Written by Baazgor Thursday, 13 November 2008 19:16

Kampfar - Heimgang Napalm Records Released - 10/7/2008 The One Sentence Review: A solid, competent mix of Black, Pagan and Folk metal. A few weeks ago, I saw ads for the European release of Kampfar's 'Heimgang' displaying a caption describing the band as 'Black Folklore metal' or something to that extent, and turned out to be an accurate call. 'Heimgang' is mix of mid-tempo black metal with very subtle folk influences, with obvious viking/pagan orientation. The various influences are balanced evenly by one another, methodical but sincerly well-thought out.

The folk aspect of 'Heimgang' is dependant entirely on Thomas' guitar work and within a single listen it's easily determined to be sufficient and geniune. As I described above, the aspect is subtle...which is refreshing for me, because it seems the norm for folk metal is re-establishing itself to revolve around overbearing, bombastic keyboards and other various sorts of things that amount to nothing really other than camp value. The sound on 'Heimgang' is pure in delivery, deadly honest and devoid of smoke and mirrors or redundant theatrics.

Most of the tracks are relatively mid-paced with slower sections interlaced throughout. The guitars, while giving the distinctive folk orientation, also grind out atonal tremelo lines, foggy melodies such as those in the track, 'Vandring', and deep punctuating chords to provide enough variety within the individual tracks to not stagnant the entirity of the album. The drumming is relaviley innate, much more simple than it is technical, but fits well in the delivery as it should, serving as a straight forward, pounding charge forward. The vocals remind me slightly of demo-era Windir's Valfar and are the real black metal element to the mix, and is the factor that takes a good song like 'Vettekult' and makes it all the more better.

Take the next statement as you will - Every song on 'Heimgang' is similar to the next, but no two songs sound the same. 'Vandring' and it's glassy, sulking melody and atmosphere, 'Vettekult' with it's torrential vocal work and songwriting that begins powerful but eases up and withdraws into a much quieter state of refrain, heavy hitters like 'Inferno' and 'Feigdarvarsel' balance out the more folky orientation of songs like 'Dodens Vee' and 'Mareham'. At first listen, there is a sense of repetition, only when familiarity is established with each of the indiviual tracks do they really begin to seperate from each other.

The production provides an atmosphere that sure as hell doesn't make it sound like it was from 2008 as much as it makes it sound like it's from the mid-90's. The dry, low thumps of the bass drums, the nuetral snares and dim-sounding cymbals coupled with the vibrant, if not thin, guitar tone is like a hearing from an old friend that you thought wasn't around anymore. There's life under the dirt of the sound, and there is not much digging to do to find it. Kampfar's 'Heimgang' is worth checking out, especially if you're into older Windir, Falkenbach, Bornholm or anything of that sort or if you're just in the mood for non-bullshit pagan goodness.

Final Score: 7.5/10

 

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