Månegarm is ready for its tenth album.
Created in 1995 in Sweden under the name of Antikrist, the band quickly switches to its actual name. In 2022, Erik Grawsiö (bass/vocals), Markus Andé (guitar) and Jacob Hallegren (drums) unveil us Ynglingaättens öde.
The band plays live with Umer Mossige-Norheim (female vocals) and Tobias Rydsheim (guitar, Wormwood).
The album begins on Freyrs blod, which perfectly exploits the Black Metal basis melted to the band’s Folk elements. Energetic riffs topped by wild howlings will manage to calm down to offer a moment of communion around the Pagan sonorities, then saturation teams up with deep clean vocals, which allows an epic and melodic solo strike before Ulvhjärtat makes visceral rage spawn again. The band feeds this contrast with more accessible and hooking elements, allowing heady choruses full of federative backing vocals invade us, then Adils fall comes next to continue this melting between epic sonorities and violent saturation. The song is immediately seizing, just like En snara av guld and its melancholic slowness. The haunting sound of the introduction continues when the different vocal parts arrive, whether it is female vocals, howlings or backing vocals, then Folk sonorities are highlighted on Stridsgalten, a song with a powerful rhythmic. The band’s rage is perfectly expressed over this majestic track which offers some cheerful and catchy accents accompanied by Jonne Järvelä (Korpiklaani), Robse Dahn (Equilibrium) and Pär Hulkoff (Raubtier/Hulkoff), then Auns söner melts warlike and sharp tones with softer choruses. Aggressive influences will also be part of the game on this song which is shaped for the stage, then Vitta véttr comes to be anchored into this mild and haunting slowness. But the quietness won’t last, because a wild and dark sound appears before being melted to heady sonorities, then Hågkomst av ett liv offers us once more a sink into mystical Folk influences. The song stays rooted into this ritualistic atmosphere inhabited by many voices before letting the album be closed by the english version of Ulvhjärtat, entitled The Wolfheart. The language change does not affect the song’s visceral rage, which allows us to stay into this aggressive ambience until the last moment.
The name of Månegarm might not be unknown if you’re into the Folk/Pagan scene. The reason is that the band’s name is as interesting as seizing, making Ynglingaättens öde an extremely effective and contrasted album between the two shades of the Swedish’s musical personality.
90/100