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Solefald > Red for Fire: An Icelandic Odyssey Part I > Reviews
Solefald - Red for Fire: An Icelandic Odyssey Part I

Wonderfully post-grim! - 90%

TimFS, March 9th, 2007

A lot of Viking metal in the past couple of years has been very one-dimensional, embracing a very simple, marketable, sensationalist approach to Viking themes, both aesthetically and musically, usually taking some form of melo-death (*cough* Amon Amarth *cough). Whilst this isn’t exactly the polar opposite musically speaking, Solefald have taken the time to approach a Viking saga (written by Cornelius himself) in a more sensitive and sophisticated manner, whilst parallels can be drawn with the likes of Borknagar and Vintersorg.

There is use of real instruments as opposed to synths, including the conventional violins and cellos, and some less so like the saxophone, used on the excellent first track ‘Sun I Call’.

Vocally this is an interesting album too, with Cornelius Jakhelln using his latter-day vocal style, which is some sort of restrained, but uneasy groan. Many hate it, but I think it’s original and it compliments the music. Lazare delivers the Borknagar-esque clean vocals, layered nicely but sensibly. There is also a guest female vocal from Aggie Frost Peterson, whose soft, warm, relaxing tones add that all important contrast, and helps add to the overall sense of Nordic-ness.

The quality of the songs is consistent on this album, though whilst there are some generic melodic death tunes on it like ‘Survival Of The Outlaw’, there is a nice instrumental (‘Bragi’) and the odd spoken poem, but the best song for me has to be ‘White Frost Queen’, a splendid mix of Asgeir Mickelson style drumming, haunting melodies/harmonies that ask you to listen to them again and again, female vocals, and of course the beautiful string section.

To conclude, although I understand this album is not likely to appeal to many purists, for me Solefald has truly captured the essence of the Norse lands like no other ‘Melodic’/non-pure Black Metal band has done before.

Red for Lackluster - 24%

oVerCaffeinated, March 23rd, 2006

First of all do not seek this album if you want the Viking Metal sound because it is not found here despite this album being Part 1 of 2 of the “An Icelandic Odyssey” saga. All I hear is something that borders Mallcore but doesn’t quite become it.

The production is totally clean and crisp. The guitars are of course distorted but within in the realm of being easy on the ears. So don’t except anything that actually resembles Black Metal. All instruments and vocals are mixed well so that not one instrument dominates the other. Now that I’ve told you that there’s nothing special in the production let’s move onto the music shall we…

The album greets you with a soothing saxophone and synth pads. Then the vocals kick in. A clean female voice mixed with a male croaked voice sounding somewhat like a person who needs a throat lozenge. In this album both clean and growled vocals are used. Nothing about the vocals stands out. To put it plainly they are pretty plain. This first song isn’t too bad but it has got no innards. Not a good way to start an album but it only gets worse.

“Survival of the Outlaw” starts with a blast of crappy Death riffs but before you know it they stop and a synth plays a sound. Then the Death riff starts again. Then the synth cuts in again. All I can say is it sounds very disjointed. After a minute and a bit the Death riffs halt but this time we’re handed a sung melodic piece with background synths instantly reminding me of Death Cult Armageddon – Dimmu Borgir. I did not like that ugly memory. I guess you could compare this album to later Dimmu Borgir but perhaps that is taking it a bit too far. Track three is more or less the same idea as the second track.

“Bragi” is an instrumental synth piece with violins. It could be used as a soundtrack for paint drying. “White Frost Queen” brings back some interesting sounds to this album. It is a very gentle track dominated with soft female vocals. After a minute though you realise it isn’t that good. “There Is Need” brings you back to the boring riffs again. Nothing much to say really except for boring. Next we get to hear a “Prayer of a Son”. It’s a spoken piece that just sounds stupid not atmospheric like it was probably supposed to sound like. The first throat lozenge the vocalist took has already worn off and he needs another one.

I ‘m not going to bother to give you a run down of the last three tracks, two of which are boring songs like the rest of the album and the last one being another stupid spoken piece. I’m not sure why this band gets all the high ratings it does. Perhaps previous albums are better but I really doubt it.

To sum this review up: Boring.