Heidevolk : "WederKeer"

The Dutch metal band's 7th album finds some lineup changes in place with Mat van Baest added as a lead guitarist, along with Awakening Sun Drummer Kevin van den Heiligenberg. Former Conorach vocalist Jacco de Wijs taking returns for his second album with the band. This makes the bass player the only original member. Their third album is my favorite, and it feels like this album is going to follow a similar path of applying traditional metal values and almost power metal like hooks to the epic odes to Vikings. Being that they are south of the Baltic, I am not going to call them Viking metal as that is a term reserved for Scandinavian bands, no matter who liberal scholars might seek to revise history for their narrative. I appreciate where they are coming from and the Germanic myths seem to be sung with sincerity, so this is not total LARPing. 

The more deliberate gallops combined with the bold layers of vocals give them a very Tyr like sound. They have more of a black metal influence and are not afraid to use harsher vocals and blast beats. They are not afraid to use cleaner guitar tones. The traditional metal sound factors into the riff that drives the second song, which I appreciate the dynamic balance. More time was put into the recording as this sounds like their more polished outing to date. They continue to defend the face as the album progresses even as they work in the more Renn Faire like folk sounds. I fully support the kinds of chugs they are attacking the mainland with here. Four songs in when they start going back to their old ways, seems a little less inspired in the song writing department. Nothing that is a deal breaker, it just plays it a little safe. This is remedied on "Oeros" which crunches in with a deliberate menace that is darker. 

The title track is more of folk ballad with a mournful feel. They are good at capturing the feel of the Middle Ages with little frolicking involved. They couple this with epic metal from the glory days of the genre with vocals sung in a similar folk cadence as the previous song. There is some introspective ebb and flow that works really well here. They continue to rally the head banging on "Raidho". The pace picks up in a manner that feels like most of the 90s power metal. The folk elements reach a crossroads with what these guys with varied measures of ethereal brooding as the album progresses. "Holda" stands amid this as one of the sole metal moments of the album's third act. The vocals are brighter as the music reaches more epic heights. The album ends with another rousing folk ditty, that sounds like a tavern of depressed bards lamenting together. I will give this album a 9.5, it has taken what they do and perfected it while doing metal proud by sticking to the truest form. Being released on Napalm Records 

Heidevolk : Batavi

With Tyr's last album not doing much for me, I really needed was for these Dutch Viking LARPers to set up their game. Let's get my little political qualm out of the way first with these guys and get onto the music, and it's more for the fact we have the record straight, guys the Dutch were only Vikings in the sense that they were part of the territory covered during the Viking expansion movement, I history classes in America but they should in the Netherlands, so describing this band as Viking metal we are really just saying it has more balls than run of the mill folk metal...works for me moving on.
Every metal band will tell you their next album will be their heaviest yet, Heidevolk would not be telling you a lie, every thing here is stepped up. The production the most notable and the vocals really benefit from this. They are double tracked and bellowed out from a booming baritone, see kids you don't have to growl to sound heavy. Now the war chants in the back ground will prove rousing anthems to raise your beer to in the parking lot at Renn-fest, they might one day seem obnoxious to me but for now they don't detract from my listening.
One thing this album gets points for is that in the days of the Ipod where most listening is done on shuffle, this album proves a smooth cohesive journey front to back, no songs I would feel should be excluded from the Ipod,though considering summer has come early, I won't really need to feel like I'm galloping through the snow covered hills til next fall, so it will stay on the hard drive for air conditioned listening.
I have noticed by the acoustic guitar on the 6th song,the more melodic feel was welcome departure as the songs start to take on a similar feel and this is due in part to one of the albums strong points mentioned earlier the vocal production, which gives every thing a similar feel as all the songs are sung in dutch so lyrical content doesn't distinguish them. However even with in that , their are peaks and valleys, the rare appearance of harsh vocals and variations to the guitar attack. The drums while improved performance wise often have the same driving feel as if the double bass is trying to out run a dragon.
The 6th song is an instrumental interlude of sorts and leads back into more of a power-metal type guitar attack, any way you slice and dice this it's more epic on a budget than most of your bigger label releases of this sort of thing, it's very honest and while I don't believe their cosplay, I trust these guys to bring the metal with little pretense. Also they get credit for using their native tongue and folk melodies with out sounding like they are frolicking at the shire with Korpiklaani.
This going to be brutal enough for everyone, but if you like mid tempo power/folk/epic/viking whatever the hell you want to call this then these guys are worth checking out.