YGGDRASIL — Irrbloss (review)

Album · 2011 · Folk Metal

3/5 · 2011-06-19
adg211288

Irrbloss is the third album from Swedish Folk Metal band Yggdrasil, which was released in 2011. The band’s metal side is rooted in black metal riffs and vocals, which are sometimes alternated with some folksy cleans. The band’s folk elements aren’t always as prominent as they could be in a folk metal band however, mostly due to a poor mixing choice when putting the folk and metal sounds together.

To be honest I don’t think I heard a folk metal album for some time that sounded quite as bland as this one. The music is listenable enough, good even, but the album doesn’t really go anywhere. Song after song Yggdrasil delivers the same formulaic stuff which in itself isn’t that bad all things considered, but it makes the album something of a drag with no surprises. Until the final track, Kungabål, that is, which is a surprise because it is a folk ballad rather than a metal song, but it’s a poor choice to close the album because it causes Irrbloss to close on a quiet note, rather than end in any spectacular fashion. It’s a general problem with the album though. It’s just there, if you know what I mean, and there is very little that is truly memorable about it. It has a pretty good air of sadness to it though, which I’m sure fans of more melancholic folk metal will find to their tastes.

There are a few moments of clear quality though, and the band’s blend of folk with harsh black metal creates quite an atmospheric affair when it works, but there are a few too many moments on the album where things don’t quite work for me. I mentioned above about a poor mixing of the folk and metal side of the band’s music and that’s the reason why; sometimes the folk seems drowned out a bit and I don’t like that since when the album works best, it’s when you can hear the folk stuff the most, otherwise the riffs come across as repetitive black metal – all well and good when it works, but the result here is patchy at best.

There’s potential here and a lot of it in fact, it’s just not utilised as well as it could be. Overall I find that the album scrapes just above being completely middle of the road due to the inclusion of a couple of standard tracks such as the title track and Uppåkra. Both kinds of vocals used are also pretty decent and fitting with the atmosphere and there are also some female vocals in some songs, which are mostly used as backing, but there is some lead female vocal in Kungabål.

Overall I find that I do enjoy this album a fair bit, but only while I’m listening to it, as afterwards even after many listens I still struggle to find it really memorable, which is why at the end of the day I can’t be more positive about Irrbloss. I’ll certainly be checking out both past and future works from Yggdrasil though; hopefully Irrbloss is just a little stumble on their musical path. Since this is my introduction to the band’s music I can’t call that one either way, but I will say that if they can iron out the problems in Irrbloss and do the same style right next time they’ll have a much stronger album on their hands.

(Originally written Heavy Metal Haven, scoring 6.4/10)