Only one year after the promising debut record How Far To Asgard, the authentic Faroese viking metal band Týr follows up with an album about the legendary Eric The Red, along with other famous figures and events in viking history. After a few line-up changes, guitarist Heri Joensen takes charge of the new vocal duties. In general, many front men and women have some troubles with playing an instrument and singing at the same time, but Heri Joensen does a quite convincing job both live and in the studio. His vocals are more melodic and joyful, but are just as powerful as those on the band’s first output, and should please a larger crowd.

The second output is quite different from the band’s first strike. There are still some doomy moments on the album, but they are transitionally replaced by power and heavy metal influences without losing that atmospheric and epic touch that made the first work such a promising debut. The songs still have a slower pace than is traditional for heavy, power, and prog, though not as much as previously, and some are even situated on an upper mid tempo level. Simply put, the band just sounds more diverse than before. The bass guitar and the drums also play a more important role, the guitar solos have become more emotional, and the technical skills are also slightly (but noticeably) improved in only one year between both releases. Just listen to the highly diversified album highlight “Alive” or the epic title track “Eric The Red”, and you will immediately hear the difference.

Some considerable changes have occurred here. Most noticeably, the new folk influences and increased Faroese lyrics that are performed with enthusiasm, as in the dark “Ólavur Riddararós”. These changes take some time to digest, but might rather please fans of the first release. The truly majestic anthem “Stýrisvølurin” really helps give this album a fresh, and at the same time, historical identity. While the first release had its lengths and became a little bit redundant after a while, this album is much more even, though we have once again, a quite long running time (around one hour) with only ten tracks.

Add to this length that almost all songs have an anthemic approach with catchy choruses and majestic choirs (like “Hail To The Hammer” from the debut), and you’ve got a rather grand affair. Immediately, the opening “The Edge” comes quite close to that song in terms of catchy sing-along passages, despite a length of almost eight minutes. Faroese-sung songs like “Regin Smiður” and “Ramund Hin Unge”, which begin with dreamy folk parts and become energizing, anthemic tracks with catchy hooks and melodic guitar solos represent this new, catchier approach of the band quite well. This is where the band easily surpasses most bands that regularly touch on the topics of viking culture and legacy in terms of authenticity, diversity, and sheer grandiosity. These guys don’t just talk about vikings, they sing it in the right language, are inspired by actual historical events, and rehash some famous folk melodies and texts on this release as well. In comparison to other bands, these Faroese skip the stereotypical approaches and teach all the Amon Amarths of the world how to do things right.

In the end, Týr takes a big step forward with this release. Eric The Red moves away from the band’s doom metal roots and introduces new folk and heavy metal elements. The band finds just the right mixture of shorter, catchier songs and progressive epics that never get redundant. I would even go as far to say that the band’s second album is their greatest to date. It’s probably one of the best releases of its increasingly popular genre. Any viking metal fan should call this record her or his own. Anybody who has only read about this band before but never found the time to check them out should immediately go for this most essential release, and surely won’t regret it.

Originally written for Black Wind Metal

Týr returns with their most consistent release ever this year, that features some of the band’s catchiest, shortest, and most versatile pieces ever. Most folk elements have gone and the album includes only two tracks with Faroese lyrics, but the record still sounds one hundred percent like Týr. What we can hear here is a vivid heavy metal album with great guitar work, better vocals than ever, and balanced song writing.

The album opens without any lengthy introductions and delivers a classic-sounding heavy metal track with “Blood Of Heroes”. This melodic mid- to up-tempo number could have come from a band like Iron Maiden, except for the epic, melancholic, and unique vocals that make this a typical Týr track that any fan of the band will recognize. The song just has the right length and is catchy enough as an opener. “Mare Of My Night” is just as appealing. It features a great melodic guitar sound, while the verses are more riff driven. The vocals are even more varied, soft, and melodic than usual. In general, the vocal performance on this album is maybe the very best of the band’s career.

The album’s first really outstanding and surprising song is the half-ballad “The Lay Of Love”, which features the melodic and versatile vocals of Leaves’ Eyes’ Norwegian singer Liv Kristine (who, incidentally, is the wife of Atrocity’s German frontman Alexander Krull). Usually, I’m not the biggest fan of her high-pitched and sometimes thin vocals, but she just sounds fine here and doesn’t take too much space. The darker and grounded melodic vocals of Heri Joensen sound very natural, and both singers harmonize very well together. Fans might argue that this song is a commercial sellout, but who cares if it features stunning guitar melodies and emotional vocals by two great singers like this?

Other highlights on the record include the epic anthem “Nation”, that features some of the album’s most emotional guitar solos, the faster and vivid heavy/thrash metal anthem “Another Fallen Brother” (which is one of the record’s catchiest efforts), and especially the sacral arrangements and majestic choirs in the epic melodic heavy/doom hymn with Faroese lyrics called “Grindavisan”. This song has a lot of potential and is maybe my favorite track on here.

And then there are the bonus tracks. I must admit that despite being a huge Iron Maiden fan, I never really appreciated “Where Eagles Dare” that much because I think that the middle part drags on for far too long. But I immediately fell in love with Týr’s take on the song. I couldn’t stop clicking the repeat button the first time I played the album. The track is close to the original, but has a slightly darker atmosphere. Despite being quite heavy, Heri Joensen’s uniquely mechanical yet melodic vocals add a completely new epic and slightly doom-driven touch to the track. The song sounds like Iron Maiden, but it also perfectly sounds like a regular Týr track. If you didn’t know the song, you wouldn’t even recognize it’s not a song from the band. I must admit that this is one of the very rare cases where the cover version is better than the original. The other cover on the limited editions is Pantera’s “Cemetary Gates” and it’s also at least on the same level as the original. It probably depends whether you prefer the technically more limited, but also more aggressive and raw original vocals, or the slightly more melodic and technically appealing vocals of this cover. Personally, I have to stick with Týr’s version for the reasons cited above, but I’m aware of the fact that Pantera fanboys might feel as upset as some Iron Maiden fans about my opinion.

In the end, Týr has delivered their most entertaining record to date. I still prefer the epic masterpiece Eric The Red and its amazing successor Ragnarok, but I would put this album in third place. Valkyrja includes more focused, diverse, and catchy song writing than the band’s previous efforts. The difficult and sometimes overambitious ten minute epics are gone, and shorter but straighter tracks that are easier to digest have taken their place. This record includes no stinkers, and after a couple of spins it has already grown on me. Fans of the band and those who would finally like to get in touch with the Faroese legends have now got a highly recommendable new record.

Originally written for Black Wind Metal

It’s quite hard to not talk about all the drama that happened inside and all around Queensrÿche last year, because it all led to the existence of two different bands with the same name in concurrence with each other. On one side there are several Queensrÿche musicians who hired the young and dynamic Todd La Torre of Crimson Glory fame, and then there is the band led by Queensrÿche singer Geoff Tate, who has gathered a total of nineteen (!) musicians and singers around him to put out this new record called Frequency Unknown. Let’s not forget that a total of twelve (!) other staff members such as cover artists and producers have been involved in this project as well! It’s quite clear that the album was recorded and released in a hurry to put out a new release before the other Queensrÿche formation could do so, and it’s also quite obvious that there is still quite a lot of hate inside Geoff Tate towards his old band members and friends. The abbreviation of the record (“F.U.”) can be seen on the front cover alongside a fist and the original Queensrÿche logo. Geoff Tate even went so far as to add four cover tracks of vintage Queensrÿche songs to this new release to prove to the world that his new project is the one and only true incarnation of that band. Let’s add to all this that many lyrics on this release can easily be related to the conflict between the two bands as well. Just take a look on the song titles and you might understand what I mean. These details are definitely no coincidences, and Geoff Tate tries to take advantage of the media attention brought to this somewhat childish conflict. I’m intrigued to see if the plan works out, and if this record sells more copies than the lukewarm previous outputs.

Despite this context, I would like to judge this record without comparing it to the other Queensrÿche outfit, and also without comparing this release to the band’s classic outputs as well (apart from the four cover songs). Many fans say that the true Queensrÿche died almost twenty years ago after the Promised Land release, and they didn’t accept the new style of the band. That’s a quite popular, but also closed-minded attitude. Despite some line up changes and internal affairs, Queensrÿche has always remained the same band, even though they have wandered away from heavy and progressive metal to a more hard rock and alternative metal sound. Dear old school metal maniacs: let’s face the fact that we are living in 2013 and that the years 1982 to 1988 are beautiful memories of the past that won’t come back, even if one of the two bands tried as hard as they could. Welcome to the new millennium, and please adopt a more tolerant view on things instead of becoming bitter “true metal” grandfathers that don’t quit talking about the glorious eighties. Today, metal music has become more diversified and original than ever and there are loads of things to find for every taste.

Let’s now talk about the only thing that really counts: the music on this release. When I listened to the album opener “Cold”, three things came to my mind that resume the record very well. First of all, Geoff Tate tries to sound harder and more metal than on the last two Queensrÿche records (likely in an attempt to please all the old fans he has lost). He tries to dig into the past, and that’s already a bad approach because you can’t bring back those days. The second thing that struck me were the weak vocals by this once outstanding singer. His vocal lines don’t fit at all into the verses of the opener. They sound thin and struggle with tone. It’s strange to say, but the weakest point of that song is the main attraction and mastermind behind this release himself. The third thing that I realized when I listened to the chorus was that this record is, despite all the efforts to go back to the roots, a rather modern-sounding release that follows the path taken with the previous records American Soldier and Dedicated To Chaos. The songs are compact and short, have a modern but somewhat lifeless production job, and feature dominant choruses that are sometimes repeated to death.

On the upside here is the instrumental work. Despite all the different musicians and producers involved in this release, there are a few well-elaborated song ideas, gripping melodies, and atmospheric tracks to be had. The record is nevertheless missing a measure of coherence, but it’s less weird than the previous effort that was perfectly entitled Dedicated To Chaos. From that point of view, almost each song on here has something interesting to offer. We can listen to modern radio rock sounds as seen on “Cold”, more experimental and modern tunes in “Everything” (that could almost have come from Linkin Park), or atmospheric, eerie, and even slightly progressive tracks like “The Weight Of The World” that are not a far call from traditional Queensrÿche. The diversity is definitely there, and old and new fans alike could at least find something interesting here.

On the other hand, the vocals here go from bad to worse. A truly outstanding album highlight is missing, and the record remains rather mediocre and unimpressive on the whole. The worst things here though, are the four cover songs. They just can’t keep up with the original version. You can clearly hear how badly Geoff Tate sings here in comparison to the original. The best example, and at the same time most horrible, is probably the new version of “I Don’t Believe In Love”. Any Queensrÿche cover band would have created a better rendition of this classic, and I think that almost any singer would have brought in a more passionate performance of it. It makes me sad to listen to this version.

What we have here is an average record with many great instrumental song ideas which show a surprising amount of diversity. This part could have been even better if the record wasn’t recorded in a hurry and by so many different people. Many cooks spoil the broth, they say, but for what it is, I was rather positively surprised by the the musical quality of this album. What really harms Frequency Unknown is the mediocre to poor vocal performance on many tracks. Sometimes, Geoff Tate puts forth a solid effort and one can recognize the excellent talent of his past, but most of this release lacks conviction, emotion, and even technique. The biggest failure comes in the form of the four horrible cover tracks. If I didn’t know that they were cover songs, I would class them as the worst songs on this record anyways, and probably take them for some unbalanced b-sides. Hence, there are more negative than positive things to say about this release on the whole. Frequency Unknown is not the horror that some magazines would like to suggest, but it’s not a far cry from it either. This release is only for collectors and fans of the last few Queensrÿche releases.

Originally written for Black Wind Metal

Here it is. After the lukewarm Frequency Unknown record by Geoff Tate’s Queensrÿche, his old band mates have united forces with singer Todd La Torre of Crimson Glory fame and put out their first release after the big bang, which is simply entitled Queensrÿche. The band seems to want to make clear that this is a new beginning, and at the same time a sort of return to the band’s roots after many controversial records. That is, in fact, what it is.

The name of the record isn’t original (there was already a self-titled EP, after all), the album artwork is rather simplistic, and one only gets thirty-five minutes of music – including two short and atmospheric instrumental tracks that are great, but that don’t fit in with the nine regular songs. That’s not what I would call value for your money, but at least the band didn’t decide to cover some of its classics like Geoff Tate did. If you were hoping for a few more thought-epics, you’re going to be disappointed. All tracks on here are short, precise and mostly predictable.

There are a few more negative things to touch on. I think that Todd La Torre sounds way too close to the original singer Geoff Tate on this record, and I would have liked a different and fresh touch added to the concept. Add to this that the first few songs that were released as singles were among the weakest, and made me expect the worst. I might also advise you that this record has a very commercial touch, and isn’t the return to the metal years that many people were hoping for. It sounds more as if it was influenced by commercially successful records like Empire or Promised Land. There is also an occasional influence of the last few Queensrÿche records, which can be heard in here from time to time. From that point of view, this record can at least be seen as something of a logical continuation of the band. It’s a very typical Queensrÿche record, but I expected more from a band that has written some of the most important progressive metal records back in the eighties, and that allegedly wanted to take a step back in that influential direction, using all of those song ideas that had gone unused during the last years due to Geoff Tate’s stubborn attitude. In fact, the new songs have all been written by the new line-up, and no old or unused material can be heard on this record. I expected the final result to be a little bit more courageous, edgier, and energizing.

This doesn’t mean that the record is all bad. In fact, almost all songs are technically well performed, especially the melodic mid tempo guitar playing, which has that certain Queensrÿche signature sound that has always distinguished that band. The soothing vocals by Todd La Torre are by far superior to the current abilities of his predecessor. I, for one, don’t miss Tate for a second. This record could have easily been released in the middle of the nineties by this same band – the songs here are all very short and never get boring. All of them have a very catchy and warm feeling, and could have been potential singles. The band varies its output from more laid back ballads like the closing “Open Road”, to typical melodic metal anthems like “Don’t Look Back”, and on to exceptionally more progressive and thought-out tracks like the catchy “Vindication”. This latter, a positive surprise, is also by far my favorite song on this album. The thirty-five minutes are very entertaining overall, and, if nothing else, include no filler material or stinkers. There are many catchy tunes, most of which have a strong tendency to grow on the listener.

In the end, this record not only goes back to the early and mid-nineties of the band’s career, but also connects that period with a few of the better songs from the last output or two. It’s a logical step for the band, and this release has all the trademarks that people have always liked about Queensrÿche (and that had become less prominent on the last few releases). This is where the simplistic album title and cover become logical. Fans will judge this record as a return to form, and will by far prefer this record to the output of Geoff Tate’s Queensrÿche.

Personally, I have some mixed feelings. I expected a more metal approach, or at least a few more progressive songs. The record is solid, but coming from a band with a back catalogue like Queensrÿche’s, it’s only of an average quality, and far from being groundbreaking. This is, in fact, one of the most commercial and poppy metal releases I have heard in quite a while. In comparison to this, the latest records from Helloween and Stratovarius were far more gripping, and Black Sabbath also managed to sound more energizing. This here is not the comeback of the year, sorry. The new Queensrÿche prefers a more traditional, laid back but also boring approach. I still like this album, but I must admit that I’m disappointed by the final result. This record is sort of a safe play, although the tactic will definitely work in the band’s favor. After all and despite its obvious flaws, this record sounds absolutely honest, and is a good definition of what Queensrÿche has been about throughout its career.

Originally written for Black Wind Metal

Soilwork is probably Sweden’s most famous melodic death metal band after the legendary In Flames. Both bands have recently released more courageous and experimental records with modern electronic influences, but have also included progressive elements and more than a bit of metalcore. The reaction of many old school fans has been rather negative, while younger audiences have cheered the last releases. The new Soilwork record is a perfect answer to old, more closed-minded metal maniacs, as well as their more recent fan base. The six guys from Sweden, France, and Belgium simply released a double-record with eight-five minutes of music and a total of twenty tracks. This definitely is value for money, but let’s also take a look on the quality and not just the quantity.

The first disc is more likely to please fans of Swedish melodic death metal. The tracks are short, easy to digest, straightforward, absolutely energizing, and include great hooks. The first three songs are among the most pitiless ones on the double-album, and the band seems to want to prove to its fans right from the start that they can still play music like they did in their earlier days. The most intriguing song for me on the first disc is “Tongue”, because it has a very beautiful melody and a catchy chorus you won’t get out of your mind anytime soon. Towards the end of the disc however, a few songs get a bit too catchy, sweet, and radio orientated. I already hear the old school fans complaining about it and this time they might be right.

The second disc is more for the fans of modern Soilwork, and is much more experimental. There are, for example, two well done but not outstanding instrumental songs in “Entering Aeons” and “Loyal Shadow”. A few truly atmospheric and dark tracks like the gripping “Antidotes In Passing” or the original and almost progressive closer “Owls Predict, Oracles Stand Guard” keep the tension high until the end, and are clearly among my favorite songs. Many tracks manage to include diversified changes of rhythm and style as well as a few modern sound experiments, all while keeping quite addicting hooks that can maintain the attention of a larger audience, as seen in “Rise Above The Sentiment” (even though it has a terrible music video that supports it) or “Parasite Blues”. With these songs, Soilwork has found the right balance for old and new fans, in my humble opinion. As you might guess, the second disc appeals to me much more than the first, as the overall atmosphere and clear guiding line is there, but also because the individual tracks are more outstanding and surprising.

In the end, fans of other Swedish melodic death metal bands like Darkane, Gardenian, Scar Symmetry, Solution .45, Sonic Syndicate, and so on should give this release a fair chance. It’s no highlight of the genre but a very entertaining release with a lot of material that should cater to old and new fans alike. From that point of view, Soilwork has done a clever job even though I would have preferred a shorter and more consistent release with only ten to twelve songs in the end.

Originally written for Black Wind Metal