Band: V/A Pagan Fire

Title: Pagan Fire

Label: Nuclear Blast

Distribution: PIAS

Release date: February 2008

Review: sampler-CD + Bonus-DVD

A compilation called Pagan Fire - I was anxious and sceptic before I started reading the names of the bands and projects compiled on it. And I must admit: I was wrong. All right, it is impossible to compile the most correct Pagan Metal compilation, because there are hundreds of bands that might appear on such a release, that's evident. Yet to give a certain direction, well, then this one did hit a bull's eye. ‘Pagan' in the Metal scene is, by the way, extremely divers and can be interpreted in a large sense. I guess almost every country has its own Folk-oriented bands. This musical approach is (and was) extremely ‘popular' in, especially Scandinavia , Germany and the Lowlands ( Belgium + Holland ), yet also the East-European countries have a huge scene. And so does Italy , Spain , Greece , France , the UK , Ireland , Austria , Switzerland and so on, and so on, and so on. Much too often, this musical direction gets compared to national-socialist politics and sometimes that's correct. Yet I wonder if that may be a reason to not like this musical style anymore? Anyway, that's a discussion that can go on for many hours, so I will concentrate on the songs itself. ‘Pagan' can be seen in different forms: Folk, Pagan, Heathen, Viking, NS(BM) or War Metal. Each of these styles has one or a few examples on Pagan Fire . The sampler opens with Song To Hall Up High , done by Quorthon 's Bathory , probably THE ultimate project when it comes to a Viking-inspired musical approach. [dreaming and talking on and on about this supreme, superior solo project for days…] The compilation features several Viking / Black Metal bands, such as Enslaved and Falkenbach (from Germany with its roots in Iceland ). Of course, Norway sort of is the inventing country of this genre (think Borknagar , Arcturus , Hades ( Almighty ), Allfader , Einherjer , Enslaved , Ulver , Mock , Isengard , Kampfar , even early Satyricon and many, many others), but it is, of course, impossible to feature all of them on this compilation. Also the Finnish and Swedish scene are important, and that's why several of these countries' bands appear here: Finntroll , Turisaz , Moonsorrow , Ensiferum for Finland , Thyrfing , Amon Amarth etc. for Sweden . Good thinking too to add a song from Unleashed on this compilation. Of course, musically seen this band can only be categorised within the (old school) Death Metal scene, yet it was one of the first (Death) Metal bands using lyrics about the Vikings. Also Primordial is present (with an edited track from their newest album) and, even more appreciable, is the addition of a song by Eluveitie , because they are not that well-known (yet) at all. This Swiss formation introduces instruments as bodhran, fiddle, bag pipes and flutes in their Celtic-inspired Metal. The compilation ends with a tracks from the The Chthonic Chronicles by Bal Sagoth , a pretty unique and genial UK-formation that certainly also exhales a fascinating and epic atmosphere.

…I tried to keep it short…

Pagan Fire comes with a bonus-DVD, featuring eleven video clips. Personally I usually never like video clips: sometimes it's just an act, often too ridiculous (trying to be the most heroic, interesting, brutal, cool, attractive, intelligent, brave and / or mean motherf*cker), or it may be a compilation of live fragments or (acted) recording sessions with a bad synchronisation. This also goes, more or less, for these bonuses. However, I have to admit that all this is more than acceptable on this compilation-DVD. Bands featured here are: Amon Amarth , Helheim , Tyr , Battlelore , Enslaved , Einherjer , Wintersun , Ensiferum , Finntroll , Manegarm and Eluveitie . A big personal hail goes to the clip of Tyr , containing fragments that seem to be recorded at a Viking-gathering / folklore in Denmark.

I can imagine that most people with a sane / insane passion / obsession for this music will have (almost) all of these songs, yet for those who want to discover this Metal scene, I'm sure this sampler will be a splendid try-out, an enormous interesting introduction to it. And for those who do have the albums, yet who also want the (acceptable) clips, this Pagan Fire might be an option too.

--/100

Ivan Tibos.