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Brymir: Where Orchestral Magnificance Meets Death Metal

In recent years, folk metal has experienced a slight rise in stature, and has begun to be seen as almost... cool. A lot of this is down to the current surplus of excellent bands currently dominating the scene, but at least some blame must go to the popularity of shows like Game Of Thrones and Vikings as well as recent films such as The Hobbit trilogy and Warcraft. CGI is at an all-time high in terms of quality, and naturally fantasy, as a genre, is thriving. If one band’s music is most suited to soundtrack an epic fantastical battle filled with vast armies, mythological creatures and monolithic castles, it is Brymir’s. The group’s Norse-influenced brand of metal is likely to be compared to fellow Finns such as Ensiferum and Moonsorrow, but in truth, their extreme metal style holds an encompassing grandeur born from their use of symphonic aspects that reminds more of a movie soundtrack than it does folk metal.

“Metal is supposed to sound larger than life after all,” explains bassist, lyricist, and co-songwriter Jarkko Niemi when describing the impact of their orchestrations. The band’s frontman, Viktor Gullichsen, is in charge of the symphonic side of things and has spent time doing sound-design for films, which has undoubtedly influenced the movie soundtrack-esque nature of their music. “I think the orchestration draws more influence from visual classical music rather than film or game soundtracks,” Niemi adds however, “Our taste in scope is mostly to have that hugeness for dramatic effect.”

After a promising debut in 2011’s Breathe Fire To The Sun, Brymir’s new album, Slayer Of Gods, sees the group use the symphonic side of their music to take on a more ambitious sound that simultaneously delivers powerful orchestral elements as well as abrasive death metal. The album showcases Brymir as the metal powerhouse they truly are, but almost never saw the light of day following numerous complications during its development. Losing their record deal in 2012, the group were forced to create the album themselves. “Us, not having money to pay for outside professionals, then had to replace the money with more work-hours ourselves,” Nieme says, “The recording process started early in 2013, and now it’s 2016… You do the math.” Self-produced, self-mixed and self-recorded, it’s remarkable how professional Slayer Of Gods sounds. From the conquering power of the title-track to the riff-obsessed ‘Risen’ or the more symphonic-focused ‘The Black Hammer’, it is a forceful album that showcases Brymir as a talented group capable of consistent, well-written and massive-sounding albums.

You’d be forgiven for mistaking Slayer Of Gods as a fully-fledged concept album, given that there is clearly a lot of thought that has gone into it. Describing their albums as “very loose concept albums,” Niemi explains that the concept of Slayer Of Gods largely follows a political theme. “One of the overarching lines of thought on the album deals with what it means to be the ‘zoon politikon’, or ‘the political animal’. It sort of ponders the implications of Aristotle’s quote ‘Outside the society, only a Beast or a God can live’ through a poetic approach, bearing in mind Nietzsche’s ideas of free will, empathy and the like.” The title itself also has a deeper meaning, as Niemi outlines, “’Gods’ can be anything that we make into something larger than life itself, which are the building blocks for all societal cohesion. The ‘Slayer’ is then someone who destroys these ‘Gods’, making himself free of them, but thus also from humanity in general.” This idea brings to light interesting questions, with Niemi himself proposing questions like “When having the freedom, will [the 'Slayer] stay outside accepted humanity as an unaccepted beast, or become a creator of new Gods for himself?” and the perhaps even harder to answer, “What would be the right thing [for the ‘Slayer’] to do?”

In-depth to an almost confusing degree, Slayer Of Gods’ concept is one that can be pondered for hours, and as Niemi says, when it comes to lyrics, “only the imagination of the reader is the limit.” The topical nature of these lyrics could seem bizarre when you assess Brymir at a quick glance. Their folk metal-esque imagery may suggest lyrics about old folklore or tales of mighty battles, but ever the deep thinker, Niemi describes how the band’s music often has what he calls a “cyclical viewpoint on humanity and history. As we tend to see, all things in this world of ours behave seasonally, from life and weather to economics and politics. Nothing really ends, nothing really begins.”

This cyclical view on history is showcased in the band’s name, which holds a Norse origin. Combining the words Ymir, “a frost giant from whose corpse this world was made,” and Brimir, “a mead-hall for souls of the righteous after the end of the world – Ragnarök.” This literally combines life and death, or origin and ending, as if they are one, which has become the basis for Niemi’s lyrics: “I write lyrics and make concepts based on the world around me. In that sense, I can’t honestly say that I write about the past. Even old tales, when told today, take new meanings due to the different time and different readers. But at the same time, paradoxically, the human being has always remained quite the same – with the same desires and fears, strengths and weaknesses. Since these factors are constantly present, I actually don’t have to think about whether something is old or new that much, as it’s always both.”

Whether it’s due to the deep-running theme or just the simple gratifyingly relentless nature of their extreme metal, Slayer Of Gods has taken the band beyond the realms of promising newcomers, and gotten people to really take notice. “We can’t but feel humble and thankful for how much people have liked this fruit of years of hard work,” Niemi says “I mean, our love of our music isn’t dependant on how well other people like it, but no one wants to be in a vacuum. For us, the greatest fulfilment is toshare something positive with people; be it as an entertaining live show or as an enriching musical journey. To get to share the things we love… I mean, it’s just the best thing, right?”

You may not have any particular interest, let alone love, for the interesting idea that everything in history is cyclical, and although Slayer Of Gods is likely to spark at least a little interest in it, it can’t guarantee it. What it can guarantee, however, is an ambitious but masterfully executed album with a grand scope and a ferociously hard-hitting nature.

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