Band's List Viking Black Windrider Muspelheim

In 1991, a band named Skyclad fused folk music, and metal together to form a new genre of metal, rightfully named folk metal. It wasn’t until roughly 2003, that it started to really take off into commercial success, with bands like Turisas, Equillibrium, Ensiferum, Finntroll, etc. Now this whole folk metal thing is taking its toll around the world, and a bunch of different countries are doing their own spin on this. With any abundance of bands in a new “trend” however, you get a shit-storm of bands who are simply fillers, or just plain horrible, and it's getting harder and harder to find a real “gem” in the genre.

This self-released EP, Muspelheim, is one of those gems, hailing from England, yes England; this EP offers the best of this one man project’s take on the genre. It is extremely symphonic, which may seem redundant at first, but it adds a lot of texture to the extremely catchy and epic triplet riffs he plays. I noticed from this that there is a considerable influence of traditional heavy metal in his riffs that he plays, along with melodic metal, and of course folk elements. He uses clean vocals, harmonized on top of one another, and uses Black Metal shrieks and Death Metal growls as a method of extreme vocals. The drums are nothing special, but I enjoy that because I think if the drums are to technical, it could take concentration away from the riffs, and epic atmosphere he presents.

Overall, this Muspelheim EP is a great debut, and from all places in the world, its from England. I’m looking forward to a full length. Seriously, if you’re a fan of folk metal or one man projects in general, do you self a favor and just download it from their last.fm page, its only a half hour long, and its an enjoyable piece of art.