Thyrfing
Farsotstider

These days, anyone interested in a genre like Viking will surely have a headache. Indeed, it's not easy to place the compass on a precise characterization when discussing this musical branch of Heavy, and it becomes even more complicated considering that every band, with each album they release, changes something in their sound, making it sharper and edgier or melodic and playful.

Thus, amidst the arrows of a subgenre that is not clearly understood whether it is the bastard son of a pumped-up Power ala Manowar, or the more avant-garde Black, or the more or less apocalyptic Folk, there is room and glory (so to speak) for bands like, for example, Turisas and Borknagar, the great Enslaved, and Ensiferum. Bands that are very different in their unique characteristics, yet each time, they divide the spotlight with each release of their work. This happens in a cauldron that doesn’t require much finesse and discernment to reconcile the devil and holy water: simply, each plays in their own way, caring little about others and resembling only themselves, perhaps increasingly infusing their songs with melodic nuances and festive jollity filled with beer and mead.

But it's not the same for everyone. Not necessarily. As happened with Thyrfing. A Swedish band dedicated, in their debut album "Thyrfing" and then, especially in the subsequent "Valdr Galga," to epic and majestic soundscapes in melodic style, with keyboards at the center serving as a counterpoint to a powerful and well-blended rhythm section. Over the years, they have "broken" their seemingly indelible artistic path to delve into a darker sound and songwriting, creating a new creature, fresh with ideas but certainly, to change once again, difficult to classify.
With their early records, Thyrfing aimed to evoke their more relaxed side which was easily classified within the Viking realm, but with the release of "Vansinnesvisor" first, and then the album we are now reviewing, they decided to steer their uniqueness towards gloomier, at times apocalyptic shores. Always epic, mind you, but with that much greater dose of malignity that served as a catalyst for their willingness to change by radicalizing their heavy music concepts, and they did so in the most classic of ways: by starting to hit hard regarding sound cadence, and making the vocals psychotic to the extreme, here entrusted to Thomas Väänänen, a guy who apparently enjoys torturing his vocal cords with gritty screams almost on the brink of growl and paranoia, and this has greatly contributed in terms of theatricality and dark solemnity.

You can hear it from the approach of the first track "Far At Helvete," which, starting with a disjointed guitar riff, immediately sails, as soon as the rhythm takes hold, into a maelstrom of power that, almost, if not for fear of blaspheming, at a careless listen could indeed mislead, making one wonder if it isn't the Pantera dressed in slightly less vulgar clothes than the band of Phil Anselmo was at the time of "Far Beyond Driven." But it's only a matter of a moment. Immediately after follows an epic break, with an unattainable swirling keyboard accompanying the guitars, and soon after a heavy thrash-like score that frequently veers either into morbid cadence or into Black Metal orthodoxy. And all this within "only" five minutes. As long as this song lasts. And the others, regarding dozens of different facets and "dives" into an ocean woven with potent Heavy mixtures, are equally clear examples.
It goes from the anxious and bitter cadenced to and fro of "Farsotstide," where perhaps the influence of certain Finntroll prevails, passing through to the angry and almost tragic Folk of "Höst," to the relentless rage of "Själavrak" (perhaps the best track of the album for the extremely powerful rhythm section, and for the wavering parts, always secondarily influenced by a certain melodic taste that appears almost transparent and invisible yet present), until arriving, disconcerted, at the apocalyptic and terrifying groove of "Elddagjämning" and the "almost" swampy Death Metal of "Baldersbålet," nevertheless interspersed here and there with catchy phrases and elusive guitar solos almost muted, but not less fascinating and powerful for that.

Ultimately, this is an album that, as I wrote at the beginning, perhaps only served to sow confusion in the already confused minds of Viking genre enthusiasts. But no need to worry. Beyond the dark and often horrific phrasing that the grooves of the album lavishly spread, I undoubtedly believe I can say this is a mature and well-structured work. Powerful within its sulfuric circles that represent a borderland for many genres put together, but that represent nothing resembling a limit, but rather a surplus to the heavy weight of the songs.
Certainly, those who remember Thyrfing as the band devoted to the muscular "Power" of the first three albums will be shocked, but for others (including myself), seeing them in this new grimmer and subtler guise compared to the atmospheres of the past will surely be pleasing. Also because the band, aided by a solid and well-distributed production, has shown that they can carry out a different discourse from what many expected from them, perhaps considering it a regression or an inevitable step backward.

I like to think more pleasantly of the stronger shades of this album, rather than those more polished from the early days, and perhaps I will be the sole and only one to say it in these terms. But the fact remains that originality, as demonstrated here, doesn’t only pass through the "softening" of sounds, but also through their unexpected "intensifying."