Search - Bathory :: Hammerheart

Absolutly Amazing

Mortem | 01/01/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As i listen to this record i am reminded of what true passion is. I first was introduced to Bathory through Blood Fire Death which is a great album with more black metal tones as it was the transition album. I enjoyed it so i quickly got my greedy little hands on this. I knew it was their masterpiece but i figured it would be like Blood Fire Death. Hammerheart blew me away. I was close to tears of it shear beauty and passion. Quorthon sings (no banshee screams or cookie monster coughs to be heard here) like a warrior who is on the brink of battle and does not know whether he will live or die. He is not a great singer in anyway shape or form, but his passion more than makes up for it.

The music is epic and powerful. The guitars push he agression, the bass and drums aplify the power making it feel lager than life. The drums sound like war drums. I have never been as moved by an album like i have with Hammerheart. I recommend this for ANY fan of true metal!

Keep it Heavy!

"

One of the most stirring albums ever recorded

Andreas Faust | Tasmanian Autonomous Zone | 01/04/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Metal doesn't get any better than this *stunning* tribute to the Northern archetype and the freedom it entails.



From the opening grandeur of 'Shores in Flames' and 'Valhalla', Quorthon turns to a more quotidian, personalised account of Norse existence, with 'Baptised in Fire and Ice' and 'Father to Son' exalting the bonds of blood and nature that tied ancient pagan communities together. The latter has blatently nationalist lyrics, which would probably have moralists expressing 'concern' if released today. But for all the efforts of the vampires of the Guardian (a bourgeois UK paper) to sink their pale teeth into metal, PC will never have any place in this form of music. It's amusing when 'AntiFa' punks try to judge metal by the same standards as their own repressive scene...'Hammerheart' will continue to inspire when such paltry souls have crumbled into dust. These punks will never understand that true nationalism means loving your own, not hating others. And nor will 'genre metallers' (looking for their latest fix of 'brutal technical' or 'tr00 kvlt') find much to interest them in Bathory's later work.



'Hammerheart' stands forever beyond modern dogmas - it lives in the old freedom of the North, which Tolkien called "the free days of old" and which C.S. Lewis described as "a vision of huge, clear spaces hanging above the Atlantic in the endless twilight of Northern summer...remoteness, severity." Quorthon pays tribute to this Northern spirit explicitly on 'Home of Once Brave', but the entire album is saturated in a spirit of pure northernness.



This is Bathory's greatest album, and Quorthon's most priceless legacy. Having created this stunning masterpiece, he can sleep well indeed."

Outstanding Milestone: Beautiful Story, Beautiful Music

Leicester Dedlock | Ames, IA United States | 08/22/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Well, this is the 27th review and they're all 5 stars, so what are you waiting for? "Hammerheart" is, simply put, one of the greatest metal albums ever recorded (definitely top 20, probably top 10), and that's coming from someone who's heard literally thousands of metal albums, whose list of favorite genres does not include viking metal, and who has been a metal fan for 16 years now. Some claim that "Blood Fire Death" is Bathory's masterpiece and I can understand a black metal purist having that opinion (even I prefer pure black metal over viking metal). Although that is a great album (Bathory's second best), I would consider "Hammerheart" a step up. The music here is also an example of a different musical style than previous releases (this is Bathory?!), so even if you don't care for black metal and its harshness, or even metal in general, that should not keep you from giving this album the chance that it deserves.



"Hammerheart" is essentially where Viking metal begins. Viking metal elements were introduced on "Blood Fire Death", but here is where they finally gel. Make no mistake, this is not a prototype. It's fully formed Viking metal and still the best the genre has to offer. It's all downhill from here (though still sometimes interesting).



It's also where Bathory began to abandon black metal. In earlier times, I had thought of Viking metal as a sub-genre of black metal, but there are a number of bands in the genre that are not closely related to black metal, and I would consider this to be an example. There are traces of black metal, but I would not consider it to be fully formed black metal (many strongly disagree with me, so take that with a grain of salt). For one, the proto-black metal rasps of older Bathory are abandoned in favor of clean vocals. Quorthon is not exactly a technically gifted singer, but his vocals are still interesting and fitting. What he lacks in finesse, he makes up in inspiration and intensity. The guitars are a bit slower than before, but more pounding with a strong power metal influence and a slight Sabbath influence. The drumming and guitars work together more than ever before. The guitars make the drumming more intense and vice versa. Everything is constructed to sound as epic as possible, even the shorter songs.



The album's most obvious highlights are its bookends "Shores in Flames" and "One Rode to Asa Bay". The former is an epic of unbelievable proportions, and it's the first time I truly recognized Bathory's drummer as talented. It works from a slow buildup, but once it explodes, it is unrelenting but still dynamic. Anyone who claims that true musical development only exists in classical music (where, unlike popular music, it is the standard not the exception) should listen to this artful masterpiece. The other major highlight is "One Rode to Asa Bay". It is a bit more repetitive and doesn't explode like "Shores in Flames", but it drips with emotion and is truly entrancing. Like Burzum, Bathory has shown that repetition, when handled properly and mixed with some subtle dynamics, can have an even greater impact than overt dynamics. Although those are the two tracks that stick with me the most, there is not weak spot to be found on the album. "Baptised in Fire and Ice" would be my third favorite track with its powerful chorus that truly transports one to the era that the band is singing about.



That brings me to the lyrics, which are outstanding. Bathory has improved its lyrics over the years. In earlier days, particularly their first album, they struggled with English and tackled some rather trite topics. Here, they are flat-out poetic. They style is not typical of prose, or even "typical" songs, but of poetry. For a singer who once had difficulties with English, it is nice to note that he has finally mastered the intricacies of the unique grammatical conventions and subtleties of poetry which follows different rules than prose, but has avoided the pretentions common to amateur poetry. The lyrics tell a story of the Vikings and their culture and religion, and on the last song, the subsequent forced conversion of Scandinavia to Christianity. However, it's not a preachy album, but a clear narrative spoken from a voice (not the singer's) who truly loves and believes in the culture and religion of pre-Christian Scandinavia. Even though there are religious references and the narrative voice is a voice of a true believer, the album is really a homage to a culture. The album shows that one does not have believe in the pagan gods to attain an appreciation for the culture and religion of the Vikings, even if the culture, like all cultures, has its faults. Despite the use of this narrative voice, there is some objectivity to it. It's not an Odinist vs. Christian album, and it doesn't sugarcoat anything. Viking culture is glorified, but "Shores in Flames" makes the brutality of the Vikings clear. Even the aforementioned "One Rode to Asa Bay" is not an anti-Christian song, even though it describes the crimes of Christian missionaries in Scandinavia. It is more of a song of mourning, a mourning for the loss of a beautiful, if somewhat violent, culture to a foreign and similarly violent culture. The lyrics have an even greater impact due to the fact that they perfectly fit the music. It does not feel like the lyrics were fitted to the music or the music was fitted to the lyrics. They sound like they naturally came into being as a unified vision.



I wish I could go into more technical details, but I'm not a serious musician, only a serious listener without much formal music education. Even if I had the ability to dissect the album in great detail, I doubt I could ever do it justice. If you find it interesting, move on to "Twilight of the Gods". It's not *quite* as good, but it is still excellent and very similar in style to this masterwork. First though, purchase this album. I cannot give this beautiful album enough praise, and I suspect you will do the same."