VS: Victory or Valhalla

In this VS, we are pillaging across Europe as we tackle two classic albums in the genre of Viking Metal. A genre that included elements of death metal, with touches of black metal, along with elements of folk and Scandinavian lore and mythology. One album, with a band that was beginning to shift their sound after releasing a black metal classic. That follow-up album would be considered the official creation of Viking Metal upon it's release. The latter, would be a concept album drenched in Old Norse lore, and would be the start of the band's illustrious legacy in the genre. Pushing further into progressive Viking/black metal in later releases.

In this corner, we have Bathory with the band's fifth album, 1990's Hammerheart. Following up the success of one of the best black metal albums Blood Fire Death, Hammerheart showed the band shift into a more progressive and atmospheric sound. Focusing heavily on Scandinavian lore. The album would officially be considered the birth of the genre. With the band continuing this sound for the remainder of the band's run.

"Shores in Flames" opens the album with sounds of waves crashing against the shore. Light guitar playing begins to play amongst the calm, ringing along to the sway of the waves. Somber, soft vocals from Quorthon emerge. With his cadence matching the guitar in the playing and melody. The track intensifies as the drums of Vvornth hit like cannon strikes, matched with Quorthon's guitar and the thud of Kothaar's bass. The choir-like vocal harmonies hit hard. Coinciding with the thundering of the drums and heavily distorted guitars. You begin to hear some grit in Quorthon's vocals during the middle half, segueing into the layered clean vocal ah's. Nice guitar solo too around the seven-minute mark of this eleven-minute piece. A grand, articulate, and progressive album opener, showing the band's true shift into this new genre.

A combination of acoustic and electric guitar, that is also creating backing distortion, opens the song "Valhalla". Accompanying horns enter the piece, along with a building, chugging guitar riff into cymbal strikes from Vvornth. More strikes echo in the mix, along with a combination of strings and bagpipe-esque sounds. Creating an epic sounding build, into a classic second wave of black metal style riff. The song has a nice headbob along feel with the drums and guitar. Orchestrated with layered, atmospheric vocals and Quorthon’s gritty vocals. The song truly has a grand dining hall, Viking atmosphere. I love Quorthon's vocals on the track, even getting goosebumps when he yelled "God of Thunder" with that vocal cadence. The sound effects really add more emphasis and depth to the aesthetic that Bathory wanted to go with in this new sound. Really building the environment for the listener. "Baptised in Fire and Ice" opens with thundering drum strikes into a palm-muted chug fest of an opening riff. The drums have an almost industrial-feel to them in the production, which is a unique dynamic that somehow works. The guitar almost has a more distorted traditional heavy metal riff, maybe channeling early Venom records in the song's tone. Definitely a more simplistic track compared to the previous songs. Less complex instrumentation and progressive elements, leaning more towards traditional heavy metal with tinges of black metal.

"Father To Son" opens with folk music and the sounds of the daily life in old Scandinavia. Then, after a baby crying, intense and pulsing guitar strums ring out amongst the singing of the song's title. The groove-esque kind of riff reminds me of Celtic Frost. A very riff-heavy song, even fist-pump inducing at certain parts. Love the shredding guitar solo right after the halfway mark, although I wish it was a little louder. Since it seems like it gets buried with the amount of distortion and mix layering. A mournful acoustic guitar opens "Song To Hall Up High". Very folk sounding, almost in the vein of an old Bard's song in the vocals and the guitar playing. As the song closes out with grander vocal harmonies and bird calls. With moments of cymbal strikes and percussion. "Home of Once Brave" has a rising, heavily distorted guitar into simple, but powerful drums with an aggressive single kick drum. The distortion creates an almost wall of sound effect as the vocals join in. The song has a minimalistic quality, with not a lot of straying from the path. With the distortion wall and simple drums basically leading the song at a steady pace, until the guitar solo near the close of the song.

With a mouth harp and light percussion, "One Rode To Asa Bay" opens with a very atmospheric, ambient vibe. Really building up the environment for over a minute before acoustic guitars and vocal ah's change the pace. Thundering drums and reverb-heavy guitars come roaring in after. The vocals kick in and the song has a mid-tempo feel to its pacing. The vocals and the guitar lean again towards a traditional heavy metal sound in its approach. Another good guitar solo shows up at the five and a half minute mark. With the rhythm guitar really creating that slow headbang along feel to it, as the lead guitar shreds all over the place. The short closing track "Outro" closes the album in an ominous, foreboding and dark undertone as this cornerstone of the genre officially ends.

Their opponents is Norwegian legends Enslaved with the band's 1994 debut album Vikingligr Veldi. Released through Deathlike Silence Productions, the record label owned by Euronymous of Mayhem, the release would show the band's take on Viking Metal go into a new direction from their peers of the time. With longer songs, atmospheric and ambient heaviness, into a more progressive take. It would help cement Enslaved as a juggernaut in the genre. With a lot of the band members being under 18, it showed that even at such a young age, the band showed potential and would carry on to have an over thirty-year career.

The album opens with the song "Lifandi lif undir hamri". With almost synth like strings and ringing guitar, the drumming of Trym Torson leads the charge with guitarist Ivar Bjørnson running right behind him with a guitar riff, accented by strings and synths. The goblin-like vocal delivery of bassist Grutle Kjellson instantly delivers that trademark second wave black metal vocal delivery and cadence. Kjellson's bass rings through the fast-paced riffing and ambient dungeon-synth like sounds. The guitar was instantly making me headbang along, matching every single snare hit as well right before the double bass. Musically, the riff is heavy and the double bass does kick hard in the production. We get a transitional mix-up at the six minute mark. Breaking up the pacing of the song to a slower dirge. With the addition of brass, it truly tonally shifts that section and adds depth. Then, after a nice bluesy bass groove, the song returns to the original opening main riff. A very epic opening track, but I also felt could've be cut down way longer in song length.

"Vetrarnótt" instantly opens with a faster, blast beat aggressive drum section. Kjellson's vocals are so phlegmy and distorted in the delivery, throughout the blast beats and guitar tremolos. The song is just unrelenting speed and intensity in the playing, with the vocals sounding more unhinged and visceral. Synth effects show up at the two and a half minute mark. Adding a nice touch to break up the repetitiveness of the opening riff. Creating a warping effect as the guitars slow down, before double bass and tremolos return to full intensity. The bass ringing, through as a melody during the tremolo guitars and blasting, does create an almost counter-melody to the speed and power of the riff. I love the addition of strings at the seven minute mark, adding a symphonic black metal sound to the progressive metal-esque delivery.

"Midgards eldar" opens with a nice, flamenco-like guitar. Distortion shows itself as aggressive guitars add to the darkness as the reverb-heavy drum fills help build the song. The horns section does add an almost call-to-arms feel when it kicks in with the guitars. I love the gritty, almost western sounding bass musical break, before the driving drums and tremolo kick the door down with all its fury. The shift up at the halfway mark, with the war-drum like drum strikes, segueing into a synth-like flute section adds an otherworldly atmosphere as the effects hop from speaker to speaker. All while double bass punches through with the percussion as the effects go into overdrive. The cavernous winds and noises near the nine-minute mark really do add that spooky, unknowing feel to the closing of the song. "Heimdallr" opens with punishing blast beats and tremolo guitars, that seem to be the fastest they have been so far on the album. The rising wave of tremolo and the shrieking of Kjellson, segues into heavy brass. Really adding heft to the bass and rhythm section. Chaotic lead guitar follows that up as the rhythm section just doesn't let up in speed. Strong, heavy, straightforward black metal and the shorter song length compared to the first half helped the band stay focused. The album closes with the song "Norvegr". With the reverb-heavy percussion, the guitars get a combination of distortion, acoustic and reverb to really fill the space of the mix. Ambient black metal really takes over the opening couple minutes, with the acoustic guitar creating a folk-like sound amongst the distortion and pounding percussion. At the halfway mark, the song takes a sinister turn with the bass leading over the main guitar riff. It returns to the trippy, peaceful acoustic guitars and heavy, but chill drums as the album comes to a close.

As we drink our mead and clean our wounds from battle, who stands atop of the battlefield as the king? In my opinion, Bathory's Hammerheart is the winner of this matchup. With Hammerheart, the songs were more focused. Though they did push into the progressive, it didn’t go to the extreme and lengthy nature as Enslaved's record did. Hammerheart was a refined album that really did showcase the impact that record would have and would influence other acts like Windir, Falkenbach, and Moonsorrow. With Vikingligr Veldi, Enslaved did one of the main gripes a lot of people have with progressive metal, they just didn't know when to stop. There were many moments in some of the songs where the song could've stopped OR could have started as a new song, but the repetitive nature of some of the music and crushing song lengths really did hurt the album in my opinion. And I believe that if you have the listener checking the amount of time left on your song, they have lost interest and that is not good. Don't get me wrong, I do love Enslaved and I do love a lot of their albums, but for me, the progressive & atmospheric bloat of the record, to me, cost them the victory. And that is why Bathory's Hammerheart is the winner of today's matchup.