There is one thing about Månegarm that I adore, and it’s that the band’s new release, Legions Of The North, made me wonder why they’d fallen off my radar. I listened to this and remembered how much I loved Nattväsen, and then wondered where the hell I’d put that disc. This is one band that really does release albums of consistent quality. Only one thing about this album surprised me, and that is because Månegarm is unashamedly Swedish: it’s that this release is titled almost exclusively in English. Overall, there is so much excellence here that I don’t know where to start: the structure, the writing, the performance, the vocal lines, the production.
The album is quite long, all things considered. Most of the tracks are more than five minutes long. The longest, track 9, ‘Echoes From The Past’, clocks in at the longest: 6:41. And it features some very beautiful female vocals.
As with all of the best albums to emerge from this genre, Legions Of The North is a journey, an epic story from beginning to end. Even if you pay no attention at all to the song titles or the lyrics, you are carried on a bit of an adventure simply through the expression of the music. Simply put, this album says, let’s go to war without fear; the act of going to war is lonely and long, but pride and vengeance will rise; through our acts, our world comes to an end, and yet despite this act we go home, strong and united, a force to be reckoned with. The story tells us that the state of war causes sadness when you compare it to times of peace and calm, and that in remembering our fallen, we thus are ourselves prepared to die. At death, your soul is collected by the Valkyries, and afterwards, you watch over your homeland and your people, who remember you through stories, artefacts, and runes.
The final track – ‘Raadh’ – is sung in swedish. It is a beautiful, acoustic closure to an epic journey through from war to remembrance.
I love this album, and I suggest that fans of this incredibly broad genre will too.
9/10
Leticia Mooney
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