I really enjoyed Manegarm’s previous album Vredens Tid, due to its powerful assault of melodic Swedish battle metal. Vargstenen is actually the groups 6th album and if you are wondering why you haven’t heard of them its probably due to the fact that they are relatively unknown in the UK having never played here and more specifically due to the fact that lyrics, song-titles are all sang in their native tongue and there is no denying we are a somewhat lazy race when it comes to translating other languages.This is a shame in a way, as what better way is there to sing about Viking history than in the languages that it derived from. This is in fact a 51 minute concept album dealing with the Norse conception of the world but as with the recent glorious sounding Vintersorg album Solens Rotter all interpretations are sadly lost to me here and I am left to copy and paste song titles into this review wondering what the hell it is all about (although to be fair there are English lyrics as an extra on my promo CD and I am guessing on the full release).
Musically I can thankfully provide a descriptive narrative. After an intro sounding very much forged by the gods over fire and steel we charge triumphantly into ‘Ur Själslig Död’ with a battle fury reminiscent of the likes of Latvian’s Skyforger. The vocals and swaggering melody are jubilant in the extreme, foretelling battles won but breaking into acoustic melody with some sorrow and sadness (emphasised by female lamenting chorals) to those fallen on the way. One thing that is evident is that you are expected to dance like a mad bastard to numbers like ‘En Fallen Fader,’ this is a jig of monumental proportions taking back to times when Skyclad used to work up such a frenzied pace perhaps inadvertently inventing what is known as battle metal in the process. This even has violins in it albeit when the song slows down, full of a somewhat Celtic vibe rather than Viking but hell it’s all heathen at the end of the day.
There are plenty of violent swipes at hand here, the battle fury of ‘Genom Världar Nio’ is superb, whatever language it is in and is exactly the sort of thing I expect from this genre and reminds me why bands such as Amon Amarth (ok I’ve said it now) and Thyrfing just leave me coldly wondering what all the hype is about. Interspersing these charges are acoustic folk chants like ‘Vargbrodern Talar’ where the band are likely to throw in whatever odd percussive element is at hand. On this particular number it sounds remarkably like a Jews harp is twanging away.
It is evident that Manegarm are entirely serious about their craft. Compared to the more frivolous nature of the Finnish clans such as Finntroll and Turisas theirs is a music which is dynamic and no doubt a truer tribute to the gods of old. It’s also a damn good fist-banging listen and one that with the excellent colour tones of the cover courtesy of Kris Verwimp is an album that truly deserves to jump off the shelves and be purchased.