Album Review: Brothers of Metal – Emblas Saga

The first thing that caught my eye about Brothers of Metal was that they’re from Falun, home of Sabaton. The second thing was that, despite being Brothers, one of their lead singers is female. I assume there’s some irony there! I missed their debut album Prophecy Of Ragnarök, which apparently went down a storm so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect otherwise, barring what the promotional blurb told me.

What I got was some power / folk metal of very high quality which I’m glad I plucked out of our pile to review. The first thing I have to point out is that a spoken word intro track which sets the scene for an album doesn’t get much better than when it’s done in a Scandinavian accent. Other bands should take note. Oh, it also helps if you back it with some good tunes…

Brothers of Metal seem to go all out with the Norse / Viking themes, featuring songs about “Hel”, “Ride of the Valkyries”, “Theft of the Hammer” and in “One” we heard “a true Viking hymn written deep in the dark woods of Birka”. Highlight, though, is “Kaunaz Dagaz”, a soaring four minutes or so which brings together all the elements of their sound. Rousing and solidly metal, both male and female vocals blend together to encourage crowd singing, it’s wonderfully upbeat and has a belter of a guitar solo.

Ylva Eriksson, the aforementioned Sister amongst Brothers, gets to show her melodic strength with “Weaver of Fate”. Not quite a lilting ballad, but a gentle track until the halfway mark when she’s joined by Joakim Lindbäck Eriksson in the throat department and the metal lands. It’s another quality track on a strong album.

It’s easy to get cheesy with folk metal, and this 8-piece manage to stay just on the right side of the line. The songs are epic, bright, easy to pick up, varied and enjoyable. Check out “One” below. It’s not my favourite track from the album, but it’s bloody good and gives you an idea of what’s on offer.

Header image by George Grigoriadis

Emblas Saga is out now and can be picked up on Amazon (link supports this site)

Brothers of Metal: facebook

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