WRATH – Viking

Viking is at least as strange as the history around mastermind Nazgul. Founded back in 1998 and two EP’s later this one-man-project found its way to Germany, seemingly the hometown of that gent in need to be as close as possible to the sources of inspiration for pagan music art and Viking legends.
Viking kicks off with a mystical drum intro that could be originated from a glorious Viking battleship leading into raging black metal hymns that have its roots – of course – in Scandinavian old school black metal. Songs are raw, pristine and genuine, marked by sawing guitar work and sound sample that let you feel the icy cold of Northern winters. As it is know for this genre sound and production is quite arcane but not bad so far, while the singing gets mixed with some clean spoken narrations. Spirits Of Darkness solely lives on somber whispers, sighs and breath sounds, while Grey Skies is a completely acoustic song that reminds me a bit of Agalloch. Anyway, with the interlude Visions Of Time WRATH dives deep into the past, when the project started out with pure keyboard compositions. Wonderfully dreamy melodies follow, acoustic parts and nature tones I would call ambient; letting me think of northern lights during snowy winter nights (Moonlight Forest Path), longingly views over the ocean from the icy shores of Norwegian fjords (Dreams Of A Return) and the spring time on Iceland (Germanic Tribes). Musically a turnaround that couldn’t be more dramatic. My first thought was that this is material from the first EP (as sort of a bonus) but it is not.
There are no current lyrics on the website and just cryptic runes in the booklet, but what I have read so far it’s all about Viking myths and against the hated Christianity.
Viking is on one hand a quite interesting record with its various approaches and ideas but that’s why it is also scatterbrained and unoriented, as them don’t harmonize each other. Dunno, if the keyboard composition will be ever compatible to the black metal tunes, but at least that would be a challenge to grow at musically ;)
My recommendation: just check out before buying!