Sleipnir is an eight-legged horse which features in a 13th century Icelandic poem and saga. The Flight of Sleipnir, who haven’t of course been around as long as this and come from the USA, do have a strong back catalogue with six previous albums dating back to “Algiz + Berkanan” (2009). Their musical inspiration is ancient Scandinavian literature. My expectation here therefore was of something epic.
Indeed, the story here begins in swathes of expanse with “Voland”. The vocalist’s icy-cold tones cut in. The skies darken. The mood changes. Slowing down and becoming more mellow, there are a few moments of folksy trickery before we are cast back into the cold. Time is not allowed to stand still but in truth whilst I appreciated the depth of the atmosphere and the heavy air of misty melancholy towards the end, I found that the wealth of ideas was unsettling. No “are you feeling comfortable, now I’ll begin” here. “January” is as cold and harsh as you’d expect it to be, but out of the blizzard’s assault comes power and an epic atmosphere. Mid-way the atmosphere becomes more reflective, which I thought was a pity as we weren’t done with the epic heights. But it seems that The Flight of Sleipnir are about taking different paths and so “January” takes two further turns, ending in a reflective lush guitar lament. Mist and gloom seep out of the following track “Thaw”, at first a melancholic affair but building up dramatically with a haunting chant in the background to enhance the atmosphere. From acoustic beginnings the frostiness returns in “Bathe the Stone in Blood”. A dreamy, progressive style guitar solo appears in this multi-layered ode, whose backbone is a heavy 70s vibe mixed with a weighty post rock feel. It is to band’s credit that the heaviness and the weight do not drown the ominous emotion that is a hallmark of each track of this album. Dark mixes with light, and “Harvest” starts with another acoustic intro, combining with piano as the vocalist sings hauntingly. “Harvest” is like a folk hymn reminding me loosely at first of Matthew Southern Comfort’s “Woodstock” at first. But here the atmosphere develops a harsh front and the mood switches from haunting to icy before once again transforming into dark and heavy melancholy. To finish, “Servitude” features the changes of mood, heaviness, lightness and epicness which feature across this album. I guess it’s a matter of taste whether you like it that way, or you prefer something less transformative.
Without question The Flight of Sleipnir know to create epic atmospheres. I struggled to get into “Eventide” however as there were too many changes of face to find continuity and absorb myself in it. The passages are impressive but I found it a hard listen.
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