Reviewed - 03/15/05
Pagan
Manifest
[Einheit Productions]
It's kind of funny if you think about it. It seems that the last few years were kind of dead for Viking/Pagan/Folk Metal, but 2004 showed a lot of great new Folk Metal albums that came out, and now it seems that with Manegarm, Thyrfing, Nomans Land and a few other bands having new albums coming out this year, 2005 looks to be the year for Viking Metal albums. All of these albums on the horizon I am eagerly awaiting, but what I like just as well (if not more) is coming across brand new bands in these genres that turn out to be great. This is the case with Norway's Viking/Pagan Metal band Ulvhedin as I had never even heard of the band up until I saw it listed in my favorite distros "New In Stock" section, and holy shit, was I ever glad I took the chance and bought this album!
Ulvhedin play in a very melodic and epic Viking Metal style kind of similar to Einherjer's "Dragons Of The North", except Ulvhedin is a lot more melodic and tends to have a bit more black metal influence than Einherjer ever had. The thing that stands out the most on "Pagan Manifest" is the absolutely amazing guitar riffs and melodies. Guitarist John Lind really knows how to create some epic and stirring melodies, to say the least. There's just some people that are born to play guitar, and he is one. It's odd, he plays in a raw style of Viking/Black Metal, yet he manages to weave melody through it all. You just have to listen for yourself to hear what I am talking about. All of the musicians are great on this album, in fact. That's a good thing because I am getting kind of tired of bands just throwing together a bunch of shitty musicians in one spot and calling it a band. If you can't play, admit it and move on to manual labor. Please don't try and make music. But yeah, like I said, all of the musicians are great, but this John Lind guy is amazing. Definitely a guy to look out for in the future.
The lyrics are written in English aside from the track "Maanelus" which is written and sung in Norwegian. The lyrics deal totally and without exception about all things in Norse mythology. Everything from Odin and Midgard to Valhalla, and they are exceptionally well-written. The vocals are frigging great and are in mostly a mid-ranged Viking/Black metal style, but on a few songs vocalist John Carr will sing in a Death Metal-esque growl which is great because it mixes things up a bit and makes it so the album has a sense of variety. Hell, even on two songs the vocals are done in a clean "choir-like" Viking Metal style which really reminds me of the vocals on the Forefather albums. By the looks of it, I think these clean vocals are done by guitarist John Lind. Anyway, hearing the same vocal style on an album from start to finish can be quite boring, so it's a huge bonus for the listener that Ulhedin mixes it up quite a lot in the vocal department.
The sound of this album downright rules due to a great production and mixing job. There are a few synth parts on the album, but they are very few and far between and what synth parts there are, they are more used as a filler and never become a main focus of the music. The guitar sound on this album is something to hear. I don't know much about guitars or the equipment guitarists use, but the distortion on these guitars is about perfect sounding for this type of music.
The packaging and layout for "Pagan Manifest" is about impressive as the music. The cover shows an extremely well rendered piece of art showing Odin with his animal friends. The inside of the booklet contains all of the lyrics in an easy to read olde English font style as well as some more excellent Norse artwork and ancient rune writings. Last but not least is a photo of the band which would make you say "These guys don't look like they'd even like metal", but looks don't mean a thing. They are as into metal as anyone else, and can play it better than most bands out there.
I believe I saw on their Website that they are from the same town or area of Norway as Einherjer and Enslaved is from. With Enslaved now not creating Viking Metal anymore and Einherjer now disbanded, Ulvhedin should be in place to now take hold of the Norwegian Viking Metal throne. Few bands can ever make albums this good throughout their history, let alone on their first album as Ulvhedin has. I hope to see this band stick around for a long time and I hope they can continue to release more albums as inspiring as "Pagan manifest" is. Ulvhedin is a new high water mark in terms of new Viking Metal bands. Highly recommended.
***NOTE: MP3's can be found on the download page of their label's site. Go here: http://www.einheit-produktionen.de/download/download.htm
[Einheit Productions]
It's kind of funny if you think about it. It seems that the last few years were kind of dead for Viking/Pagan/Folk Metal, but 2004 showed a lot of great new Folk Metal albums that came out, and now it seems that with Manegarm, Thyrfing, Nomans Land and a few other bands having new albums coming out this year, 2005 looks to be the year for Viking Metal albums. All of these albums on the horizon I am eagerly awaiting, but what I like just as well (if not more) is coming across brand new bands in these genres that turn out to be great. This is the case with Norway's Viking/Pagan Metal band Ulvhedin as I had never even heard of the band up until I saw it listed in my favorite distros "New In Stock" section, and holy shit, was I ever glad I took the chance and bought this album!
Ulvhedin play in a very melodic and epic Viking Metal style kind of similar to Einherjer's "Dragons Of The North", except Ulvhedin is a lot more melodic and tends to have a bit more black metal influence than Einherjer ever had. The thing that stands out the most on "Pagan Manifest" is the absolutely amazing guitar riffs and melodies. Guitarist John Lind really knows how to create some epic and stirring melodies, to say the least. There's just some people that are born to play guitar, and he is one. It's odd, he plays in a raw style of Viking/Black Metal, yet he manages to weave melody through it all. You just have to listen for yourself to hear what I am talking about. All of the musicians are great on this album, in fact. That's a good thing because I am getting kind of tired of bands just throwing together a bunch of shitty musicians in one spot and calling it a band. If you can't play, admit it and move on to manual labor. Please don't try and make music. But yeah, like I said, all of the musicians are great, but this John Lind guy is amazing. Definitely a guy to look out for in the future.
The lyrics are written in English aside from the track "Maanelus" which is written and sung in Norwegian. The lyrics deal totally and without exception about all things in Norse mythology. Everything from Odin and Midgard to Valhalla, and they are exceptionally well-written. The vocals are frigging great and are in mostly a mid-ranged Viking/Black metal style, but on a few songs vocalist John Carr will sing in a Death Metal-esque growl which is great because it mixes things up a bit and makes it so the album has a sense of variety. Hell, even on two songs the vocals are done in a clean "choir-like" Viking Metal style which really reminds me of the vocals on the Forefather albums. By the looks of it, I think these clean vocals are done by guitarist John Lind. Anyway, hearing the same vocal style on an album from start to finish can be quite boring, so it's a huge bonus for the listener that Ulhedin mixes it up quite a lot in the vocal department.
The sound of this album downright rules due to a great production and mixing job. There are a few synth parts on the album, but they are very few and far between and what synth parts there are, they are more used as a filler and never become a main focus of the music. The guitar sound on this album is something to hear. I don't know much about guitars or the equipment guitarists use, but the distortion on these guitars is about perfect sounding for this type of music.
The packaging and layout for "Pagan Manifest" is about impressive as the music. The cover shows an extremely well rendered piece of art showing Odin with his animal friends. The inside of the booklet contains all of the lyrics in an easy to read olde English font style as well as some more excellent Norse artwork and ancient rune writings. Last but not least is a photo of the band which would make you say "These guys don't look like they'd even like metal", but looks don't mean a thing. They are as into metal as anyone else, and can play it better than most bands out there.
I believe I saw on their Website that they are from the same town or area of Norway as Einherjer and Enslaved is from. With Enslaved now not creating Viking Metal anymore and Einherjer now disbanded, Ulvhedin should be in place to now take hold of the Norwegian Viking Metal throne. Few bands can ever make albums this good throughout their history, let alone on their first album as Ulvhedin has. I hope to see this band stick around for a long time and I hope they can continue to release more albums as inspiring as "Pagan manifest" is. Ulvhedin is a new high water mark in terms of new Viking Metal bands. Highly recommended.
***NOTE: MP3's can be found on the download page of their label's site. Go here: http://www.einheit-produktionen.de/download/download.htm
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Tracklist:
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| Rating: 9.5/10 | |
| Release Date: 2005 | |
| Length: 42:07 | |
| Review By: Britton Dicks | |
| Total Reviews: (1) | |
| Bands Website: Go Here | |
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