Red for Fire: An Icelandic Odyssey Part I

After the Norwegian duo had been a sensation with their longest and at the same time most ambitious album, In Harmonia Universali, they decided to move away from black humor, life and philosophy themes to tackle themes from Viking mythology, which in a way marks a change in their style, although it becomes somewhat trite since it is not something new, much less being a Norwegian band. It seemed that they had returned to the roots of the band where these themes were addressed, but musically they were not yet too exuberant as the demo Jernlov and the debut album The Linear Scaffold. Later on they changed those themes to absurdity and humor, musically they pushed the limits until they came up with this work called Red for Fire: An Icelandic Odyssey Part I.

Musically it is much softer compared to the previous album, but there is a problem. Solefald in previous works was characterized by having an order in their albums, a list of songs perfectly ordered as if it were a gold chain, it was impossible for them to fail in that. However, in this album it seems that they forgot the direction, there is nothing concrete or something that makes you stay awake, attentive to what you are listening to. It is ironic because in this album it seems that they are trying to tell a story of Vikings, but instead they seem to group incomplete chapters without any central idea.

This album can be divided into two songs, the first one “Sun I Call” is by far the best song on the album, it has an excellent introduction, it sounds melancholic and epic at the same time, the section where the piece explodes generates a lot of energy and really hooks you with the music. But then comes the other song “Survival of the Outlaw” that breaks all that interest in the album and it doesn’t differ much from the other songs that offer practically the same musical boredom. It’s also curious that the production, despite being very good, maintains a raspy sound, especially in the guitars, that reminds us of the sound of the first albums and ends up sounding really strong, but the other decorations ruin everything.

This album can sound insufferable in some parts, “There Is Need” is a song that tries to generate power, but fails in the attempt, “Bragi” is an instrumental piece that sounds nice, but it is so futile that you could skip it and not miss anything important. “Crater of the Valkyries” is the longest song and unfortunately it is also very boring, although the title of the song really invites you to listen to it, but the worst thing is that when you listen to it you are left confused and unmotivated.

There is a lot of work here from various artists and they bring almost nothing important to the table, nothing that really stands out and leaves you surprised. This first part of “An Icelandic Odyssey” is a failed exercise in creating something unique, because there is only a mixture of ideas that do not come to a concentrated form, it is a rather frustrating experience to listen to this album. Thank goodness it is the only Solefald album that made me feel so disenchanted with them, because from the first time I heard them on their debut album they left me marked for life.

A lot of Viking metal in the past couple of years has been very one-dimensional, embracing a very simple, marketable, sensationalist approach to Viking themes, both aesthetically and musically, usually taking some form of melo-death (*cough* Amon Amarth *cough). Whilst this isn’t exactly the polar opposite musically speaking, Solefald have taken the time to approach a Viking saga (written by Cornelius himself) in a more sensitive and sophisticated manner, whilst parallels can be drawn with the likes of Borknagar and Vintersorg.

There is use of real instruments as opposed to synths, including the conventional violins and cellos, and some less so like the saxophone, used on the excellent first track ‘Sun I Call’.

Vocally this is an interesting album too, with Cornelius Jakhelln using his latter-day vocal style, which is some sort of restrained, but uneasy groan. Many hate it, but I think it’s original and it compliments the music. Lazare delivers the Borknagar-esque clean vocals, layered nicely but sensibly. There is also a guest female vocal from Aggie Frost Peterson, whose soft, warm, relaxing tones add that all important contrast, and helps add to the overall sense of Nordic-ness.

The quality of the songs is consistent on this album, though whilst there are some generic melodic death tunes on it like ‘Survival Of The Outlaw’, there is a nice instrumental (‘Bragi’) and the odd spoken poem, but the best song for me has to be ‘White Frost Queen’, a splendid mix of Asgeir Mickelson style drumming, haunting melodies/harmonies that ask you to listen to them again and again, female vocals, and of course the beautiful string section.

To conclude, although I understand this album is not likely to appeal to many purists, for me Solefald has truly captured the essence of the Norse lands like no other ‘Melodic’/non-pure Black Metal band has done before.

First of all do not seek this album if you want the Viking Metal sound because it is not found here despite this album being Part 1 of 2 of the “An Icelandic Odyssey” saga. All I hear is something that borders Mallcore but doesn’t quite become it.

The production is totally clean and crisp. The guitars are of course distorted but within in the realm of being easy on the ears. So don’t except anything that actually resembles Black Metal. All instruments and vocals are mixed well so that not one instrument dominates the other. Now that I’ve told you that there’s nothing special in the production let’s move onto the music shall we…

The album greets you with a soothing saxophone and synth pads. Then the vocals kick in. A clean female voice mixed with a male croaked voice sounding somewhat like a person who needs a throat lozenge. In this album both clean and growled vocals are used. Nothing about the vocals stands out. To put it plainly they are pretty plain. This first song isn’t too bad but it has got no innards. Not a good way to start an album but it only gets worse.

“Survival of the Outlaw” starts with a blast of crappy Death riffs but before you know it they stop and a synth plays a sound. Then the Death riff starts again. Then the synth cuts in again. All I can say is it sounds very disjointed. After a minute and a bit the Death riffs halt but this time we’re handed a sung melodic piece with background synths instantly reminding me of Death Cult Armageddon – Dimmu Borgir. I did not like that ugly memory. I guess you could compare this album to later Dimmu Borgir but perhaps that is taking it a bit too far. Track three is more or less the same idea as the second track.

“Bragi” is an instrumental synth piece with violins. It could be used as a soundtrack for paint drying. “White Frost Queen” brings back some interesting sounds to this album. It is a very gentle track dominated with soft female vocals. After a minute though you realise it isn’t that good. “There Is Need” brings you back to the boring riffs again. Nothing much to say really except for boring. Next we get to hear a “Prayer of a Son”. It’s a spoken piece that just sounds stupid not atmospheric like it was probably supposed to sound like. The first throat lozenge the vocalist took has already worn off and he needs another one.

I ‘m not going to bother to give you a run down of the last three tracks, two of which are boring songs like the rest of the album and the last one being another stupid spoken piece. I’m not sure why this band gets all the high ratings it does. Perhaps previous albums are better but I really doubt it.

To sum this review up: Boring.