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LEAVES' EYES The Last Viking By Andrew Depedro, Ottawa Corespondent Monday, October 12, 2020 @ 12:01 AM
And, really, who better to document Hardrada’s legacy and put it to music better than German/Norwegian symphonic metal historians LEAVES' EYES by now? With their cult-albums Vinland Saga (2005) and King Of Kings (2015) they already turned Leif Eriksson’s discovery of America and the life of Norway’s first king into music. With their latest opus The Last Viking, LEAVES' EYES throw down the proverbial horns on Hardrada and the Viking era for the last time with a proper fiery send-off.
The band’s second album with Finnish soprano-sensation Elina Siirala, The Last Viking sees LEAVES' EYES raising both their musical skills and Norse knowledge to unfathomed heights. Elina even gets a greater opportunity to radiate as both a headlining singer and contributing songwriter to the bulk of the material throughout the album. On the lead-off raging pagan-hymn “Chain Of The Golden Horn”, chronicling Hardrada’s dangerous escape from Byzantium, where a heavy iron chain was hidden in the Bosporus waters to wreck hostile ships, her powerful vocals and narration talents are captivating when coupled with the outer voice of Alexander Krull guiding Hardrada’s rage and unbridled hunger for complete domination. Yet it is throughout the rest of the album that as the vengeful empress Zoë, Elina assumes control of the relationship, particularly on the haunting rock opus “Dark Love Empress” which sees the stalwart
"Some TV dramas or blockbusters make me smirk when I see the Viking Sagas turned upside down. We don’t mess around in mythology!” promises Alexander Krull throughout the course of The Last Viking. And both himself and LEAVES' EYES have definitely gone beyond merely acknowledging Hardrada’s hardwiring to self-destruct but celebrating and hailing the Leif and all of what Viking mythology represented overall – hence why The Last Viking is worth raising the horns for as the band venture forward to conquer more of the Norse code.
5.0 Out Of 5.0
https://www.leaveseyes.de/
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