The Son of Odin

Here we have the first album from a late-period NWOBHM band, which, like many of its contemporaries, had eschewed most of the NWOBHM clichés (which by 1986 were getting mighty stale) in favor of more epic traditional heavy metal influences. Gone are the rockish tendencies, gone are the songs of love; I think by this point most of the NWOBHM bands and labels realized they weren’t going to score any lasting success by courting mainstream rock and radio fans, and gave up trying. Almost gone also are the dual-guitar-harmony sections. Instead, as I mentioned, we have a lot of plain ol’ heavy metal influences, with a good dose of epic to boot. As the title of this review states, The Son of Odin sounds a hell of a lot like Omen in many places, from the mid-ranged singer to a lot of the album’s overall mood. Chronologically it’s possible this isn’t a coincidence, either; Battle Cry was released two years earlier in 1984, and the boys in Elixir could’ve heard it and decided that was a direction they’d like to take. Interestingly enough, ex-Iron Maiden drummer Clive Burr would join this band for their second album. I guess he liked what he heard too. Anywho, on to the nuts and bolts.

The Son of Odin’s production really doesn’t leave much to be desired; all the instruments are clearly audible, the mix is nice (though the voice may be a smidge over-emphasized), and the guitar tone is appropriate, though when compared to Omen’s it’s a bit tame. Minor quibbles aside, it sounds much better than it has any right to. The riffs are simple, but effective. They’re repeated quite a bit, but then again they’re good enough that it doesn’t matter that much; you want to hear them a few times before things move on. They range from the NWOBHM gallop of “Hold High the Flame”, to the traditional heavy metal pound of “Trial by Fire”, to the harmonized epic plod of the title cut. The solos really are more like half-leads most of the time (see the one at the beginning of “Pandora’s Box”), as they rarely “shred” and always stay within the confines of the music, thankfully more at the song’s service than the other way around. The drums and bass are workman-like, and pretty much do their job without standing out too much. Special mention, however, must be given to Paul Taylor, who really nails the clean, mid-range sound quite well, and sings more complicated vocal lines than most of his simple-minded NWOBHM contemporaries (with lots of drawn out oohhh’s). Multi-tracking is used sparingly; sometimes a whole song goes by without having any (as in “Starflight”), while other times it’s used to great effect (as in the title track’s chorus, or the one from “Pandora’s Box”). This is a nice relief from bands that monotonously overuse multi-tracking harmonization to hide their singer’s incompetence or to emphasize every single chorus. He also provides some really nice shrieks, as heard in “Trial by Fire” (I guess it represents the cultists who “scream as the flames grow to get higher and higher”). Incidentally the latter song also contains the only really rock-sounding riff I’ve noticed on the album (I swear I’ve heard something very similar during one of Judas Priest’s rockier moments); it pops up at right about 2:40, and only sticks around until 2:50 when it’s deformed into a noodlier, moodier version of itself, which then carries the song to its conclusion.

But don’t worry, despite all my comparisons to Omen, they’re not a simple rip-off: Elixir’s sound is much less “pummeling” and “in your face” than that band’s, which reflects the album’s more desperate themes, that range in scope from the mythology of Pandora’s Box and the title cut, to the Satanic themes of “Trial by Fire”, to the science fiction of “Children of Tomorrow” and “Starflight”, to the swashbucklers of “Dead Man’s Gold”. However, despite the wide variations of lyrical subjects, the themes are the same: hopelessness and despair. “Pandora’s Box” tells the story of how she is unable to resist temptation and unleashes the evils of man upon the world; “Trial by Fire” describes Satanic sacrifices being burned alive; in “Starflight”, you’re the pilot of a starship who is lost in the endless void of space; pirates chase after the “Dead Man’s Gold”, only to find the legend was a lie and there was never a treasure in the first place.

The album’s atmosphere is both its strength and its weakness, and here we find yet another comparison to Omen; it’s got that same sort of mournful, minor-key quality to it (but is rather more laid-back than the latter’s barbarian odes). The problem is, aside from some minor variations, things stay pretty much unrelenting up to the final track, the triumphant title cut, and until then it can get a bit monotonous. The songs sometimes run together, as they sound fairly similar and don’t vary too much in tempo. But that’s not to say they get boring, because the deceptively simple riffs and vocal melodies are interesting when perceived as a whole; it’s just that before you’ve really listened to the album a few times and grasped it, the essential atmosphere can be elusive. I know I was bored of the album on my first listen, even to the point of dismissing The Son of Odin as mediocre. On the second listen, my opinion jumped, and by the third, I got to really love it; here again is another comparison to Omen, as I had a similar reaction to Battle Cry. As I said, the atmosphere is dark and oppressive for the entire album, aside from the elusive hope of “The Star of Beshaan” and “Dead Man’s Gold” that eventually turns to despair. But, at the end, the epic title cut promises a light at the end of the tunnel:

When the suns rise from the west
That's the time that you should start to pray
When the eagle leaves the nest
That's the sign that he is on his way
The Son of Odin

According to the legend of Ragnarok, the sons of Odin, Vidar and Váli, will be among the few gods to survive that final conflict. The song itself is rather unclear as to which particular one it’s referring to, as the eagle isn’t a symbol of either as far as I know, and both are associated with the vengeance the song hints at: Vidar avenged his father’s death at the hands (paws?) of Fenris, and Váli slew blind Hod, Baldur’s killer. But regardless, this song tells of hope rather than the unmitigated despair of the previous tracks. It really serves as a fitting end to the album, and shows the band was concerned not only with the individual songs, but also with the album’s overall effect. It’s this attention to the “big picture” that cements The Son of Odin as a quality album in my eyes, and raises it above the sea of mediocre NWOBHM acts. Apparently this band caused a stir back in its day, but now they’re just one of countless criminally under-appreciated mid 80’s metal acts.