Vratyas Vakyas is a mastermind
mysanthropyk_overlord | USA | 08/14/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"If you hear the words "Viking Metal," you're probably expecting something heavy and ruthless like Bathory or Amon Amarth, right? Not so from Falkenbach's "Ok Nefna Tysvar Ty." While its lyrics describe Odinism and the Viking conquest against those evil Christians, the music itself is very melodic and beautiful. Vocal styles get repetitive, but you lose yourself in Vakyas' fantastic voice. The ardency of the flutes, which are prevalent in this release, is the thing that will catch most listeners first. This is not to say that the guitar work is not fantastic, because while not technical or fast, it is very good. There is a lot of use of acoustic and classical guitars as well. I recommend this to any Viking Metal fan, and also to fans of Agalloch, Sol Invictus, and Opeth."
ONE OF MY ALL-TIME FAVORITE ALBUMS EVER!
Darzak Rose | WSPFLD,MA USA | 05/19/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I first heard of this band from Amazon on the 30 second clips and then I bought it from Amazon along with Lunar Poetry by Nokturnal Mortum and both of these cd's are excellent.Falkenbach is an excellent band very melodic with a mix of instrument combining together which eguals pure greatness.Varg Vakyas is an excellent musician.Buy this cd now it is a classic!"
Been done before - still a good listen
M. Weir | Denver, CO | 06/12/2007
(3 out of 5 stars)
"I guess I'm not as blown away with this album as some of the other reviewers are, possibly because I've heard this sound before from other bands such as Finland's Moonsorrow, who do it much better in my opinion. Still this is a nice soothing blend of melodic folk metal (I wouldn't classify this as "viking" metal based off of it's slow to medium tempos and over usage of clean vocals throughout most of the album). Good for background noise while you do chores around the house, or while working on a paper for school and needing a soundscape that won't distract you with blast drumming and harsh black metal screams. Heck, I could probably take a cat nap to this, that's how soothing it is. It's not a bad album by any stretch of the imagination, just repetitive and I've heard this same sound so many times before in the past. For the person who's never been exposed to this type of "metal" it's probably going to be more impressive.
I gave it three stars because after about 3 songs in they all begin to sound the same, with no real elements differentiating each song from the next. Some chanting choir like vocals here, a flute there, all set to mid paced drumming. Repeat.
Let me recommend a BETTER album that came out as the same year as this, and does this style of music a lot better: "Kivenkantaja" by Moonsorrow."
Track Listings (7) - Disc #1