Valkyrja

When I first heard Týr - the album was Land, the year was 2008 - I was not immediately blown away. However, at the urging of a dear friend whose tastes are excellent and very much run parallel to my own, I went back and checked out Ragnarok. Ragnarok is a goddamn masterpiece, as is its direct predecessor, Eric the Red. From then on I was entirely sold on Týr, and ended up loving Land nearly as much as the two aforementioned records. How Far to Asgaard, I found, was also worship-worthy. Shortly thereafter, By the Light of the Northern Star was released, and while it displayed a blatant shift in style, I enjoyed it nonetheless: plenty of anthemic songs, albeit vastly simplified from their first four albums, kept my interest to the extent that I still periodically throw it on even today, six years on from its release.

By the time of The Lay of Thrym, I was a complete Týr devotee. However, that album was disappointing. It was fine, but I felt decidedly let down by the degree to which Heri (reportedly) had taken their music in such a generic power/vaguely folkish metal direction when compared with their unwieldy, progressive epics of the first four albums. Then I saw them live for the second time on the tour of that album, and nothing from my favourite records was played. Not a note. Then Valkyrja happened.

I'd like to start by saying that I get it: the simpler the music, the more likely more folks are to buy it, and the more likely the artist is to make a living. I'm a musician, and I understand that. Still though, goddammit. Godfuckingdammit. Talk about generic, boring, populist power metal. That's essentially what Týr plays now, with some folky inflections here and there. Does it sound epic? Sure! Is it catchy? Yes, by all means! Does it suck hard? You know it! Gone are the challenging riffs and song structures of their earlier records interwoven with whispers of old Nordic folk melodies. Gone are the epic-length compositions and phrases that defined the band for me. Gone is the innovation and singularity that made Týr one of my favourite active metal bands of any genre.

Instead, what we have is cliche after cliche, both musically (sub-standard single note palm-muted power metal riffing, cheeseball female vocals and keyboards) and lyrically (the grossly distasteful and sophomoric 'Mare of My Night' and 'The Lay of Our Love'). Unsurprisingly, between The Lay of Thrym and this, they were able to get a deal with Metal Blade, and as such have been getting a lot more attention. Sad as it is, the metal world is little different than those of radio rock or even pop: the dumber the music, the more records you'll sell. As I said, I get it: it's hard to make a living as a metal band, and if you want to have any chance of it at all, you've gotta strip it down and slick it up. I just wish it hadn't been Týr.

Folk metal veterans hailing from the small Faroe Islands, Týr never fail to impress as this is their 7th full length album. The band parted ways with their original drummer Kári Streymoy and for this album had George Kollias from Nile record the drums.

The album is jump started by the riff filled and very catchy Blood of Heroes which tells how legends should remember their heroes and that there is no greater glory than to die in battle. Týr also sing about women and the struggles that can happen and this is clear in Mare of my Night and Hel Hath no Fury which both tell a story of a scored female. With the help of Liv Kristine from Leaves Eyes The Lay of Our Love is a very good traditional Faroese/Danish ballad in which the dual vocals swapping from Heri Joensen to Liv Kristine seems to work very well. Lady of the Slain and Another Fallen Brother definitely shows off the bands skill as these are much faster songs written by Terji Skibenæs and Guns. Terji has mentioned in interviews that his influences are bands like Slayer, Pantera, Testament and Metallica, and it really rubs off onto these songs making them more thrashy and definite highlights of the album.

Coming from a Nordic country it shouldn’t be a surprise that their lyrics are based around Norse mythology, paganism and traditional Nordic stories, and this album is no different with a focus on Valkyries and the Viking afterlife e.g. Into the Sky. And this seems to work best when the band sings in their native tongue. The songs Grindavísan and Fánar Burtur Brandaljóð are sung entirely in Faroese which really does make for listening pleasure. All lyrics are written by Heri Joensen or taken from historical figures and stories. Heri Joensen and Terji Skibenæs write most of the songs but Gunnar Thomsen has input on some songs.

So in conclusion, this is up there with the top Týr releases, if not their best work to date. Never throughout this work does it get boring or tedious or hard to listen to. The only thing is that there could have been a tiny bit more folky elements and there are no huge risks taken, but it works well so they clearly know something I don’t.

Týr returns with their most consistent release ever this year, that features some of the band’s catchiest, shortest, and most versatile pieces ever. Most folk elements have gone and the album includes only two tracks with Faroese lyrics, but the record still sounds one hundred percent like Týr. What we can hear here is a vivid heavy metal album with great guitar work, better vocals than ever, and balanced song writing.

The album opens without any lengthy introductions and delivers a classic-sounding heavy metal track with “Blood Of Heroes”. This melodic mid- to up-tempo number could have come from a band like Iron Maiden, except for the epic, melancholic, and unique vocals that make this a typical Týr track that any fan of the band will recognize. The song just has the right length and is catchy enough as an opener. “Mare Of My Night” is just as appealing. It features a great melodic guitar sound, while the verses are more riff driven. The vocals are even more varied, soft, and melodic than usual. In general, the vocal performance on this album is maybe the very best of the band’s career.

The album’s first really outstanding and surprising song is the half-ballad “The Lay Of Love”, which features the melodic and versatile vocals of Leaves’ Eyes’ Norwegian singer Liv Kristine (who, incidentally, is the wife of Atrocity’s German frontman Alexander Krull). Usually, I’m not the biggest fan of her high-pitched and sometimes thin vocals, but she just sounds fine here and doesn’t take too much space. The darker and grounded melodic vocals of Heri Joensen sound very natural, and both singers harmonize very well together. Fans might argue that this song is a commercial sellout, but who cares if it features stunning guitar melodies and emotional vocals by two great singers like this?

Other highlights on the record include the epic anthem “Nation”, that features some of the album’s most emotional guitar solos, the faster and vivid heavy/thrash metal anthem “Another Fallen Brother” (which is one of the record’s catchiest efforts), and especially the sacral arrangements and majestic choirs in the epic melodic heavy/doom hymn with Faroese lyrics called “Grindavisan”. This song has a lot of potential and is maybe my favorite track on here.

And then there are the bonus tracks. I must admit that despite being a huge Iron Maiden fan, I never really appreciated “Where Eagles Dare” that much because I think that the middle part drags on for far too long. But I immediately fell in love with Týr’s take on the song. I couldn’t stop clicking the repeat button the first time I played the album. The track is close to the original, but has a slightly darker atmosphere. Despite being quite heavy, Heri Joensen’s uniquely mechanical yet melodic vocals add a completely new epic and slightly doom-driven touch to the track. The song sounds like Iron Maiden, but it also perfectly sounds like a regular Týr track. If you didn’t know the song, you wouldn’t even recognize it’s not a song from the band. I must admit that this is one of the very rare cases where the cover version is better than the original. The other cover on the limited editions is Pantera’s “Cemetary Gates” and it’s also at least on the same level as the original. It probably depends whether you prefer the technically more limited, but also more aggressive and raw original vocals, or the slightly more melodic and technically appealing vocals of this cover. Personally, I have to stick with Týr’s version for the reasons cited above, but I’m aware of the fact that Pantera fanboys might feel as upset as some Iron Maiden fans about my opinion.

In the end, Týr has delivered their most entertaining record to date. I still prefer the epic masterpiece Eric The Red and its amazing successor Ragnarok, but I would put this album in third place. Valkyrja includes more focused, diverse, and catchy song writing than the band’s previous efforts. The difficult and sometimes overambitious ten minute epics are gone, and shorter but straighter tracks that are easier to digest have taken their place. This record includes no stinkers, and after a couple of spins it has already grown on me. Fans of the band and those who would finally like to get in touch with the Faroese legends have now got a highly recommendable new record.

Originally written for Black Wind Metal

I have to admit that my familiarity with Týr is a bit limited, culminating in their first two studio offerings on their native Faroe Islands label Tutl records, both of which I found to be extremely convoluted and unimpressive. If nothing else, it speaks to a rather odd contradiction in their adoption of two distant sub-styles in progressive and folk infused metal that didn't quite gel in the band's younger days. Nevertheless, it's important to keep in mind that some bands tend to learn as they go, and such is the case with this band, though my only point of reference in regard to their evolution of style is their latest album in relation to their earliest offerings, which was a jarring affair to say the least. Suffice to say, this band has seen a much more honed and structured approach to their style that is much more compatible with what is generally associated with folk metal, largely by scaling back their progressive elements all but into complete non-existence.

Many detractors have generally associated folk metal with power metal, and while I would argue that the similarities between the two sub-genres don't necessarily lead to confusion, that's basically where "Valkyrja" ends up. This is an album that takes on the hard-hitting, technical character of a number of newer power metal acts and rolls in some occasional elements of Amon Amarth's mode of melodic death metal. It's a bit heavier and more aggressive than an otherwise comparable act like Orden Ogan, but the overtly catchy songwriting and chorus-centered approach carried with it is pretty hard to miss. The principle thing that makes the resulting sound on here a bit unique is Heri Joensen's vocal approach, which is more akin to a nimble thrash vocal sound with a bit less gruff than the old stereotypical Bay Area sound. It meshes together quite nicely with the punchy guitar tone and busy riff work, opting to avoid banshee wails and advanced vocal calisthenics under the guise of a melody, thus keeping things intelligible in spite of the highly technical elements in play.

For the most part, this album is an up tempo, double bass happy collection of anthems celebrating the carnage that goes with Norse storytelling. The opening anthem to pagan war in a compact package "Blood Of Heroes", along with the noodling melodic speed of "Another Fallen Brother" and the more formulaic cruiser "Lady Of The Slain" all have the trappings of an early 2000s speed fest out of a number of heavier power/speed metal outfits out of Germany. Occasionally things will get overtly folksy such as the obvious nod to the olden camp fire ode on the chorus of "Hel Hath No Fury" and the almost Blind Guardian inspired balladry that kicks off "Fánar Burtur Brandaljóð", but even on these songs the rule is generally to pick things up while chugging and shredding away like a maddened woodsman in a virgin forest. The only respite from all the glorious mayhem is the somber power ballad "The Lay Of Our Love", featuring ex-Theater Of Tragedy siren Liv Kristine in the duet setting, albeit this beauty and the beast arrangement comes with something more befitting a princely baritone rather than a guttural bark. It's a song that reeks of cliche romanticism, but also happens to also contain a heavy amount of noodling in the guitar department.

There's very little to complain about here, save the two cover songs that close out the album, which are both unnecessary and outright lackluster. Particularly in the case of the Pantera cover, Heri just lacks the depth and soul needed to convey the emotional content of the lyrics, and instead comes off as a Viking leader celebrating the death of his foes (like every other song on here) rather than searching his soul regarding the questions of a life lost. A few extra notes, a few twists and more double bass work in the drums doesn't alone a faithful or appealing cover make, and this album finds itself wanting for two less songs as a result. But regardless, this is a solid album that will definitely find a good home with the tech. happy power metal crowd, arguably more so than the folk crowd that this band was originally playing to. It's about as subtle as a battle axe through the skull, and that's what metal is all about, after all.

Kicking off the album is the track “Blood of Heroes” which was extremely promising to a fan such as myself. In my humble opinion, the band’s best album to date is still By the Light of the Northern Star, but this opening track is very reminiscent of that album in the drive and melodies from strings and drums. When Týr released The Lay of Thrym in 2011, I was worried that the band had lost the hook and epic sound qualities that I had originally fallen in love with on earlier albums, but the Týr I knew has returned.

The album is not a flawless album, as a few of the tracks are enjoyable but questionable.

“Mare of my Night” might as well be a late night “adult” special on HBO, which I am sure is an attractive quality to many readers, however I am not so interested in hearing about such things. “The Lay of Our Love” is a painfully obvious ballad, and while the songwriting is beautiful and the lyrics are sweet, there are moments in the song where the vocals of Heri and the female vocalist, Liv Kristine (Leaves’ Eyes), just don’t quite mesh well. Between these two songs however, lies “Hel Hath No Fury” which saves the day and easily overpowers them.

Other mentionable tracks are the hook-filled tunes “Another Fallen Brother” and “Into the Sky” which feature great guitar work, powerful lyrics, and moving bass lines. (As always though, the bass really could be louder in the mix.) The drum work of George Kollias is a breath of fresh air, as the man loves his toms and cymbals, and the small little flourishes he adds are perfectly timed and very much appreciated. The second half of the album as a whole is much stronger than the rocky start, and all of the songs warm my heart as a classic Týr fan. With the addition of two amazing cover songs, “Where Eagles Dare” (Iron Maiden) and “Cemetery Gates” (Pantera) this album is a release to be proud of. I love the beefiness that the lineup gave “Where Eagles Dare” and I was seriously shocked at how high Heri’s voice can actually go towards the end of “Cemetery Gates”.

To sum all of this up, Valkyrja is worth all of the hype it has been given, for the old fans, and for the new.

To mead, and to mayhem! Cheers!

A new Týr album is often cause for rejoice. I'm one of the guys who tend to prefer their later direction as opposed to the more progressive, doomy stylings of their first couple of albums (a minority?) I feel that since By The Light Of The Northern Star Týr have done no wrong, with The Lay Of Thyrm topping it, and their latest opus Valkyrja bringing it full-circle, outshining both aforementioned albums on every level.

Valkyrja houses everything I love about Týr's current direction, yet also takes a little of Ragnarok's progressive approach making this arguably the most complete Týr album to date. Kicking off with the Painkiller fed through Amon Amarth riff attack of "Blood of Heroes", Týr set into motion a great work of killer musicianship, shout-a-long choruses, and really, some of the finest heavy metal you're going to hear in 2013.

There are no blemishes here on Valkyrja, from the propulsive to the moody and everything in-between, not a moment feels wasted. The album is chock full to the brim of highlighting features, from Heri Joensen's ever-characteristic vocals all the way up to George Kollias's first-class drum performance. Production is flawless, as per usual, thanks to the wonderful Jacob Hansen, with the mix being particularly well done. I'd have to say my favorite aspect on Valkyrja is the guitar work, it seems Terji Skibenæs and Heri have been on the ball more-so than usual. As I mentioned before about "Blood of the Heroes" and its Painkiller via Amon Amarth approach, a lot of the album has a similar feel. This is blended in with some moody Scandinavian progressive power influence à la Anubis Gate (see "Into The Sky"), as well as the expected folky melodies, and of course some straight-up heavy riffs as displayed in standout "Lady Of The Slain".

Whilst the album definitely continues in the vein of the last two, I'd certainly class Valkyrja as a step up, one listen to the title track should be enough to discern as much. Some of the sillier sing-song type stuff from the last two albums has been ditched too, and while the songs are still catchy as hell I think the album benefits on the whole because of it. I will say that I feel Týr have pushed this approach about as far as they can for now, and it will be interesting to see where they go from here, hopefully without them going through the motions.

On the whole Valkyrja certainly ranks amongst the finer albums I've heard this year. Fans who are more inclined to their earlier material might not find as much to love, although anyone who enjoyed their last couple will be in for a real treat. Power metal fans should pick this one up without hesitation too, as there's definitely a lot of appeal. Highly recommended!

Originally written for http://www.metalcrypt.com

Is... is it safe to officially declare Tyr a sellout yet?

I mean let's face it, the days of the longwinded prog epics and four minute guitar solos backed by orgiastic vocal harmonies and poetic, traditional Faroese lyrics are pretty much long gone now. They have been for five years now. The calming acoustic passages and soothing melodies and progressive digressions have been stripped down more and more ever since Land went over the top with two 10+ minute tracks. I feel like they realized that these songs were difficult to write, difficult to arrange, and difficult to play. The first two can make the writing process a stressful bitch, and the last one can make live renditions of said songs not transfer over very well. Now, I saw Tyr twice around the Land era, and I thought they knocked it out of the park both times, but the second time I saw them, they debuted "Hold the Heathen Hammer High" off the then-upcoming By the Light of the Northern Star. By a long shot, that song was the highlight of the set. It was so simple in contrast to what the band was known for, it was a very aggressive song with a much more urgent and pounding rhythm than we fans were accustomed to, and it worked brilliantly. Come a few months later when the album dropped, it sounded just as great on record. That album showed Tyr experimenting with shorter, punchier songs; and if you ask me, the experiment was a resounding success.

Two albums and four years later, Tyr has unleashed their hotly anticipated seventh (and first for metal monoliths, Metal Blade) full length, Valkyrja, and it's... well, about the third iteration of By the Light of the Northern Star. It seems like the band realized that while Eric the Red may be their initial claim to fame, the simpler style showcased on that wonderful 2009 album really helped set them over the top and up their exposure to casual fans of prog, folk, and power metal. I claimed Eric the Red was really overrated back in the day, and I still believe that to an extent, but there really is a lot to like within that album and there are no less than like five or six absolutely masterful songs to be found, and with the benefit of hindsight I've grown really fond of the album purely because it's been made clear that Tyr never plan to revisit the more melodic and progressive side of their signature sound again.

Now with that said, this simpler, more rocking, less folking, more power, less progressive style is something that Tyr actually does indeed excel at, so Valkyrja may be disappointing in the sense that we're not getting any truly new ideas from the band and it's blatant selloutiness (it's a word now, bite me), but it's still very well written and well executed. Heri Joensen's voice may have gotten a bit sandier over the years with the new aggressive style, but his ear for melody is still damn near unmatched, the the harmonies are just as sublime as they've always been, it's really only the subject matter that's shifted dramatically over the last few albums. Yeah, it's been made clear that Valkyrja is an album about women, or more specifically, the way men can turn into idiotic, slobbering Tex Avery cartoons they instant they get a nanometer of cleavage or how they can put their entire lives on hold to cater to the whim of the latest cute girl in math class with a pretty smile (obviously I can't relate to either of these scenarios, I'm too busy knocking back Dr. McGillicuddy and banging your mom). Luckily, unlike some other bands I've written about in the past (looking at you, Arsis), Tyr manages to handle the subject matter with an astounding amount of class, keeping everything grounded with their trademark Nordic flavor, obviously sticking to themes like Valkyries, wars fought in their name, and spirit women blowing you in your sleep.

Wait, what?

Yeah, "Mare of My Night" is a little distracting in its explicitness. Most of the lyrics here are as poetic and metaphorical as they normally are, but this one is just upfront and downright raunchy, and it's uncharacteristic for the band and really, really hard to ignore. Yeah, I get it's based off an old legend and explains where the term "nightmare" even comes from (though most dreams I have of this nature can hardly be considered nightmares (unless we're counting the one where Rosario Dawson turned into a dog halfway through)), but it still stands as possibly the only time the band ever dropped their trademark tact and class for something bizarrely crude. Now, I don't mean to come off as a missionary-in-the-dark-purely-for-procreation style prude here (I mean come on, I'm the guy who invented a sexual maneuver combining cunnilingus and a jackknife powerbomb (I call it Erectile Destruction)), but hearing Heri belt out heartfelt lines about being sucked dry are just fucking weird, okay?

That aside, how's the rest of the album stack up? Pretty darn well, I'd say. It's basically nothing you're not expecting at this point, which at one point I'd consider a massive slap in the face considering the band in question here, but they've proven themselves to me so it's really not as big of a deal as I may have initially made it seem. The main reason for this is because the songs are just flat out catchier and more memorable than they were on The Lay of Thrym. "Mare of My Night" is very catchy and fist pumping, reminiscent of the marvelous "Hold the Heathen Hammer High", and the other two singles, "Blood of Heroes" and "Another Fallen Brother" follow the same vein. This raises the point of the album being somewhat samey, essentially being mid-paced, double bass driven, nebulous, Amon Amarth styled metal songs with incredibly charismatic vocals, impressive guitar soloing, and hearty hooks and grooves. This isn't untrue, but there are a few standout spots that break the mold, like the duet with the chick from Leaves' Eyes in "The Lay of Our Love" or the basically straight up power metal track and definite standout of the album with "Lady of the Slain", or even the hearkening back to longer, more developed and complex songs like the title track.

It's unfortunate that I sense a bit of pop structuring in the sense that this album is front loaded with a ton of great songs in the beginning before starting to get stale in the middle with two standouts at the end, because this means that Tyr's penchant for mid-album filler is still clearly prevalent. It's also unfortunate that tracks that start off interestingly or more epic and creative than the rest ("Grindavisan", "Fanar Burtur Brandalijoo") just end up reverting to the tried and true "Amon Amarth with folk melodies, clean vocals, and less heaviness" formula they've been (admittedly successfully) milking for three albums now. So yeah, with the theme of women being so highlighted, the pop structuring, the fact that non-metal fans can easily like this just as much as people like me who also listen to 7.H Target, really make this clear to me that Tyr is just a very musically accomplished pop metal band at this point. Now, just like with Amon Amarth and Children of Bodom and other bands I feel like the label can apply to, this isn't an inherently bad thing, as Valkyrja is still a good album, in fact I'd say it's a solid tier above The Lay of Thrym and only marginally worse than By the Light of the Northern Star. The sameness gets a little tiring and the songs are definitely less interesting than the band's early era, but I'd argue that a majority of them are more engaging, so it's still a very good album that I don't mind recommending. This isn't going to be making my year end list or anything, but it's solid, and at the very least it's worth hearing for "Hel Hath No Fury", "Another Fallen Brother", and especially "Lady of the Slain".


PS - The covers of "Where Eagles Dare" and "Cemetery Gates" are both good, though the latter is slower than the original, and both of them showcase that while Heri is a marvelous singer, he doesn't really have a commanding upper range, and the climactic high notes of both songs feel kinda flat.


Originally written for Lair of the Bastard