Heathen Foray
Into Battle

Austrians on a foray into battle, with axes, swords, runes, banners, helmets and all of that, they run to take out their enemies and mark their territory. We one of those guys on the cover, which I think is quite good looking – a bit of Nordic mythology is of course present, how can it be heathen without some Viking symbols? This is the fourth album of the Austrian quintet and they fight their battles as comrades, loyal to one another and they fight for the freedom for all that by a twist of fate has ended up less fortunate than others – at least that is what we are let to believe by reading the press sheet. But what about it, will this album bring us all into battle for the pagan metal?

Well, stylewise it isn’t that exciting, it is power metal with extreme metal touches and a large portion of folk music influences – kind of like the genre is usually presented. Vocals are both growly and cleanly sung and the obligatory choirs are of course present as well. Have you heard a band like Ensiferum? Or Wolfchant, Eluveitie? Or any of all the other bands that exist under the pagan or folk metal moniker? If you have, then you’ll know more or less what to expect when you start this album in whichever music player you elect to play it in. There is the genre typical variation on this album, there are eight tracks on the album and nine if you count the hidden track that ends the album, the album is almost fifty minutes long which also seems to be a fairly typical for the genre.

I think this is a fairly good album, the songs are quite catchy and they are good. The album doesn’t really have any musical weaknesses, the weakness is that of similitude – it just doesn’t stand out enough to be noticed amongst all the other albums in this genre. There are some really fantastic albums in this genre and to me those albums are more than enough. This doesn’t offer me anything that I haven’t heard before, it is well produced, well performed and it ends really well with an acoustic track – but when you are dealing with so many albums as I do it is hard to be exciting about anything that is just well made, because frankly most albums that being released are at least pretty decent.

Fans of the genre should check this album out, it will probably appeal to those while us with a more lose connection are more after the best of the genre and from that position there is a long way down to Heathen Foray. A much approved album, maybe even close to the five out of seven position – I like it but doubt I will play it again. The problem within the world of music is that there is too much music and most of it is within the average span of the scale, this album is no exception to that. So in the end I think it is quite good but nothing that really makes you take notice.

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