Band: Falkenbach
Title: Tiurida
Label: Napalm Records
Distribution: Napalm Records – Rough Trade Benelux.
Release date: January 28th 2011
Review: CD

Falkenbach are a project by Markus Tümmers aka Vratyas Vakyas (which means the searching wanderer, taken from the Vatan; think Asatru) and one of the oldest Viking-inspired Black Metal projects from Germany. After a handful of demos, Falkenbach recorded the first studio full length (…En Their Medh Riki Fara…) in 1996 – which (I found) was one of the best releases that very same year. 1998’s …Magni Blandinn Ok Megintiri… too belongs to my personal all-time favourites, and the same, at least more or less, goes for Ok Nefta Tysvar Ty (2003) and Heralding - The Fireblade (2005). Or: I did look forward to enjoy the fifth full length, but that’s pretty evident, not?!
Tiurida (meaning: glory) was recorded after six years (in fact eight years) of relative silence at Patrick ‘Hagalaz’ Damiani’s Tidalwave Studio by Vratyas Vakyas and four session musicians. New collaborator is bass player Florian ‘Alboîn’ Dammasch, known from bands as Geïst, Enid, Inarborat or Eismalsott. The three other musicians do co-operate with Vratyas since many years: Le Grand Guignol (formerly known as Dregoth, then Vindsval)-colleagues Hagalaz (besides the engineering and mix in his own studio, he took care of the keyboard- and string-parts), Philip ‘Tyrann’ Breuer (vocals) and Michel ‘Boltthorn’ Spithoven (drums).
No surprise, but Tiurida is another typical Falkenbach-recording: glorious and epic parts with clean, melodic vocals and a touch of Folk / Viking-tradition versus triumphant pieces of heroism and fearless warlust. And the progression towards bathorian epic in confrontation with less blackened parts (especially vocally this evolution explores nearby shores) gets at its peak with Tiurida.
Opening hymn …Where His Ravens Fly…, for example, is a purest Folk-epic (and undoubtedly Falkenbach – what an original, characterising sound!). Like on the last album, this recording balances over towards this approach, rather than the Black-oriented one. Acoustics and harmonic pieces are more present than before, yet I don’t regret it (this time).
The tempo is rather slow. It was the case in the past and it did not change either. Luckily. Fierce blasting terror wouldn’t fit here. This is a heaviness closer to post-bellum then pre-bellum. A cryptic definition, yet it covers the whole package. Victory and / or Valhalla after battle!
I can’t find anything renewing on this album. Falkenbach still perform the same kind of Viking Metal like they did twenty years ago. But this project / band has such an original, specific approach, so no need to change. Why changing a winning team?

Some editions (CD and a limited vinyl copy) come with the re-arranged bonus track Asaland, taken from the Læknishendr-demo.

Duration (without the bonus song): forty minutes.

The album will be released in a limited deluxe box version, and some limited vinyl-editions (white vinyl including the bonus song Asaland, and both black and golden heavy vinyl) – FYI.

85/100

Ivan Tibos.