Heimdall
Aeneid

In Norse mythology, Heimdallr is a god who possesses the resounding horn Gjallarhorn, owns the golden-maned horse Gulltoppr, has gold teeth, and is the son of Nine Mothers. Heimdallr is attested as possessing foreknowledge, keen eyesight and hearing, is described as "the whitest of the gods", and keeps watch for the onset of Ragnarök while drinking fine mead in his dwelling Himinbjörg, located where the burning rainbow bridge Bifröst meets heaven. Heimdallr is said to be the originator of social classes among mankind, once regained Freyja's treasured possession Brísingamen while doing battle in the shape of a seal with Loki, and Heimdallr and Loki are foretold to kill one another during the events of Ragnarök. Heimdallr is additionally referred to as Hallinskiði, Gullintanni, and Vindlér or Vindhlér.

Heimdallr is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional material; in the Prose Edda and Heimskringla, both written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson; in the poetry of skalds; and on an Old Norse runic inscription found in England. Two lines of an otherwise lost poem about the god, Heimdalargaldr, survive. Due to the problematic and enigmatic nature of these attestations, scholars have produced various theories about the nature of the god, including his apparent relation to rams, that he may be a personification of or connected to the world tree Yggdrasil, and potential Indo-European cognates.

This is what this italian power metal band has taken their name from, does that sound interesting or does it sound predictable? I think the latter but I never judge anything from what it might appear to be, Heimdall has been around for a while now and it was eight years since we last heard from them. Now they are back with a vengeance and they do make an ambitious work for their first album in such a long time with the album Aeneid. Aeneid is a name that besides entitling this album also is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. This is also what the album is about, the story which is being told from the fall of Troy to the birth of this new state which was to become Rome.

This concept does however not quite show in terms of the musical stylings as it sounds more like a collection of songs than a dozen songs telling a story. It is otherwise quite normal italian styled power metal with melodic fast metallic music with much keyboards and a singer who likes to take to the higher pitches at times. Good thing about the singer is that his accent is not as thick as some italians and you don’t think about it when listening to this album. The songs are of the regular variation on this album with some fast, some midtempo and some ballad stuff, not the biggest of variation and neither the most uncommon one and overall this album feels like a fairly typical power metal album from the nation shaped like a boot in the southern parts of Europe.

The story is told in 47 minutes and it is fairly well told even if the story isn’t really that dominant in the whole scheme of things. The sound and production is strong but not more than many other bands in the genre, and it is hard to shake the feeling of déjà vu when listening to it and it is that which I see as the biggest weakness of this album. It is always a small problem when the work a band does is too similar to what has already been done many times before and Heimdall has nothing new to add to the table despite the long break from their latest album. Many italian band has done similar music before and many will keep doing it afterwards and probably none of them will add something new and exciting as Italy seems to be a bit stuck in time coming to the metal music.

So a decent album, nothing spectacular and it probably mostly appeals just to the fans of the genre and not so much to anyone else. This means that if you are a fan of power metal from Italy then you’ll probably like it, if you aren’t a fan this will not make you change your mind.

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