Defenders of the Blood

I'm quite the fan of viking metal, and so I was told to check this out, and that this was, and I quote, ''fucking amazing''. It is not amazing, it is actually quite bad. It opened with a clean intro, and though it wasn't incredible, it was ok. But then it continued, and nothing happened, and so I realized that this was going to be yet another disappointment.

Once the metal starts, the very first thing you notice is how bad the drums sound, or more specifically, how bad the kick and snare is. I get better sound by tapping my fingers on my desk. The snare is so weak, it sounds paper thing, and just kind of flat. The kick is no better, it's way to soft, at first I was certain that the drums were programmed, however a drummer is credited, so there's not really any excuse for the terribleness.

The music itself is nothing interesting, unoriginal, dull and just boring riffs. They're not really repulsive or horribly bad, they're just not interesting. The riffs are so predictable, and you can barely get through any song, as you immediately start thinking about other, better albums that you could listen to instead. This album reminds me a bit of Enslaved's ''Eld'' album, the only difference being that ''Eld'' is actually ok. It's just quite tame and mild, and there's a devastating lack of energy, and it almost feel like they're playing some basic scales a bunch of times.

The vocals are not really any better, his shrieks just aren't that good. They're very weak, and sound quite gurgly. At times he just kind of shouts, and it doesn't sound like he puts any effort into the vocals, which makes them quite forgettable.

The bass is pretty much inaudible, however other than that, the mixing and production quality (except from the terrible drum sound) is surprisingly good. You can hear everything clearly, however whether that's a good thing is debatable. The thing about this album is that even though it's not horribly bad, it's still boring, and thus bad. It just feels a bit pointless. If you want viking metal, check out Bathory, Windir, Enslaved, or Isengard, not this.