Review Summary: Vintersorg is a very well liked and respected band/person in the Folk/Viking genre. From his work with Borknagar to his solo project, Vintersorg. And when you listen to albums like Odemarkens Son, you see why. Hedniskhjartad, a short 5 song, 20 minute EP
This album starts off with the wonderful acoustic (great throughout the whole album) work by Mr. V with some keyboard setting the mood in the background. The guitars then kick in, and while the lead guitar through out the album is pretty much the same as say, Odemarkens Son, the rhythm guitar is much more grating. More like a black metal “background” guitar tone, while still remaining clear, but not as ‘clear’ as on, again, Odemarkens Son. The drums are nothing groundbreaking, but accompany/suit the music really well; they do their job. The bass just seems to do root notes and is not always noticeable, but this is all the music needs. The keyboards don’t do anything flashy, but rather to add an atmosphere...like at 1 minute of the first song, Norrland, which is a perfect example of how well they keyboards are used on this EP.
The music itself wanders between mid-paced and semi-fast most of the time. You get some faster moments, but nothing-hyper speed.
The albums' great folk acoustic work, harsher black metal-ish moments and mid-paced sections all blend in together very well to create a very naturesque atmosphere. If you liked the overall atmosphere from the album Odemarkens Son, you are bound to like this then as the atmosphere has a similiar vibe to it, aswell as the music itself being similiar. Like I said before, the only major difference being the guitar tone.
As for the vocals, we have Vintersorgs’ clean vocals, which are pretty much indentical to his other works. I don’t think anyone is this world does not like them. His voice his one of the most powerful sounding voices in the whole genre. Thick, rich, and immiedatly distinguishable due partly to his heavy accent. Think [i]a bit[I/] of Matthew Barlows' baritone voice but thicker sounding and in Swedish(that's the closest I can get). Adds a very unique feel to the music. On the other hand, we get some harsh vocals here and there, which while being good, are surpassed by the clean vocals by miles. We also get some female vocals in the second song, Stilla, which fit very well into the song...none of this “I don’t want any female vocals” here, as they don’t sound out of place or random at all.
All in all, a very good EP from Vintersorg, and a very good add to a folk/viking metal fan's collection
