SLEIPNIR - Bloodbrothers (GARDARIKA Musikk - CD 2010)
Well, well... I must say that when reading Zero Tolerance Magazine I've noticed that there has been an enormous rise of the British black metal movement in the recent years... something, which I would never expect to happen, to be honest, considering the lousy quality of the bands from this country in the past! But that's fact, bands like Fen, Winterfylleth, Woodensthrone, as well as <CODE> have surprised me with excellent music and unconventional concepts (heritage metal, etc). I can truly say they've unleashed some of the most interesting albums in the pagan black metal movement in the recent years. But here's another name to be remembered and praised for excellent music. This is Sleipnir from Bedford, UK, and maybe musically they haven't got as much in common with the bands I mentioned earlier, but surely they belong to the same scene.
Hmm, I think there's one more English band that I need to mention here, one which is much closer musically to Sleipnir and may be a good referring point for you - Forefather. I think there are quite many similarities between Sleipnir's "Bloodbrothers" and Athelstan's and Wulfstan's band. Both bands are duos, but just listen to the "Bloodbrothers" and "Our Is the Kingdom" and you may notice quite few similar things in the music of both projects, few of which were very characteristic specifically only for Forefather. The epicness is the first and main one, but that is something what is also very much influenced by the one and only Bathory, from "Twilight of the Gods" LP especially, but also from "Hammerheart". The biggest similarities come from the specific style of singing. Forefather has great, clean vocals in their chorus parts and Sleipnir is doing exactly the same thing, only in many more parts. The choral singing is the main style of vocals on "Bloodbrothers" and I must say they sound incredible. The atmosphere the music has with them is just majestic and breathtaking! This is exactly how viking / heathen metal should sound like! Epic to the bone and majestic. I must say I was very impressed when I've read that Sleipnir has putted 24 tracks of clean vocals together to get this unique and amazing effect. I can honestly say it was worth every fuckin' hour they've spent doing these vocals. It's very impressive and definitely I have a lot of respect for the band for it, as they didn't take the easy way and just copied one track 24 times, which would take maybe a minute to do so. Instead, they actually performed it so many times and glued it all together. Excellent work! Besides, Tossell's voice is just great and fits this kind of music so well...
But the vocals are not everything what makes "Bloodbrothers" so good. It's also the music, which is very epic, monumental, but also aggressive and it even has some influence of black and heavy metal style... All in all, the influence of Bathory is pretty obvious, but also Manowar's epic viking hymns and finally also Falkenbach's unique pagan style. Well, wherever did Sleipnir find their influence, the results are great and the atmosphere of their music (with those keyboards and vocals) is hard to resist. The best thing about it is that it's so damn catchy, it possesses you and to be honest, once I started to listen to "Bloodbrothers" it was difficult to stop doing it, I think this CD was in my CD player for about two weeks, until I've found myself singing all these songs with the band and started to think that I may have listened to it too many times hehe! „Odin, mighty Odin - raise our horns to the war god!”… Great song to sing while shaving he, he! Just kidding, but really, the music of Sleipnir has possessed me and for a long time didn't go out of my head. Isn't it enough of recommendation? Oh, I must also say that while Forefather is all about the anglosaxonian battles etc, then Sleipnir is all about the vikings, Odinism and slashing the christian scum!
„Bloodbrothers”. Get it asap and unbury your axe!
Standout tracks: the entire album
Final rate: 85 / 100
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