Review: Wulfgar - With Gods and Legends Unite

After true proven wicked success of their first two demo releases, the Swedish Viking death metal daredevils, Wulfgar, have returned and roared in the New Year with their debut signed release, With Gods and Legends Unite (Kampas Records). Five rocker warriors, speaking to the audience with less destructive representation of "axes," "hammers," and "attitude," Wulfgar definitely offers a fresh definition of heavy metal with like comparison of their musical instruments to instruments of war, emotions, elements, and characters personified in each song.

Viking death metal typically uses folklore and myth as a launching pad for each song to take off from, but Wulfgar has deeper imagination and a collegiate approach to lyric writing. Middle English literature, once driven by heroic code, shows up in traces of Wulfgar: Defend your leader to the death. Your battlemates are your brothers, and you will take a sword for them. Survival through cowardice is worse than death; it is better to die with honor. These and many more rules the early warrior lived by are depicted deep inside carefully crafted heroic couplet rhyme scheme - and let's face it; the sound is awesome, too!

Instrumentally, the stories are brought out to the listener in an almost visual effect. Vocalist Emil Augustsson descends into the treble sector of our ear buds at times, bellowing out rich baritone roars that are crisp, coherent, and are frankly a lot easier to understand than the Cookie Monster-type style that most metal singers who work within the same range use. Equally impressive are the high pitched vulture screams Augustsson appropriately and deliberately straddles between roars - they're as fun to listen to as Dani Filth (Cradle of Filth), but the listener doesn't have to sit with his nose buried in the liner notes to figure out what the heck is being sung. The clarity of the voice for such a record is of the utmost importance - after all; there's stories being told, here. All of this is actually easier to recognize - or moreover, realize - once delving into the forth song or so, as the strength and tonality of the sound purging from the core of the vocalist literally causes goose bumps, distracting from the overall technique at first. This reviewer has witnessed this phenomenon on numerous occasions!

Saying the instrumentalists of the band are backing Augustsson's vocals would completely underrate the concept behind the record, as the instruments actually are a bigger part of the emotional and physical condition behind the story - the vocalist is simply interpreting what the instruments are saying into plain English. Most bands of all genres use percussion and bass as a creative means of working a metronome into a song, keeping the band together and in time by listening towards the back of the group. It's a method that's part of the basics in a musician's world, but this typical use of the rhythm instruments is not the skeletal structure of a Wulfgar song.

Both the tom drums and bass guitar give the illusion of soldiers marching at times; the rhythm guitar at times joining in trio. The bottom parts can also be heard mimicking the sound of a heart beating, an ax falling, a hammer slamming, thunder crashing - anything at all to allow the listener to hear aspects of the story and feel it in his heart as its being told. During vocal breaks, the lead guitar picks up momentum and intensity, echoing and reinforcing the story in an almost telepathic sense.

Regardless of the listeners' prior educational backgrounds of Viking folklore and myth, With Gods and Legends Unite has us lassoed to the speakers with the same entertainment value of a Tolkien novel, Beowulf, or a fantasy fuelled action movie. Wulfgar currently frequents Swedish venues, but like all great international metal troupes, the success of this debut will surely launch this band into American superstardom. Hail Wulfgar!