Brothers Of Metal
Emblas Saga
AFM Records
2020
I was so highly unimpressed by the over the top cos-play power “metal” of Sweden’s Brothers Of Metal, that I easily decided to give em a pass at Sweden Rock fest after a momentary pass by their stage proved to be a futile experience and as another band that I actually wanted to watch was performing at a different stage. I thought they were exactly the type of band that Napalm would sign and cherish. Ohh Napalm. The label where former Nuclear Blast artists that don’t sell well go to usually die, but also the home of tens of bands with more makeup and armor, than taste or musical ability. But no… while other ridiculous acts like the dwarven buttlickers of Windrose, or the heroes in tights that make them perform poorly Glory-hole-hammer endured, the somewhat okay BOM, actually didn’t survive past their debut… so AFM came to the rescue the distributor of most other labels and where Napalm’s unsuccessful bands often end up, before going to Scarlet or disbanding.
Lo and behold a couple of years after their debut, another album materializes, entitled “Emblas Saga”. Not very much different than their debut, only with slightly more generic songwriting and videos that must have half the budget or less of those they produced for their debut. Coming from Falun, this octet shares the same brassy sound as Sabaton, mixing it with a watered down and more laddish take on Amon Amarth, after they started giving more importance to the look, rather than the music, ie past the second album or so, ending up to sound and look like joke bands, ie Gloryhammer or Alestorm, but unintentionally rather than on purpose.
The music is predictable and could be described as third rate Sabaton, with three singers, out of which two can actually sing, namely Ylva Eriksson, who’s actually pretty good and is wasting her talent in such a project, the reasonably good Joakim Lindbäck Eriksson, who does clean vocals and the absolutely terrible Mats Nilsson, who sounds like a drunk version of Brodin, trying to sound like a “troo wiking”.
“Brood of the Trickster” tries to be an atmospheric intro with a narration, by a Swede with a slight lisp that phones it in, with a bad Scottish accent… I watch laughing all the way to thee bank, of the river... where a giant thnake attacked me and engulfed my enormouth manhood in it’s jawth….
Really… “Powersnake” sounds like someone wrote a simple power metal song around a Jeremy Soule atmospheric passage and other than Eriksson’s vocals it has nothing much to offer, no solo, nothing too memorable…
“Hel” is somewhat better. Despite its plastic production, it has a solo, despite it being a simplistic one with a horrendous tone and YE again sings well, a chorus that is not entirely bad… because pretty much – the rest of the song is HU-HAS and riffs that hardly sound coherent.
“Chainbreaker” is a bit more 80s metal inspired, sounding like a Battle Beast reject, before AC was driven out of his own band. It’s the first sort of throughout, listenable song up to this point again largely due to Eriksson’s vocal agility.
“Kaunaz Dagaz” could have been a poppier Nightwish/Epica sort of song, if not for the tasteless lecherous sounding male vocals.
“Theft of the Hammer” quickly delves back into nerdy RPG territory from which it never truly recovers.
“Weaver of Fate” is a ballad where YE is given a lead role and there’s actually a solo and it’s by far the best song of the album and actually one, I kinda liked.
“Njord” despite a promising YE led start, quickly turns into a Sabaton-copy with a shouty chorus that disrupts it and even some ridiculous spoken parts by Nilsson, who absolutely has no talent for such a thing.
“Emblas Saga” is a soundtrack like song that feels kind of disjointed; think the latest BG orchestral effort, but with more than one singers – one of which isn’t too good.
“Brothers Unite” is one of those songs that has lyrics and I quote “warrior unite – we’ll stand up and fight” – oh, Hammerfall you should have © the phrase and you’d be laughing all the way to the bank of Wallchallaa! It’s terrible happy metal, with a chord progression you’ve heard before.
“One” has a ton of those bad Nilsson spoken parts that make it cringe-worthy, which makes its chorus sound like an oasis or paradise for those who thought it forever lost…
“Ride of the Valkyries” has the same speed and attitude as Manowar’s “Power”, but with a more modern production and toe curling lyrics, which seem to belong to some pen and paper RPG and it sort of lacks a proper and good chorus.
Finally, “To The Skies and Beyond” is a nerdy ballad that’s over-orchestrated into a symphonic monstrosity worthy to be compared with the Cheesiest, Cheetoest, Italian Power Metal that even its creators are trying to forget they wrote.
It would be nice to see the two Eriksson singers in more serious projects, because I can’t honestly see myself listening to this steaming pile of nerdy sub-par modern metal, ever again.
Lo and behold a couple of years after their debut, another album materializes, entitled “Emblas Saga”. Not very much different than their debut, only with slightly more generic songwriting and videos that must have half the budget or less of those they produced for their debut. Coming from Falun, this octet shares the same brassy sound as Sabaton, mixing it with a watered down and more laddish take on Amon Amarth, after they started giving more importance to the look, rather than the music, ie past the second album or so, ending up to sound and look like joke bands, ie Gloryhammer or Alestorm, but unintentionally rather than on purpose.
The music is predictable and could be described as third rate Sabaton, with three singers, out of which two can actually sing, namely Ylva Eriksson, who’s actually pretty good and is wasting her talent in such a project, the reasonably good Joakim Lindbäck Eriksson, who does clean vocals and the absolutely terrible Mats Nilsson, who sounds like a drunk version of Brodin, trying to sound like a “troo wiking”.
“Brood of the Trickster” tries to be an atmospheric intro with a narration, by a Swede with a slight lisp that phones it in, with a bad Scottish accent… I watch laughing all the way to thee bank, of the river... where a giant thnake attacked me and engulfed my enormouth manhood in it’s jawth….
Really… “Powersnake” sounds like someone wrote a simple power metal song around a Jeremy Soule atmospheric passage and other than Eriksson’s vocals it has nothing much to offer, no solo, nothing too memorable…
“Hel” is somewhat better. Despite its plastic production, it has a solo, despite it being a simplistic one with a horrendous tone and YE again sings well, a chorus that is not entirely bad… because pretty much – the rest of the song is HU-HAS and riffs that hardly sound coherent.
“Chainbreaker” is a bit more 80s metal inspired, sounding like a Battle Beast reject, before AC was driven out of his own band. It’s the first sort of throughout, listenable song up to this point again largely due to Eriksson’s vocal agility.
“Kaunaz Dagaz” could have been a poppier Nightwish/Epica sort of song, if not for the tasteless lecherous sounding male vocals.
“Theft of the Hammer” quickly delves back into nerdy RPG territory from which it never truly recovers.
“Weaver of Fate” is a ballad where YE is given a lead role and there’s actually a solo and it’s by far the best song of the album and actually one, I kinda liked.
“Njord” despite a promising YE led start, quickly turns into a Sabaton-copy with a shouty chorus that disrupts it and even some ridiculous spoken parts by Nilsson, who absolutely has no talent for such a thing.
“Emblas Saga” is a soundtrack like song that feels kind of disjointed; think the latest BG orchestral effort, but with more than one singers – one of which isn’t too good.
“Brothers Unite” is one of those songs that has lyrics and I quote “warrior unite – we’ll stand up and fight” – oh, Hammerfall you should have © the phrase and you’d be laughing all the way to the bank of Wallchallaa! It’s terrible happy metal, with a chord progression you’ve heard before.
“One” has a ton of those bad Nilsson spoken parts that make it cringe-worthy, which makes its chorus sound like an oasis or paradise for those who thought it forever lost…
“Ride of the Valkyries” has the same speed and attitude as Manowar’s “Power”, but with a more modern production and toe curling lyrics, which seem to belong to some pen and paper RPG and it sort of lacks a proper and good chorus.
Finally, “To The Skies and Beyond” is a nerdy ballad that’s over-orchestrated into a symphonic monstrosity worthy to be compared with the Cheesiest, Cheetoest, Italian Power Metal that even its creators are trying to forget they wrote.
It would be nice to see the two Eriksson singers in more serious projects, because I can’t honestly see myself listening to this steaming pile of nerdy sub-par modern metal, ever again.