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Thyrfing: Vansinnesvisor
11/04/13 || sincan
There was a time in my life when there was no week without this album being absorbed by my vital organs. A couple of days ago I stumbled over it again and thought for myself “Fuck the world and burn all the churches, why not try this little fucker out again?” said and done, I did give it a spin or two.
The first track which I encountered by Thyrfing was “Digerdöden” and it is the second track on this record. I remember thinking that this was a heavy piece of sulphur smelling ass. However my anti life celebrating music taste was not as old back then and I had less to compare with. Today I don’t feel the same heaviness while listening to it. It is still good shit though.
One of the worst (as in being a good) things with Thyrfing during this constellation was Thomas Väänänen’s vocals. He have a personal voice which really stands out in a way and you can often recognize the feeling of the sadness combined with going to work during the worst hangover ever. A hangover which is the result from all the booze, hookers, and bar fights you had to conquer the night before. Then add the emotion resulting from your boss telling you that you have to work overtime during the entire week and that you have to cover for your college which just won one million Euro and he was the person you despised the most in the entire universe. I was pretty saddened when Thomas left the band to write for the Swedish news paper; Sweden Rock magazine.
Actually, while writing this piece of excellence, I am travelling trough Sweden by train. I see open fields, forests and most annoying right now, the fucking snow which will never leave. However this is pretty fitting while listening to Thyrfing, singing about the life of a Viking, i.e. the coolest people ever walking on this planet. If I just censor the cars, houses, churches, roads, short haired men etc I’m almost back in the time of no eight to five jobs, no bills to be paid, no obligations to a society only looking at you as an income bringing product which can be changed with ease.
Thyrfing mixes singing in Swedish and English from track to track and it works pretty well. Another thing which works pretty good is their inclusion of keyboards. Usually Viking metal or folk metal bands (from Finland) include them to play some cheesy joy bringing piece of melody making all the listeners to stand on their tables, drinking, and finally fucking each other’s asses in a man train manner. Not Thyrfing, they include their keyboards to broaden the spectrum of darker and heavier feelings like sadness and even beauty, this usually felt while listening to old school real folk music ( at least for some of the Swedish). The flute thing in “Ångestens högborg” makes me shiver in a pleasant way. Speaking of the Finns, what the fuck, why the fuck are they playing all these polka-drunken-keyboard music sounding all the same. I might have asked this question a couple of time already but I haven’t received an answer.
Oh, I almost forgot, “Vansinnesvisor” stands for crazy apeshitgonewrong hymns. And if you feel like “Viking and folk metal is for posers, kids and WOW playing imbeciles” I tend to agree, however Thyrfing has nothing to do with this part of the universe. This is a darker and a bit black metal inspired music which you don’t have to be ashamed of and hide together with the Nightwish records.
The common thing to drop when you talk about this band is that their album “Farsotstider”, which was released next after “Vansinnesvisor”, is their opus analo orgaxmo. This is false, which is in line with people, usually. I guess it has to do with “Farsotstider” being more straight forward and easy listened. At least I think so, which makes it so. And to sum it all up and answer the question whether this record still is as good as I earlier thought, the answer must be no. It is not longer on my top five list or something like that, but it is still a very good one in my book.
- Information
- Released: 2002
- Label: Hammerheart Records
- Website: www.thyrfing.com
- Band
- Thomas Väänänen: vocals
- Peter Löf: keyboards
- Patrik Lindgren: guitars
- Henrik Svegsjö: guitars
- Kimmy Sjölund: bass
- Joakim “Jocke” Kristensson: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Draugs harg
- 02. Digerdöden
- 03. Världsspegeln
- 04. The voyager
- 05. Ångestens högborg
- 06. The giant’s laughter
- 07. Vansinnesvisan
- 08. Kaos återkomst
