Helheim
Jormundgand

THE REVIEW

There are bands that, even if they haven’t made history, still deserve to be listened to because they have created great music.

Norway, mid-90s: metal – or rather rock in general – is exploring some of its most uncharted territories. Mayhem, Darkthrone, Immortal, Burzum, and so on are forging an evil, noisy sound with deep roots in classic metal, but especially in thrash, hardcore, ambient music, and the First Wave of Black Metal. A strand of this music, self-labeled as black metal, quickly begins to take interest in the pagan and folk roots of the North; it would be wrong not to notice that the folk influence was present almost from the start and in nearly every form of black, but the tone accompanying bands like Enslaved and Borknagar is palpable, it’s different. It’s a legitimate offspring of Quorthon and a sibling of Satyricon’s intuition, it’s the muscular twin of classic black and the father of a good portion of today’s perception of heavy metal: it’s viking metal.

If today, a layperson often associates a metalhead with a big guy into beer and runes, well, the main reason is right here: viking, a genre whose difference is so subtle compared to other subgenres that it’s hard not to fall into useless labeling. Yet, the imagery of Mayhem, as you can tell, is not the same that drives the vikings of metal.

And so a band that is often forgotten cannot be ignored by aficionados: Helheim. The cover art is a tribute to Bathory, the logo is clearly folk, and the first track starts just like that, no intro: a spine-chilling scream bursts in, ferocious. At times it might even seem almost ridiculous, but it won’t take long to understand the nature of these crazed vocal lines. So the title track opens the album in the best possible way: beneath all the brutality, after a few listens you’ll catch the epic melodies that underpin the song, with a sort of “chorus” that—even though the vocals stray a bit flat—is truly beautiful. Not to be outdone is “Vigrids vård,” with some masterful drumming work. You get a breather with the celestial “Nidr ok Nordr liggr Helvegr,” which unsheathes a delicate folk soul. Things get heavy again with the excellent “Gravlagt i Eljudne” and especially with another masterpiece from the album, “Svart Visdom,” with distant horns that confirm the band didn’t just have a blacksmith’s soul but a rich and multifaceted musical personality, never there just for its own sake. Further bold proof comes in the form of an eerie – rather intense – piano track, after which we continue with the solid, if not outstanding, “Nattravnens tokt,” where a more typically black, less Burzum-esque scream is showcased. To close, a few minutes between ambient and screams.

An album, then, that is very complex but also very beautiful, with some passages that, all in all, are not even that hard to take in. There are clear folk influences, classic metal, and of course above all the black viking ferocity of which Helheim are among the standard-bearers. Ultimately, I recommend this album to black metal fans who want to delve into pagan territories, to heavy metal fans who want to try out some viking stuff, and I believe that—going through it track by track—even a complete outsider might find something to enjoy.

Perhaps not one of the absolute masterpieces of the genre, but definitely a gem of an album too often forgotten. “Drept av Tors Hammer” (“killed by Thor’s hammer”). Score: 88/100.