Description

The tale of Falkenbach is really two stories, one of them telling the tale of a one-man project that found an interesting niche between the formative efforts of Bathory and the subsequent second wave of black metal, the other one being how that changed into a project that moved a good bit closer to the former half of said story. One of these stories is not necessarily better than the other in a general musical sense, but they are very much different, which is in itself impressive considering that it all flows to one individual musician/songwriter. Though it may well have been completely unrelated to this band being signed to a prominent label in Napalm Records, when this occurred the obscure and very much blackened character that defined In Their Medh Riki Fara fell by the wayside and a sound quite similar to that of Twilight Of The Gods and Quorthons later Nordland releases emerged in Magni Blandinn Ok Megintiri, an album widely heralded by core fans of Viking metal as one of the earliest examples of said style after Bathory. The best way to distinguish this release from the debut is by seeing it as a Viking album with black metal influences, as opposed to the opposite which was the case previously. One thing that has remained constant is Vakyas vocal character, which generally resembles both the garbled blackened shrieks and plain sung character of Enslaveds transitional offering Eld, though the chanting clean vocals have taken on a dominant role. This is the one area where Falkenbach has differed pretty significantly from Viking era Bathory, as the character of the vocals is quite static and almost trance-inducing rather than gritty and impassioned. This is best exemplified on The Heathenish Foray, which features a droning vocal and melodic line that consists of about 5 different notes and almost sounds like a mantra recitation, not all that different from the occasional clean vocal lines that can be found in some of Agallochs material. Interestingly enough, the keyboard presence has been heightened to such a level that it actually competes with the vocals for equal prominence and tends to drive the songs. This even proves to be the case on the fastest and most aggressive of this albums offering Baldur Tod, which almost flirts with an up tempo power metal feel, but also manages to sound like an orchestrated film score theme amid the heavy synthesized string overlay. Overall, this is the sort of album that is quite impressive at first glance, but tends to cater more to early metal fans who like things kept simple and who dont mind long and repetitive epics. It is very well put together and offers up a clearly defined whole where each individual part can be fully discerned and appreciated, and actually manages to one-up all of Bathorys cumulative releases in terms of polish. Having said that, it lacks the charm and originality that made the first album a sort of cult classic that straddled the lines between black and Viking metal to the point that one wonders how Quorthon didnt write something like it between Blood Fire Death and Hammerheart. Its a solid collection of songs that all fans of the sub-genre should be familiar with. It marks a pretty big shift in direction, but is far from the most illogical one to ever about in the metal world. Track listing: 1. Whem Gjallarhorn Will Sound 2. Where Blood Will Soon Be Shed 3 Towards The Hall Of Bronzen Shields 4. The Heathenish Foray 5. Walhall 6. Baldurs Tod