13th June even broke the previous record for releases and may be the last really big date before the Nordic vacation period begins at the end of June.
Here is Part 1 of a quick fire review session of some of those releases.
Afargang (Norway) – Mot Verda (sample track from the debut album Andvake)
Folk-metal isn’t a new concept to me and it does seem to be more evident by the day. Here is Norwegian band, Afargang, with an epic track, ‘Mot Verda’, (‘Against the World’), the opener on their debut album ‘Andvake’ (which Mr Google translates as ‘Duck Wake’, but apparently means ‘Awakened Soul’), which presses all the right metal buttons.
Many metal bands have a ‘guiding light’ and in this case it is Olav Luksengård Mjelva, a master it seems of the Hardanger Fiddle, considered the national instrument of Norway and one which he uses to “inject soundscapes” rather than create melodies.
His particular gripe is folk metal music where melodies merely sound folkish and played with heavy guitars, but he prefers to use the Nordic elements as a soundscape to go along with and complement the very heavy music.”
I do believe he has succeeded in that. Straight from the opening bars there is a repeating melody that evokes someone, or something taking up arms against the world, a rallying cry’; a flag around which to congregate. The sort of thing that might be played on the bagpipes.
Thereafter we are taken on a veritable tour de force that equally embraces heavy metal riffs and prog (the merging of those two disciplines is more evident by the day). There’s a mid-section that sounds like the beginning of the outro to Genesis’ ‘Revenge of the Giant Hogweed’.
By the time it ends you feel as if you’ve participated in a Viking invasion, won the battle and have settled down to feast on the spoils.
As an intro to the album they haven’t put a foot wrong.
The album is released on By Norse Music; a label and platform celebrating mainly Norwegian Art, Music, literature, film, and culture. It also supports Kalandra and Wardruna, two bands also to have featured in NMC.
Find them on:
Website: https://afargang.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afargang/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afargangofficial
Bandcamp: https://afargang.bandcamp.com/
Hanne Lynge (Denmark) – Ain’t Life Easy (single/future album track) + video
From a debut album to a 30-year veteran, in the form of Denmark’s Hanne Lynge.
It’s been 30 years since she released her own debut album, and now the Odense-based songwriter is ushering in a new musical era. On June 13th, she released ‘Aint Life Easy’, an Americana-pop piece which is the first single from her forthcoming album.
The title is misleading. She hasn’t won the lottery, even if she sounds like she has. Rather, she’s reflecting ironically on the world’s many problems and on how it is easy to get so wrapped up in them and the social ‘swirl’ that goes with them that you lose track of who and what you are.
And she should know, she also works as a psychotherapist and runs a residential home for young people in Odense and the song was inspired by her work with young people dealing with stress, heartbreak, and overstimulation. (What we would call ADHD I suppose?)
She reveals something that I’ve long suspected – that young people are “shutting down” and not communicating with the rest of society in a healthy way.
The only little problem is that the song is so upbeat, by which I mean the total package – the tune, the lyrics and the video – that it possible to lose sight of the underlying message.
That’s something that you could possibly level at, say, Shania Twain and Hanne’s delivery has the same panache and energy about it as the Canadian star. And let’s face it; it never did her any harm.
Find her on:
Website: https://www.hannelynge.dk/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61575550186797
