Magni Blandinn Ok Megintiri - Falkenbach

Falkenbach is a one-man, viking metal project from Germany, masterminded by one Markus Tummers, or, to use his pseudonym, Vratyas Vakyas. On his second full-length '...Magni Blandinn Ok Megintiri... ', Vakyas develops and refines the drawn-out, epic and folk-tinged sound of its predecessor, dealing once more with historical scandinavian history and culture, specifically with reference to the Icelandic sagas of the Eddas (Vakyas spent his childhood in Iceland). The songs are for the most part mid-paced, with repetitive use of sweeping riffs that remind of the crashing of waves against a ship's bow, accentuated too by a heavy reliance of uplifting keyboards and ...  Read the complete review

The second album of Vratyas Vakyas' Falkenbach project takes the Viking metal sound of its predecessor to the extreme, abandoning some of the black metal but at the same time introducing new, jarring elements that upset the finished article. These songs are longer on the whole, though not necessarily more 'epic,' and are all quite slow, lacking the thunderous energy of the previous album, and although the nostalgic atmosphere is created very well in songs like 'Baldurs Tod' and the introduction of '...When Gjallarhorn Will Sound' particularly, the reliance on keyboards keeps it disappointingly in the present-day. My largest issue with this album is Vratyas' ...  Read the complete review