September 2020 Feature Release - The North Edition

It's now September which of course means that we'll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we're asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We're really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don't be shy.

This month's feature release for The North is 2003's "Ok nefna tysvar ty" album from German Viking metal outfit Falkenbach. We featured their 2005 album "Heralding: The Fireblade" several months ago now & it received a generally positive response so it will be interesting to see what everyone thinks of its older brethren which features such similar cover artwork.

https://metal.academy/releases/3954

I found this a tad dull on the vocal front (although I accept they compliment the music and overall style well).  I can't fault the music much though and there's clever use of drama in the intros and outros to some tracks to keep my head in the storytelling space most definitely.

3/5

Not very much to say about Ok nefna tysvar ty. I did enjoy most of what I heard, but to be honest, this feels like a step down from their next album, Heralding: The Fireblade. Perhaps that was a part of Falkenbach's appeal, specifically playing out their folk/Viking metal sound, without the more blatant black metal influence of this album's successor. Like Macabre before me, I cannot criticize a band for that, but parts of this album do feel dull, especially on its second half. The lack of experimentation that was deployed on Heralding was far more engaging.

7/10

I think that Falkenbach exists in the "this is pretty good I guess" zone of Folk Metal for me. After listening to this and Heralding I might have to admit that straight up Folk Metal doesn't really do it for me, especially in the way that Falkenbach presents it. This album is incredibly smooth, pretty, and easy to listen to, but I can't help but feel like nothing really happens. I don't necessarily get any atmosphere the same way I do with other Folk Metal bands I tend to gravitate towards, like Moonsorrow. I'm sure that these guys are massive favorites for people that enjoy straight up Folk Metal because, again, this album was admittedly gorgeous. But I still can't exactly recommend it because of the reasons said above me, it wasn't engaging nor particularly exciting for me.