Falkenbach
En Their Medh Riki Fara
[No Colours]
Falkenbach is the one-man band of ”Vratyas Vakyas” who lives in Germany but says
that he is from Iceland. I have no reason to disbelieve that he would be from
Iceland but apparently everyone is taking care to mention that he only SAYS to
be from Iceland.
Icelandic language is what I would reckon to be the Nordic language that most of the songs in this album use. The choice of language should in itself be a pointer to what to expect from the music. Yes, it’s ”viking metal”. But this, the first album of Falkenbach is not as full-on Bathory worship as the second, ”Magni Blandirr ok Megintiri”, is. There is more black metal to be heard here and clean vocals are used in only two of the seven songs.
The power of this music is based to the atmosphere of the epic/medieval/nordic guitar riffs and some keyboards, which, though not used in any surprising way, do lift the music to at least ”very listenable” level. The keyboards are not constantly used to play the same melody with the guitar lines, which would be stupid. They appear at certain points to play chords to light up a grand background to what is happening in the interplay between guitar and vocal rasps. There is no extreme hate in those vocals but there is feeling and a constancy of control which make them a fine instrument to interpreting the Asatru-religious lyrical content of Falkenbach’s music.
Early Satyricon is brought to mind a bit, but Falkenbach is supreme in depth of atmosphere and also control of the elements in it’s music. Falkenbach is not indulging in the ”medievalness” or ”vikingness” of the sounds or melodies, but brings the point home by building up the pace and drama not only at the scope of one song, but at the scope of the whole album. The moments of grandeur sound greater when used sparingly, as is realized by Falkenbach here.
Drum-machine is used for rhythm. Mostly it is adequate, but there are points where it lacks the organic capacity to keep the tempo from turning obvious. This problem of the drum rhythms sounding mundane and banal is also related to possible lack of experience from the part of the composer in constructing his songs: he often chooses the easy rock-n-roll approach of block-like music building over a more metallic, strange and imaginative interpretation.
© 1999 black hate
Icelandic language is what I would reckon to be the Nordic language that most of the songs in this album use. The choice of language should in itself be a pointer to what to expect from the music. Yes, it’s ”viking metal”. But this, the first album of Falkenbach is not as full-on Bathory worship as the second, ”Magni Blandirr ok Megintiri”, is. There is more black metal to be heard here and clean vocals are used in only two of the seven songs.
The power of this music is based to the atmosphere of the epic/medieval/nordic guitar riffs and some keyboards, which, though not used in any surprising way, do lift the music to at least ”very listenable” level. The keyboards are not constantly used to play the same melody with the guitar lines, which would be stupid. They appear at certain points to play chords to light up a grand background to what is happening in the interplay between guitar and vocal rasps. There is no extreme hate in those vocals but there is feeling and a constancy of control which make them a fine instrument to interpreting the Asatru-religious lyrical content of Falkenbach’s music.
Early Satyricon is brought to mind a bit, but Falkenbach is supreme in depth of atmosphere and also control of the elements in it’s music. Falkenbach is not indulging in the ”medievalness” or ”vikingness” of the sounds or melodies, but brings the point home by building up the pace and drama not only at the scope of one song, but at the scope of the whole album. The moments of grandeur sound greater when used sparingly, as is realized by Falkenbach here.
Drum-machine is used for rhythm. Mostly it is adequate, but there are points where it lacks the organic capacity to keep the tempo from turning obvious. This problem of the drum rhythms sounding mundane and banal is also related to possible lack of experience from the part of the composer in constructing his songs: he often chooses the easy rock-n-roll approach of block-like music building over a more metallic, strange and imaginative interpretation.
© 1999 black hate