This album was made in the days where
Vintersorg was still a one man band - consisting of only the multi-artist
Vintersorg.
Vintersorg plays a wonderful combination of black metal and Nordic folk music. The elements from black metal are the fast drums and screaming vocals;
Vintersorg varies from these to traditional folk vocals.
Vintersorg is one my absolute favorite bands at the moment!
There are a couple of guest musicians on this album, but it is amazing to think that
Vintersorg is playing most of the instruments himself. And what more is - it sounds great; it can not be heard that he is alone.
This album seems to be made with a great passion and love for the music. The lyrics are all written in Swedish (which is different from the lyrics on the new albums - they are written in both English and Swedish). The Swedish lyrics fit just fine, since the songs are all about Nordic themes - but of course if you are not from Scandinavia, it can be a pain in the a**. The music, however, is excellent no matter which part of the world you come from.
Rundans is the first track on the album, and it is not very long. The song is a folk song with no black elements - just acoustic guitar, and folk vocals.
Vintersorg sings three different voices at the same time, and it sounds great. There is a distorted guitar playing in the background, but it is not very dominant, and for a long time I didn't even notice it. Still the distorted guitar is a little warning, that this is just the silence before the storm.
För Kung Och Fosterland starts out very hard and extreme with fast drums and black vocal. Later the clean vocals take over, but the fast double bass drums remain. In the middle of the song there is a piece from "The Hall Of The Mountain King" by Edward Grieg (classical music) - it is a great idea, and who would have guessed that Grieg sounds good with distortion?
Vildmarkens Förtrollande Stämmor is a very melodic song where
Vintersorg varies his clean vocals a lot. It has fast pace with guitar tremolo picking and double bass drums in most of the song. The title number
Till Fjälls is my favorite on the album. It is an excellent song with both fast and slow passages. There is both acoustic and distorted guitar in it, and it has a great chorus. The chorus is interchangeably sung with folk and black vocals.
Isjungfrun is a also a great and very varied song. The song features excellent female vocals done by Cia Hedmark - she has a very beautiful voice. The innocence of her voice makes a great contrast to the more extreme parts of the song. Cia also guest sings in the last song on the album
Fångad Utav Nordens Själ. The chorus of this song is very interesting -
Vintersorg sings it with both the folk vocals and the black vocals at the same time. It is a very beautiful and melodic song - just like the rest of the songs on this album.
"Till Fjälls" is one of the albums you must have in your collection, and as I have mentioned in another review, you don't need to be a fan of black metal to appreciate
Vintersorg. A high rating from me can not come as any surprise - I rate the album 9.5/10.
Best Songs: Till Fjälls, För Kung Och Fosterland, Fångad Utav Nordens Själ
Written by
Anders Monday, October 7, 2002
Show all reviews by AndersRatingsAnders: 9.5/10Members: No members have rated this album yet.
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