In the vein of most of 90's viking-themed metal, this record seems to be even more afraid of letting go of conventions and exploring the unknown than the most generic death metal; it's almost pathetic how dogmatically executed Bathory worship this is. But this stuff has its fans and I must say this is not a bad record. There are some stirring keyboards and songs that, even while being very simple, give you most of the time an image of sailing viking ships and harsh winds on the fjords of Norway. The sounds are almost powerful, the programmed (?) drums being the weakest link here, but they are of course excusable for a one-man band. There is very little black metal anywhere on this album except for some vocals. The lyrics are pretty studied and go from an almost religious angle into Asatru thought. It might be interesting to read an essay of some sort from Vratyas Vakyas. I have noticed this album being also liked by many people that are into normal rock music and this presents the issue of the crossing over from introverted black metal into extroverted NS rock music. If you want your pagan metal the way Graveland does it, you better avoid Falkenbach. If you want viking music rather than heavy black darkness, take Falkenbach rather than most of the Norwegian bands with titles that refer to the ancient religion. Enslaved was too dark for many viking fans, but now we have a time when treats like this appear. I don't know if Falkenbach is overall very interesting, but it is still worthy of a try.

© 2002 black hate