ALBUM REVIEW: Helgrindur – Helgrindur

It took eight years for Germany’s HELGRINDUR to go from forming to releasing their first record, but 2017’s Von Einst caused a stir within their country’s pagan metal scene. The album ensured spots on festival line-ups like Aargh Festival, Mahlstrom Open Air and Ragnarok Festival, all of which helped them to increase their fanbase further. They might have kept them waiting for the best part of six years for a follow-up, but now their new, self-titled album is out in the world, released Friday October 20th via MDD Records.

HELGRINDUR are on the more extreme end of pagan metal, combining the stories of myth, legend and lore with music that bounces between melodic death and black metal – think AMON AMARTH if they’d been raised on a diet of IMMORTAL and frostbite. The opening third of the album is very much in this vein, from the regimented tempo of opening track An Der Mühle through the chillier expanse of Fernweh and onto the blast beats that give a solid foundation to Erinnerung. It’s good, but not mind-blowing and Das Mädchen Am Teich begins to ask a question of whether HELGRINDUR are a one-dimensional band, the style already beginning to tire despite a feature from MORBUS MIND vocalist Rosa Carpino.

However, Golem brings in a new element – it lives up to its name in heft and heaviness, but where one usually thinks of a golem as a slow, ponderous being, this track gallops along well as HELGRINDUR gradually incorporate a more melodic, classic metal feel that grows in stature with Herr Des Waldes and peaks on the title track, mixing well with the black metal that returns before the song goes left-field with acoustic chords and a lone guitar solo.

All of a sudden, HELGRINDUR are on the ascendancy again – Bergisches Land features fellow pagan metallers OBSCURITY and is a return to the more extreme side of the band’s music, but there’s still a curveball to go as Lebenslicht‘s stripped back opening brings an element of calm before the metal returns, although there’s also a decent, clean vocal cameo from Isarn to aid too. By the time Zur Ewigkeit has faded away, though, there lingers a sense that, if one were to try and distinguish the songs through their more extreme elements alone, they’d have their work cut out – it’s the cleaner tones that are most identifiable among an abundance of black metal tropes, but said tropes aren’t half-arsed; they’re pulled off well, regardless.

Make no mistake, HELGRINDUR have potential – there’s a plethora of good ideas and movements within this sophomore album. It’s a record that gets stronger as it goes along and impresses when the band marry the harsh bleakness of black metal with the warmth of a well-placed, more classic-sounding guitar solo or a sidestep into more uncommon territory like acoustic instruments or clean vocals. If they’re able to harness the power that this brings and maximise the impact on the next record, we could have a serious act on our hands. As of right now, it isn’t quite there, but is definitely heading in the right direction.

Rating: 6/10

Helgrindur is out now via MDD Records.

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