Heorot - Ragnarök

February 23, 2009

Reviewer: M.J.

The folk and Viking metal scenes seem to be getting to the point of over saturation late and that can be a cause for concern for fans of these genres. As with any genre that reaches saturation point, everything eventually sounds recycled and stale.  So, it is nice to see when a band, like Finland's Heorot, comes along that shakes things up a bit and who are not just clones of the genre’s progenitors.

"Juhla Nuotiolla" starts off the album rather unassumingly with the lilting notes of a flute but this is soon joined by a manic rave up stomp of growling vocals, blastbeats and Iron Maiden epic style dueling guitars. This is the delicious musical equivalent of a giant (the band) drunkenly breathless, tromping through a meadow chasing a butterfly (the flute). The swagger is full on!  Heorot marries unconventional sounds and instruments with swaggering pseudo drinking melodies that have me easily thinking of Finntroll and Tankard. At times the band takes a more epic route as in “Kansaansa Vastaan” with a back drop of lush orchestration and acoustic guitars punctuated with Timo’s growling road weary voice of experience and heavy chugging guitars. “Jättiläisen Laulu” has a great but small snare drum solo that segues into an accordion solo. The clean singing on “Jättiläisen Laulu” and elsewhere on this disc are reminiscent of none other than Tears for Fears! Don’t let that worry you; there are plenty of melodic death metal growls and even a few blackened screams. The interesting thing about this album is sometimes I want to get up and look for a partner to square dance or do a jig with and the next I want to snap my neck in full headbanging whiplash inducing speed.

Herot know the importance of dynamics and the value of a well crafted song. They squeeze every ounce out of their collective experience to make sure the listener is completely entertained. I will raise my stein and drink a toast to that!

Highlights:
“Juhla Nuotiolla”, “Ristiretki”, “Kansaansa Vastaan”, “Jättiläisen Laulu”, and “Ragnarök”.

Release Date: October 8th, 2007
Label: Stygian Crypt Records

TRACK LISTING

1. Juhla Nuotiolla
2. Ristiretki
3. Pyhä Simasali
4. Kansaansa Vastaan
5. Jättiläisen Laulu
6. Yö Jahti
7. Mustat Linnut
8. Ylpeyden Kiro
9. Ragnarök

Total playing time: 44:47

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