Kampfar – Heimgang

Releasedate: 26-09-2008; Label: Napalm Records
By: Elvira Visser

The beginnings of KAMPFAR date back to 1994, when vocalist Dolk left his former band Mock. He attracted Thomas on guitar and together they started to write music each with their own expertise. Dolks metal skills combined with Thomas folk and classical background created the sound of KAMPFAR.

The band was dealing with some personal issues when Dolk joined another band and through that came in contact with Jon (bass player), which he recruited for KAMPFAR. In 2003 they added drummer II13 to the line up and performed live for the first time. With this line up they recorded their CD “Kvass” and now they present their new album “Heimgang”, a good follow up.
“Heimgang” is recorded by Rune Joergensen of Silvertone studio in Norway.

“Heimgang” is a metal album in the style of pagan folklore. An album in line with their old style. There are strong, fast paced drums with catchy melodies. Between all these paced tracks there is not much time to catch your breath. There are some slower breaks with great guitar riffs. “Vandring” the last track on the album is calming you down where Dolks screams even sound like a mean orc (Tolkien). The intro of this album “Vantro” starts slowly building up the right atmosphere for track 2 “Inferno” to break loo se with raging guitars. Dolks screams are quite creepy sounding, which fits perfectly with the dark side of the Nordic myths and legends. These are used for the lyrical part of the album, and they tell a story that deals with crossing over into the underworld. On “Vettekult” they have used an echo which is great and catchy. I definitely think this is a great varied album and it is hard to say which track would be my personal favourite.

Links:
Kampfar MySpace
Kampfar Official