 
I’ve met this band, I’ve seen this band live and I’ve spun this band’s records so many times and had a great experience. My biggest worry for them was always because of the fact they had a gimmick; normally a gimmick starts off fantastic and can accelerate the rate of which popularity is gained, but as it had been seen a million times it can also become stale and collapse in on itself. The real question is can they push past that with this new album?
Absolutely, with absolute ease may I add. I mean it all depends whether you like this brand of music or not as to how you feel, if you’re not that interested it can begin to sound very similar over time but on the other hand if you’re very much a Viking metal fan then you’ll be able to pick your favourite after little over a couple of plays much like I have. Those that jump out are album opener “First Kill”, “A Dream That Cannot Be” which has female vocals from none other than Doro, “Raise Your Horns” which whilst teetering on the cliche side of the scale has a nice dirty riff to follow, “On A Sea Of Blood” and “One Against All”. There are other great songs on here but for me those are the ones that will make it into the car playlist so therefore in my opinion those are the best on offer.
It’s very satisfying to be impressed when expecting disappointment which I can’t say isn’t the case here because it very much was. They still stick to their origins yet not to the point where they’ve gone too far as to become laughable, they keep the lyrics appropriate yet catchy and the music varies throughout; tone, tempo, style just to really keep things fresh.
4/5
Review by James Webb
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