, meaning that musically they are closer to groups like Metsatoll and Falkenbach, but sadly for them, Baldur doesn’t keep the listener’s attention in a way that the aforementioned bands do. It also seems to be suffering from an identity crisis, seeing as the album doesn’t have a clear direction as to where it’s headed (musically) and whether Skalmold want to be more like Iron Maiden or Ensiferum.
Like said before, in addition to lacking the fun factor, Skalmold aren’t particularly crafty at holding the listener’s attention either. This is mainly due to the slow riff progressions and transitions. Most songs on Baldur clock around 5-6 minutes but since the tempo is always mid-paced and the transitions slow, the album would have been far better off had it been about ten minutes shorter. It's understandable why Skalmold went for these longer song lengths, seeing as the album tells a tragic tale of a Viking warrior Baldur and it is evident the band wanted to match their concept with epic songs, especially as they claim that their lyrics strictly follow traditional Icelandic poetry. Alas, what was meant to be epic turned out as boring. The guitar riffs are simply plodding along at average speeds, the drums do nothing to enhance the final product, the vocals are weak and, ironically enough, the best song on the album, "Kvadning" – the only track that can possibly be addressed as epic, with its solos galore – is mostly devoid of vocals in its second half.
Another concern with Baldur is its concept. The band obviously spent a lot of time fleshing it out, but the problem is, unless you speak Icelandic, you can’t understand a thing. That wouldn’t be too much of a problem if the music would make up for it, but it’s already been established that this simply is not the case here, meaning what we have in Baldur is a metal album that places emphasis on a concept most will not be able to understand.
At the end of the day, Baldur is a folk metal album that's not terrible, but just nondescript. Judging by the soloing and the occasional dual guitar harmonies, the guys in Skalmold definitely can play, just on Baldur, for whatever reason, they seem to be holding back. The mid-paced guitar riffs, flaccid vocals and standard drum beats wear thin quickly and while the second half of the album does present a few tracks (namely "Kvadning", "Duadi" and "Valholl") with relatively pleasing music on them, as a whole, the album is not effective. For their future output, Skalmold need to make a conscious effort to vary things up and add twists and turns to their brand of folk metal, because writing flare-less b-side-Ensiferum-esque riffs while delivering Amon Amarth-esque concepts that most will not be able to understand thanks to the language barrier is not the way to go.
Long time no read, Magnus. This was a great review. But to be honest reading about this album kinda piqued my interest as a non-metal fan. Despite your recommendation to the contrary, I might just give it a go - if only to expand my metal street cred haha.
It's not from this year, but I'm gonna rec you to try out Metsatoll's Äio. It was definitely my favorite folk metal record last year and it's pretty darn great. The vocals are a make or break on that one too though.
If you want a good stating point then I'd say go with any Ensiferum album. To me they're all equal in quality, as bizarre as that is, although most would probably suggest to go for the debut.
Ehh, Korpiklaani are over the top imo and not that great either. I do remember one of their videos though where some guy with a violin jumped out of the loo and I'm not gonna lie that was just the most randomly funny thing ever.
I know they're not all that great but they are easy to listen to imo, very basic stuff.
That's why I consider them to be entry-level folk metal :]
I was scared to rec him the stuff I really like (Skyclad, Storm, Finntroll, Eluveitie, ...) :/
By the way, that Metsatoll album was amazing, I'm ashamed I actually missed that cause I really liked
IIvakivi!
Oh and I seemingly failed to make sputnik listen to Cruachan too :/
Okay...Ensiferum...Korpiklaani...Skyclad...Storm...Finntroll...Eluveitie...noted. Incidentally, do any of you guys ever feel that there's so much music in the world and trying to listen to them all is a near futile exercise?
PS - I don't know how Dev has managed to rate over 4000 albums (I only have about 415).
It's not near futile, it is 100% futile. It's not humanly capable to get to everything. Well unless you're Deviant who has nothing to do on his stranded island haha.
But their vids are hilarious, you said it yourself, he should at least check those out :]
Cephalic Carnage also had a video where some guy's dick exploded after about 3 minutes of fecal-porn, and while I found that amusing in its own right, I still wouldn't actually recommend the song to many a person.
