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Heidevolk

Walhalla Wacht

Written by: PP on 21/05/2008 19:26:33

Dutch pagan folk metallers Heidevolk have reached the sophomore album stage in their career with \"Walhalla Wacht\", which is an album that promises the band a long and fruitful future within the folk metal genre. The only hindering factor immediately recognizable is that most of the lyrics are sung in Dutch, and lets be honest here, although there are about 16 million native Dutch speakers in The Netherlands, the rest of us are going to have a difficult time in entering their lyrical universe.

But that isn\'t such as big loss, considering most of their lyrics revolve around pagan themes and variate little from any other folk metal band out there, or that\'s at least the impression you get from reading the promo material and listening to the tunes. Also, folk metal has always been easily accessible, considering most bands rarely use screamed/growled vocals on the record, and Heidevolk are again no exception to the rule. Still, the clean vocals of Boghtdrincker/Splintervuyscht vocal duo are notably more dramatic than others in the genre, and add a sense of gloom and storminess into their music. Groovy, swinging instrumental work shouldn\'t be forgotten either, and playing \"Walhalla Wacht\" to elderly people should surely provoke at least some reaction from them, considering how much the music owes to traditional folk music from any Northern European country.

Finally, I have to complain LOUDLY about the copy/leak protection mechanism Napalm Records has stuffed on \"Walhalla Wacht\". About twice per song (or more if the song is longer), the music is literally paused to stand still with a beep, after a voice states \"You are listening to the new Heidevolk album, Walhalla Wacht\", before the music returns. There\'s no way you can gain a fair overview of how the album sounds when you\'re disrupted in such an annoying way all the time. Besides, at the time of writing this, a torrent of the retail version of \"Walhalla Wacht\" is easily found by using google, so you are only making our (=the music press) job more difficult.

Download: Het Wilde Heer, Wodan Heerst
For the fans of: Tyr, Svartsot, Falkenbach
Listen: Myspace
Buy: iTunes

Release date 31.03.2008
Napalm Records