For every subgenre that dies, another one is born harvesting the organs of its predecessors to create a musical Frankenstein’s monster. Today’s monster is Viking War Trance, brought to you by Eihwar, France’s answer to… well, nothing.
The album sets sail with its title track, ‘Viking War Trance’, quickly bringing together the different elements that define this obscure new subgenre. Despite being centuries apart, the traditional percussion and drum pads sound as though they were made for each other. It is clear that Asrunn (vocals, traditional percussion) and Mark (vocals, drum pads, samples) have a synergistic musical relationship, which is on full display from the start.
The vocals mirror the percussive synergy, though we only get a small taste in the first part of the album, with Asrunn singing hypnotic folk melodies, and Mark growling like a disgruntled bear over the trad-electro Viking instrumentation. It isn’t until we get to ‘Geri and Freki’ that the vocals reach their power’s height. Up until this point, Asrunn’s voice have been focused entirely on providing the melody, but here she moves into rhythmic whisper chants. The panning and layering of this create an almost hallucinatory effect, which shouldn’t be a pleasant sensation, yet in this context is addictive.
There are only a couple of forgettable tracks on the album, which is an achievement considering the fact that trance is inherently repetitive (and rightfully so). With ‘Völva’s Chant’, my only complaint is that it takes so long to get into the meat of the song, and with ‘Baldr’, the structure begins to feel somewhat repetitive and formulaic. In fairness, these two songs are sandwiching ‘Geri and Freki’, which is a hard song to open for, and almost impossible to follow. Fortunately, the album jumps back into top form with two ‘reforged’ tracks from Eihwar’s debut album, ‘Fenrir’ and ‘Berserkr’. There are many audible improvements to both, most notably the bass, which has been given much more presence without overpowering the mix.
The journey ends with a bang and a ballad. ‘Mjolnir’ is another defining track, full of roaring energy, and featuring sampled hammers that take you from the comfort of your home to the heat of a forge. After that, the heartfelt acoustic outro ‘Sir Mannelig’ strips back all of the layers of trance and percussion, leaving only Asrunn and a lute. A gorgeous end to a gorgeous album.
Viking War Trance by Eihwar will be released via Season of Mist on 20th September 2024.
