Reviewed - 03/15/05

Hammerfrost
[Einheit Produktionen]

I'm an impatient little bastard, I'll tell you. I don't like waiting too long for anything, especially for new albums to come out, and some bands like to make you wait a lot longer than others do between album releases. Take Russian Viking Metal band Nomans Land for instance. A full five years have passed since their last album "The Last Son Of The Fjord" was released in 2000, and only now in early 2005 do we see their second album finally appear. The liner notes said that this was recorded in 2002 and 2003, but for some reason or another it is just now being released. That's a long while ago, eh?. But as Orphaned Land, who took seven years between albums has shown, sometimes patience is rewarded by a band releasing phenomenal music, and such is the case with Nomans Land's sophomore effort "Hammerfrost".

I'll tell you right now that just like their debut album, "Hammerfrost" is total Mithotyn worship. A perfect blend of "In The Sign Of The Ravens" and "Gathered Around The Oaken Table" is what Nomans Land really reminds me of. Very epic and grand Folky Viking melodies are mixed with a few Black Metal elements all centered around a very medieval atmosphere. This is exactly how I like my Viking Metal to sound! No blast beats, no blurring wall of noise, just extremely melodic Metal that is pleasing to the ear. "Hammerfrost" sees the band gaining two more musicians than were on "The Last Son Of The Fjord", and it really shows as the music is fleshed out more than ever and the epicness that they almost achieved with their debut is fully realized here. I had heard before this album was released that there would be a flute playing throughout the album which I would have loved, but sadly there's not one to be found. Instead, there are some rather nice and folky keyboards throughout the album. From time to time these keyboards even mimic a Viking battle horn pretty well. Think Falkenbach and you'll be halfway there. On the song "Ale" there are some real Folky melodies played out on an acoustic guitar, or some sort of guitar anyway. It doesn't sound like an acoustic guitar that I'm used to. Maybe it's some sort of folk instrument I'm not aware of. Either way, it sounds great. On the track "Fjell Of Fjord" there is found either a real bagpipe and accordion, or these passages are played out by a very convincing synthesizer trying to sound like the actual instruments. Sounds great!

The vocals are both a bit more and a bit less spectacular than their debut album. The clean vocals and the layered Viking "choral" style of vocals are less impressive than on their debut album, but the harsher vocals are far better than the harsh vocals on their debut album. Also, there seems to be more of both styles of vocals on "Hammerfrost", as in the choral style is used about twice as much as it was on the debut, and the harsh vocals are a lot more... well, harsh. The lyrical content focuses mainly on Norse mythology and Mother Nature.

The production is leaps and bounds better than the production "The Last Son Of The Fjord". This is a damn near perfect production and mixing job on this album. The thing I like particularly is that when the keyboards are just lazily playing alongside the music they are set more in the background, but when the keyboards start playing the folky parts they get a lot louder in the mix. Pretty unique idea, and it sure makes it so the listener doesn't get "keyboard sensory overload".

The packaging on "Hammerfrost" is perfect! It includes everything that should be contained within any album's packaging. The cover art alone is amazing showing a Thor's Hammer stuck in the snow with the Sun's rays gleaming of of its surface. It looks to me like a long lost old Amorphis cover. The inside of the booklet contains all of the lyrics written in a super easy to read font style, photos of the band, some photos of landscapes, and some rather kickass pieces of Celtic knot artwork. It also has band and label contact info, which for some reason most bands always seem to forget to include here. Every second page of the booklet is embossed with the new Nomans Land logo which adds an aire of class to the whole thing. Last but not least, the art on the C.D. itself is amazing enough to mention here because it includes a nice combo picture of their logo and a Celtic Dragon drawing. The whole C.D. is boarded by some attractive Celtic Knowtwork. Very nice packaging overall.

The five years I had to wait for this album was definitely worth the wait. Nomans Land is just one of many, many Russian bands out there taking the Viking/Pagan/Slavonic/Folk Metal world by storm. More bands in these genres are coming out of Russia and former Soviet states than anywhere else I believe, even Finland. Nomans Land was one of the first Russian metal bands I got into back in the day, and they still remain one of my favorites in this genre. "Hammerfrost" is a monumental album that no one into Viking Metal should miss out on. Let's hope we don't have to wait another five years for a new Nomans Land album, but if we have to wait that long to make it as good as "Hammerfrost" is, I can do that.