Hildr Valkyrie - "Shield Brothers of Valhalla" (2008)
Label : Stygian Crypt Productions
Review by Luisa Mercier
After the self-produced debut "Deceitful Fate", Hildr Valkyrie releases for Stygian Crypt her second record "Shield Brothers of Valhalla".
The album is made up of ten folk tracks: their main features are Hildr's female vocals and the synth which is heavily used in order to create a dreamy and at the same time epic atmosphere.
The aim of the record is to discover once again our roots, traditions and celebrate Nordic mythology, as she already did with her other two bands Folkearth and Folkodia. The sound throughout the album is quite omogenous since the song are all keyboard-synth based with Hildr vocalising through them. In some songs there are not real lyrics, but this creates a quite alienating mood, for example in "All Mighty Gods". I have to say that the metal side is not very prominent, but I guess it was a choice of Hildr. In the end you will find two cover songs, the first is Falchenbach's "Havamal", the second is Bathory's "Ring of Gold", both renditions are quite good and acoustic. I would recommend this album to folk and folk-metal lovers!
Rating - 70/100
Tracklist
- The Battle Valkyrie (Intro)
- All Mighty Gods
- Valkyrja's Spoken Words
- Father and Son
- Thor, the Thunder God
- To Wallhall Shall Meet
- Shield Brothers of Valhalla
- Riding Through the Battle (Outro)
- Havamal (Falkenbach cover)
- Ring of Gold (Bathory cover)
Line Up
- Hildr Valkyrie - Vocals, all instruments
- Alboin - Guitars (Guest)
- Thanos - Screams n' Narrations to "To Walhall Shall Meet" (Special Guest)
- Aled Pashley - Guitars, Drum Programming (to 2 tracks) (Special Guest)
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