Released By : STYGIAN CRYPT OUT NOW!!!
Style: Epic Viking Metal
Links: http://www.myspace.com/tre11eborg
Tracklist:
1. Entering The Lands
2. Gunbjorn (Birth Of Skerriz)
3. Against The Winds
4. Born Under Sign
5. Mestanhumppa!
6. At The Last
7. Sudden Arrise
8. From The Seas
9. Spellful Cup
10. Tale Of The Immortals
11. Birth of Skerriz(Orchestral)
I’ve never tried to make anybody believe that I am a big fan of Folk Metal, Viking Metal or any of this styles sub-genres, and I certainly don’t proclaim to be overly knowledgeable about it either. But I do know what I like, and I feel I have a decent enough hold on the style to be able to properly review this new album from TRELLEBORG.
As are a lot of albums in this genre, LANDS OF NJORD is a bit of a concept album. Not in the usual prog metal style of having a storyline to follow along, but more in the sense that all of the songs are about a certain thing and can all be related to one another. The songs are about an ancient god of the seas named you guessed it, NJORD who is a large part of Scandinavian mythology. The lyrics tell of his tales and can mostly be related to songs about endless seas and similar things. Musically, TRELLEBORG are one of the most epic sounding bands I’ve ever heard, with a sound that can be compared to a big film score. A lot of keyboards and some monstrous backing vocals that sound like a couple of choirs all singing together. All of this majesty obviously takes a band worth of people to put together properly, but I must say I was surprised to hear that lead vocalist LORD VOLLAND is actually also the lead songwriter, lead lyricist and also plays guitar and keyboards on the album. Sure the contribution across the board warrants some respect, but a special mention must me made for VOLLAND who is clearly one of the best all-rounders in the Folk/Viking metal genre. Elements of black metal and death metal keep things interesting, and if you read along with the lyrics I’d say around 85 percent of this album is very enjoyable while the other 15 percent is good but not great.
If you are into Folk/Viking metal in general, you could do much worse than the new TRELLEBORG album and I am happy to highly recommend it. Also recommended as something a little different for fans of epic melodic metal or power metal that are willing to approach with an open mind.
Written by Zeezee
Ratings Zeezee 8/10
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