Dragons of the North is the debut full-length by a band who has a rabidly Viking image. Yes, at times the drums sound like the hoofbeats of a legion of Norse warriors, and the guitars often fall into the realm of folk-edged, sword-swingin' battle chants, but the five men in this outfit fail to present their product to me as consistently Viking. Their subject matter is another story entirely, as Odin is mentioned regularly, with allusions to destroying the "new god". Despite some silly lyrics (what else is "I'll kick this Christ right in the ass"?), Einherjer goes about their brand of metal quite well. The songs are mostly long, epic affairs, with an average length of almost exactly six minutes. The only disappointment is "Forever Empire," which starts out with a rather cool bass sound but descends quickly into a pseudo-ripoff of the major guitar theme from the Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black." I've owned this disc for four months and haven't yet listened to that entire song. I've tried, time and again, but I just can't. The other songs all employ a fair bit of variety throughout their lengths, preventing them from becoming monotonous. Vocals range from a "clean" voice, which is surprisingly good, to a sort of speak-grunt, to a more standard black metal scream. All instruments are played competently, and succeed in conveying a mood, even if that mood is not strictly what the band thinks they create. There is a simple, but evocative, acoustic section near the end of "Storms of the Elder" that, the first time I really paid attention to it, made me drop what I was doing until the song ended. The band uses a keyboard, but definitely not in the major way that Dimmu Borgir does, and the production allows for all instruments to be heard clearly. Even the bass, for which I am eternally grateful.

Taken all in all, this is a good album. It's not as goofy as their later releases, and contains some excellent songwriting and melody. If you enjoy mid-tempo black/Viking-inspired metal, you would probably enjoy this. Except for that one song. It's an abomination.

Review by C. LeRoux

Review date: 04/2000

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