Yggdrasil - Kvällningsvindar Över Nordrönt Land (2007)

I have to admit that back in 2007 when this album was released I had more or less thought the Swedish folk metal band Yggdrasil had broken up. Perhaps I’m not the only one though, since over five years had past between the bands second demo, ‘I Nordens Rike’ and this debut album titled, ‘Kvällningsvindar Över Nordrönt Land.’ The funny thing is this, Yggdrasil didn’t forget me or rather Lunar Hypnosis since were right there in the thanks and hails list. Awww, how sweet of them.

At any rate to clear some things up, one of the band members joined the military back in 2003, which set the band aside for awhile, and originally this album was recorded in 2005, but because their previous label was incompetent it never saw the light of day, but finally Det Germanske Folket signed and released this album back in late 2007.

If you missed the bands two demos from ’02 & ’03 then you overlooked some fairly decent Swedish folk metal inspired mostly by acts like Vintersorg and Otyg. The bands sound has remained the same, and in fact everything single song on this album is re-recorded from the two demos. However the band has really refined their sound quite well and now you can find parts that may remind of bands like Thyrfing, Falkenbach, Mithotyn or even Moonsorrow, but enough with the random name dropping.

Yggdrasil’s music is mostly mid-paced without any blast beat percussion or much speedy guitar work and features some really catchy folky guitar riffs, superb solos, violins, fiddle, keyboards, both clean operatic and growled vocals and lyrics wrote completely in Swedish. I suppose it shouldn’t be to hard to figure out what these guys sound like if your at all familiar with the bands above since elements from all of them can be found, even so I think Yggdrasil has established themselves as a band with their own sound.

I’m not sure who handles the main clean vocals on this recording, but on the old demos bassist Gustaf Hagel did and its pleasing to see that they sound greatly improved and all around excellent. There are also a few places where the band throws in some of the typical Viking metal choirs, which of course sound great too. There are also some female operatic vocals handled by Michelle Maass, and naturally they fit in nicely along the male vocals. The guitar work is mostly huge with lots of interesting vivid riffs that have that unique ability to get caught in my brain and keep me coming back for more. Although I think I wouldn’t mind if at times the music was faster, but at least for now things remain fairly mid-paced.

Since this debut Yggdrasil has gone on to release, 'Vedergällning' in 2009 and it looks like a new album by the name of, 'Irrbloss' is coming in a few months. The band has also expanded to four members recently, which may very well mean that this new album is the best they've released so far. Will just have to wait and see.

All things considered, Yggdrasil has created a unique debut album with, 'Kvällningsvindar Över Nordrönt Land,' even if it’s completely re-recorded material that I first heard years ago. If you fancy yourself enjoying any of the bands mentioned above or just Swedish folk metal in general then you’ll definitely want to check out this release.