HISTORY
This band comes from Sweden and it is called
Vintersorg (or Winter Sorrow). This band was formed in 1996, there was first this band called
Vargartron (or Wolf Throne), they disbanded but the member called
Vintersorg wanted to move on and he used the bands original recipe to created his own band. This band has been considered to be a one-man project but there has been some quest artists who have helped
Vintersorg on his way, there is though one member that has been considered to be a real band member, he is a guitar player and his name is
Mattias Marklund. This band plays a quite interesting style of music, it sounds like a black-metal band with influences from other metal genres as viking, folk and progressive-metal, the music has an epic and mystical feel. The cool thing about this band is that they are singing totally in Swedish! There are not many bands that use their mother language in music but this band does, the vocals are also very good here; most times there are these calm, clean and almost opera sounding vocals. But then you have some darker and raspier vocals that would sound similar to black-metal singers. If this has made you interested you should keep reading.
ALBUM INFORMATION
This album is called
Odemarkens Son and it was released in 1999. This album has many awesome musical events; you have intensive drumming, fast and complex guitar work, melodic tunes, catchy song patterns, vocals with good variety and a whole new language, there are also a female guest vocalist that can be heard in the track called
Svaltvinter. If you are tired on all the English stuff you could check this out because it does not sound horrible at all. This material also has melodic acoustics and keyboards and some small orchestra moments, this also makes this band to sound like a power-metal band with some mystical and evil ingredients. The lyrics in this album are focused on fantasy themes, there are lyrics with trolls, elves, and themes about the nature, the lyrics are not containing violent or anti-themes like racism, Satanism or hatred against things. There are no social themes or something like that; this is only fantasy and nature lyrics.
TRACK TRANSLATION
I’m pretty sure that there are not many people on this site who can read or speak Swedish so I thought I could give you a helping hand to translate the Swedish track titles. I will not use these strange ‘’Swedish’’ letters, I’m afraid that the text will be messed up. I will do my best to translate but remember that this is not 100% correct, this is at least 90% correct so don’t worry. The tracks are first written in Swedish and then you can see the English translation.
-- Nar Alver Sina Runor Sjungit / When Elves Have Sang There Runes
-- Svaltvinter / Winter of Starvation
-- Under Norrskenets Fallande Ljusspel / Under The Falling Northen Lights
-- Manskensman / Human Man
-- Odemarkens Son / Son Of The Wasteland
-- Trollbunden / Trollbound (or Bound To The Trolls)
-- Offerbacken / Creek Of Sacrifice
-- I Den Trollska Dalens Hjarta / In The Heart Of The Trollish Valley
-- Pa Landet / On Land
THE BAND MEMBERS
This band is as I said a one man crew but this album the crew is two persons. The first one is
Vintersorg (Andreas Hedlund), he plays the guitar and keyboard and he is also the vocalist of this band, The second member here is called
Vargher and he also plays the keyboard but he also handles the electronics. We begin with the vocals; the vocals are strong and somewhat unique actually. Most of the times there is this melodic, skilled and calm singing style and later you have these evil, raspy and darker black-metal grunting or singing. These vocals mix suits perfect o the lyrical themes and the music itself. The guitars are very good, the riffing ad shredding is catchy, quite technical and melodic, the overall sound are though not bone crushing heavy of lightning sharp but this sounds good none the less, the solos are nothing special but they are not bad though, the solos are somewhat slow but the are enjoying and half-melodic. The drumming is programmed if I remember correct, but who cares, the drum patterns are fast, catchy and has a good flow. I don’t know if there is any bass in this album but I can’t hear any though. Then we have these sound effects which come from both the electronics and from the keyboards, these effects are often calm, mystic and melodic, there are no eerie or creepy sounds but I guess you have to listen to this before you can judge it but this is the best way I can describe this though. All I can say is that the overall instrumental performance is great; you have melodic tunes, epic atmospheres, and intensive metal ingredients.
MY CONCLUSION
This was definitely a different metal album indeed, the things I really liked was the fact that the band sang in Swedish, it was very enjoying to hear that they could write great lyrics and sing so good. Other things that I liked were this mystic sound which was in the material, the lyrics was interesting and enjoyable, the vocals felt unique and the guitar work was skilfully performed. The album was melodic, mystic and atmospheric and the same time, and with the mix between black-metal and melodic and calm singing made the album even more interesting. The calm and melodic acoustics along with the strong metal formula was also a great combination in my opinion.
I thought that this was a nearly perfect album and I will definitely recommend this to power-metal people and maybe black-metal people. This album has many things that will grab the listener’s attention, and as I said before, I you are tired on the English language then you should check this out if you want to hear another interesting language. This was all I had this time so I hope that you enjoyed this review and I hope this was a good guidance.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS
(
These are may favourite tracks but I recommend that you get the whole album, you wont be disappointed)
-- Svaltvinter
-- Trollbunden (Instrumental)
-- Odemarkens Son
-- Offerbacken
This album will be given a 4.5/5 because of its multiple metal mix, melodic material, the non-english singing and the blended vocal work.
