Týr
Hel
Metal Blade Records
2019
Týr returns after a six year hiatus, that some festivals “sold” as a farewell, with a new album for Metal Blade Records along with a couple of new members in the form of a new drummer Tadeusz Rieckmann and guitarist Attila Vörös (who most might remember from his Nevermore/Sanctuary live sessions) both from Hungary, thus breaking the tradition of the band of featuring Faroesian musicians only. Their style remains the same mass produced “Viking” metal forever destined to occupy the low/middle tiers of stages at various festivals.
The music is rather simplistic and while they’re a tad more serious and competent than say other similar bands like Turisas and the guitars tone they have is nice, their riffs and solos are not all that impressive and sound increasingly samey with few exceptions. The tempos staying similar across many of the songs and the singing being less than enthusiastic (compared to the earlier efforts ie “Eric the Red” etc.) don’t help with that.
“Fire and Flame” and “Against the Gods” stand among the better examples the latter featuring a more involved solo and some nice melodies, but hell, I can’t help but to find the whole style rather goofy. Well these guys have also a trimmed down aesthetic not donning warpaint and carrying drinking horns around with them, like cosplaying dumbasses, but I could still do w/o the topless promo shots, thank you very much. Bare as many male nipples you want… but it’s unlikely your music will be taken any more seriously… and when it comes down to that, the music of the album might appeal to their already established audience, but I hardly think it could expand it.
The music is rather simplistic and while they’re a tad more serious and competent than say other similar bands like Turisas and the guitars tone they have is nice, their riffs and solos are not all that impressive and sound increasingly samey with few exceptions. The tempos staying similar across many of the songs and the singing being less than enthusiastic (compared to the earlier efforts ie “Eric the Red” etc.) don’t help with that.
“Fire and Flame” and “Against the Gods” stand among the better examples the latter featuring a more involved solo and some nice melodies, but hell, I can’t help but to find the whole style rather goofy. Well these guys have also a trimmed down aesthetic not donning warpaint and carrying drinking horns around with them, like cosplaying dumbasses, but I could still do w/o the topless promo shots, thank you very much. Bare as many male nipples you want… but it’s unlikely your music will be taken any more seriously… and when it comes down to that, the music of the album might appeal to their already established audience, but I hardly think it could expand it.