It’s interesting how far metal has come since the days of beer, long hair and jeans. I mean, most metal fans have had their guilty pleasures (I’ll resist the urge to list mine here) but in the old days your worth used to be measured as how ‘metal’ you could be and how extreme and loud the bands you listened to were. But the arrival of black metal and its ‘post’ variety has somehow brought us here. Neofolk is becoming more than a guilty pleasure as much as the natural conclusion of what began as corpse paint and church burnings. An outlet for folk leanings, sometimes nationalistic and sometimes, let’s be honest, the fruits of a more judged, even middle-aged, outlook. Of the purer folk outpourings that have washed up on the metal shore is Wardruna and it’s undoubtedly the among the most consummate and compelling.
Wardruna uses instruments like the hardanger fiddle (the playing of which is impressive to see as it uses a mixture of a bow and plucking), goat horns, the lur and the medieval-sounding tagelharpe. Former Gorgoroth drummer Einar ‘Kvitrafn’ Selvik then painstaking orchestrates them all (and plays most of them) to produce an otherworldly sound that is only enhanced by the vocal mesh provided by his former band mate Gaahl, female vocals and choirs. To put this into context the band are particularly proud of their appearance playing at the Viking Ship Museum in Norway – a long way from Donnington and Rock City. It’s even further from mock crucifixions and rotting pigs heads in Poland. What distinguishes Wardruna from many others in the folk fringe is the ambition that goes beyond mere music and into the realms of ritual and incantation.
This is the second part of the adventure exploring the 24 runes that are collectively referred to as the elder futhark. Yggdrasil emerges from the darkness of the first album in the trilogy – Gap Var Ginnunga – seemlessly picking up where the other left off (the final line of the last song on … Ginnunga being: ‘I hail the sun! Rising from darkness,up into Day. From the void of Ginnunga, Yggdrasil, ash. In your light, fields shall grow. In your darkness, fields shall die.). From that brooding almost solitary journey the rest of the tribe appears to have turned up for this one and in parts it sounds like it has an exuberant, celebratory feel. The tracks are graced with the sounds of nature, wind and water that attempts to draw you into the bands spiritual vision. The album is much more expansive in its emotional scope than the first but at the same time just as hypnotic. The pulse of the dear skin drums against the other instruments is vigorously tribal and at points takes a darker turn such as on IngwaR (the runes play a big part even in the song titles). Then the dirge of the final track leads us to the final part Ragnorak. But even though Kvitrafn says this is darker than he anticipated it had me thinking quite the opposite. Whereas the first album felt shrouded in mist this was one of open skies and vibrant landscapes. Surely even the most revisionist of theories wouldn’t have put such an, on the whole, uplifting sound track to what must have been a grim and harsh existence.
But let’s not forget this is a spiritual journey rather than an historical one. The lyrics, or a translation of them, will guide you but the music itself is sometimes so overpowering that I think listeners that truly get drawn to this will have their own interpretation of exactly what feelings this is supposed to lay bare. One point I am struggling with here, however, is that I constantly felt it hard to break away from the reality that the music itself feels as much like its roots are in world music than they are in metal – more Enya than Enslaved. But at the same time the spirit and desire behind Wardruna is undoubtedly springs from the well of the latter. Folk instincts with a sharp edge. The dilemma is whether I should be recommending this to a metal audience and the answer is, broadly speaking, no. On the other hand this is so superbly put together that I would suggest anyone with the sensibilities of those middle-aged stalwarts that have grown up and matured with the Viking and black metal community should find some time for Yggdrasil – and then perhaps look forward to Ragnorak.
(8/10 Reverend Darkstanley)
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