Vintersorg - Ödemarkens Son (1999)

My earliest memories of Vintersorg date back to late 2000, shortly after the release of the bands third album, 'Cosmic Genesis.' I remember this being a controversial release for Swedish listeners, because Andreas Hedlund had abandoned the full use of Swedish lyrics and had slightly changed his sound, and at least where I was hanging around at the time (Snakenet Metal Radio forums) a lot of Swedes seemed betrayed. I enjoyed Cosmic Genesis immensely, and I still do, but curiosity struck me early on back in those days and I picked up the much acclaimed second album, 'Ödemarkens Son' to see what the big deal was.

In these days Vintersorg was still very much Andreas' solo project as he handled the vocals, guitar, acoustic guitar, bass and keyboards, with guest spots from Cia Hedmark (vocals & violin), Marcus E. Norman (additional keyboards & drum programming) and a guy named Andreas Frank had a few guitar leads throughout the album. Before going all weird and writing lyrics about astronomy, science and philosophy, Andreas' was primarily basing his lyrically themes around Paganism and nature, even mentioning this in the traycard. The guitar melodies reflect this too, as they are distinctively folky in sound, though this is hardly the typical and generally boring happy drunk folk metal we see entirely too much of these days.

Musically its what you might expect out of a great folk metal album and that's plenty of melodic characteristics, both distorted electric and acoustic guitars that often complement and enhance the journey, as well as both grimly screamed blackened vocals and passionately sung clean parts, plus some keyboards, piano, female vocals and violin to boot. The songs are semi-progressive in style as they seem to shift from being mostly mid-paced to the occasional faster parts, purely acoustic and keyboard sections can also be found too. There's also a great deal of riffs spread out through the album, which makes things hardly ever boring, though I sort of wish more solos had been used. The lyrics, although wrote entirely in Swedish, are often times catchy during the chorus', and its always a bit amusing when you find yourself singing along to words you don't understand.

The bulk of the album really stands out too, 'När Alver Sina Runor Sjungit,' 'Svältvinter,' 'Ödemarkens Son' and 'I Den Trolska Dalens Hjärta' being my personal favs, though I love the album as a whole. Also the mood throughout most of the album is energetic and epic sounding, though I catch this slightly melancholy vibe on the last song, 'På Landet,' but maybe that's just the continuous keyboard melody. Besides that you can expect superb song writing, amazing conviction and heart through both vocal styles, plenty of melody and all the Swedes tell me, amazing lyrics too.

As mentioned earlier, I enjoyed the follow-up, 'Cosmic Genesis,' but the following two albums were different in sound and feeling and were ultimately quite dull for my personal tastes, though by 2007 when, 'Solens Rötter' was released Andreas had finally found his true way again with an album full of similar and amazing songs to his earlier works. I haven't heard what's followed since, but my curiosities are certainly there.

If you're looking for a great folk metal album you'd do well to by pass most of the garbage being released nowadays and go with a classic and in a way path paving album too. 'Ödemarkens Son' is just fantastic.'