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Vanir - The Glorious Dead review



Reviewer:
7.4

8 users:
6.75
Band: Vanir
Album: The Glorious Dead
Release date: October 2014


01. Fall Of The Eagle
02. March Of The Giants
03. Written In Blood
04. The Glorious Dead
05. I Valkyriernes Skød
06. Overlord
07. The Flames Of Lindisfarne
08. Blood Sacrifice
09. God Emperor

Fans, purists, didacts, and passers-by with too much time on their hands love a good argument about which bands might accurately be labeled "Viking metal" (as if it were a real genre). With their blend of death, black, and folk metal, the Danish Vanir probably have a better shot at the title than most.

The skirling of bagpipes in the background serves as a constant reminder of the band's traditional leanings, though as a whole the folk elements are simplistic and restrained. The liminal status of the bagpipes makes them much easier to appreciate in this particular context. Don't get me wrong, I think that bagpipes properly applied are excellent, and I'm not criticizing the performance; but keeping the sole piece of traditional equipment out of the limelight, contrary to the inclinations of many a similarly-armed metal band, blurs the lines of genre. Vanir becomes, then, not a folk metal band, but a band that pits folk elements against other styles to create a more unique jumble of death, black, and folk.

Minus the minimal folk elements, Vanir falls somewhere between Amon Amarth and Bathory. Broad, bold seas of forceful guitars hammer out crushing blows of melodeath, while still sounding thin enough in the coarse production to echo the razor-sharp buzz of an old black metal gem. The addition of the bagpipes, as well as the vocals - too full and powerful for black metal, too ragged and bleak for death metal - call to mind Vanir's neighbors to the south, such as Eluveitie or Equilibrium.

"Overlord," nothing more lofty in design than a straightforward melodeath track (almost metalcore, in fact) backed by faint bagpipes, follows the seven-minute album centerpiece, "I Valkyriernes Sk¢d," a mournful pagan odyssey. "Blood Sacrifice" plays the Amon Amarth card particularly heavily, with the guitars alternating between rich melody lines and powerful gusts of chord-walls over whirlwinds of drums. The songs vary a bit in their structures or stylistic proportions, but by and large they have a great deal in common with each other. The aforementioned "I Valkyriernes Sk¢d," "Fall Of The Eagle," and "March Of The Giants" stand out foremost among these.

While less-than-stellar production usually does bands in this vein a favor by refusing to dilute the rawness, and Vanir is no exception, it does leave something to be desired in a few areas. The drums in particular require reinforcements; blastbeats for black metal can be as tinny as you want, but trying to layer a thunderous melodeath song over a solid undercurrent of double bass without enough power behind the punches leaves the whole thing sounding rather top-heavy. Overall, Vanir have a good sound, though it requires more substantial songwriting for proper application, and could benefit from some slightly fuller production.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 8
Songwriting: 7
Originality: 6
Production: 6





Written on 18.10.2014 by I'm the reviewer, and that means my opinion is correct.


Comments

Comments: 1   Visited by: 64 users
18.10.2014 - 14:12
Lokaeda
Account deleted
"the Danish Vanir probably have a better shot at the title than most."
"The skirling of bagpipes in the background"

wat
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