What is your favorite song at the moment?

[WhiteFang]

 

[deepstrasz]

 

[WhiteFang]

 

[Arowanna]

'Long Lost to Where No Pathway Goes' by Summoning, covered by Kauan; I remember eagerly awaiting this tribute CD. I was so pissed when it arrived, everything on it quite literally sucked in comparison to the originals and didn't really deserve to be on it. But Kauan, Kauan delivered.

'Suora liila sydänkäyrä', from Kuu...
'Akva', from Sorni nai.

Spotify | Bandcamp | Metallum

 

[deepstrasz]

 

[Razosh]

Even though the Season may not have lived up to my expectations, this song exceeded anything I hoped for.

 

[deepstrasz]

 

[Razosh]

Damn Deepstrasz, you had a different favourite song 23 hours ago, how fast do you switch?

 

[Sieben]

Madrugada, fantastic and underrated band!

 

[Arowanna]

'Diggy Diggy Hole' by Lewis & Simon (a.k.a. Yogscast), covered by Wind Rose; by the Gods, this is bad. So, so bad. And I kinda love it. How a folk-esque metal band manages to make something sound "less epic" than an original though, is something I can't grasp.

 

[deepstrasz]

Damn Deepstrasz, you had a different favourite song 23 hours ago, how fast do you switch?

I'm having too many favourites at once. I wouldn't want to flood the thread.

---

 

[Razosh]

Eagerly awaiting Sabatons next album.

For those of you not aware the battle of Verdun lasted for 303 days saw over half a million casualties. And of all the horrors of the war, the rivers of blood, the piles of fallen friends, the screams of agony, by far the most horrific was the stenchs of rotting corpses in the middle of no mans land which scarred the veterns for the remainders of their lives.

Sabaton has always made an amazing job depicting the horrors of war and the monsters whom made these attrocities possible, whether that monster be Adolf Hitler or the Swedish boy-king Karl XII.

 

[deepstrasz]

 

[Arowanna]

'Day Star - Son of Dawn' by Månegarm, from Fornaldarsagor; seems like Månegarm began digging in their black metal past, despite not having a single original member left in the band. Interesting, and it's really back on track. Haven't cared for the two last sacrifices, this however, rings of the Swedish folk music that once captivated me. Part from this track, this smells of a fouler black metal past with proper production and mastering.

Spotify | Bandcamp | Metallum

 

[deepstrasz]

 

[Velmarshal]

 

[deepstrasz]

 

[Velmarshal]

 

[Arowanna]

'(Don't need) Religion' by Motörhead, covered by Månegarm; I actually like the folk-esque tunes they add to it.

Spotify | Bandcamp | Metallum

 

[Razosh]

I'm going to counter "Don't need Religion" with the most powerful god in the Norse pantheon, the one true god, Freya.

"The ninth is Folkvang
Where Freya governs
Half of the fallen
She has to pick
the other go to Odin."

The Poetic Edda

 

[deepstrasz]

 

[Arowanna]

'Natten då gud blundade (The Night When God Closed His Eyes)' by Istapp; sad to say that this is by far the most boring album from Istapp thus far. It lacks that melodic flair and dorkiness that they've held close to for the last decade. And I want them to stick to Swedish, not English, as it severely hampers the campiness of the band. But this track is interesting.

Spotify | Bandcamp | Metallum

 

[Razosh]

Alright, since we're only doing Swedish songs.

 

[Shar Dundred]

I mean, I am not American, but...

Take something very American, Swedes!

 

[Arowanna]

'Uppgivet hjärta' by Woods of Infinity; hail to the unsung heroes of satirical black metal. Shitty music, substance abuse, sexual depravity and the glorification of self-destruction. Ofdrykkja's personal forerunner.
Spotify | Metallum

'Fire of Catharsis' by Astrophobos; when they released 'Arcane Secrets' a decade ago, I thought they'd be the saviors of melodic black metal. Very few bands at the time tried to trod the path of Dissection, Dawn, Vinterland, Sacramentum or whatever. There were a few who either had remained steadfast or newcomers wanting to join in.

For example, German bands such as Thulcandra and Black Horizons lead a tiny charge, with backup from Swedish Naglfar and Serbian Bane. But today, we've a slew of bands following in their footsteps and I couldn't be happier. Not to mentioned that the album is good, like, really good.
Spotify | Bandcamp | YouTube | Metallum

 

[Ether]

 

[deepstrasz]

 

[Razosh]

It's true, Sweden and Sabaton are not synonumous, so here's a less known Swedish metal band, which by the way is great. (And to no ones surprise they are from Dalarna... like 95% of Swedish metal bands.)

 

[Velmarshal]

 

[Razosh]

Well... look what new song just got released today.

 

[deepstrasz]

 

[Shar Dundred]

 

[deepstrasz]

@Shar Dundred literally posted two posts above.

---

 

[Shar Dundred]

Maybe @Razosh has SOME taste after all then! d:

 

[deepstrasz]

 

[Razosh]

Maybe @Razosh has SOME taste after all then! d:

Did I ever give you cause to doubt me?

But since Swedish music is outlawed today, as decreed by arch-gydja Deepstrasz I will have to suggest something from another country which starts "Sw", Switzerland. (Next up is Swaziland, just to appease my senpai @WhiteFang )

 

[deepstrasz]

arch-gydja Deepstrasz

do not anger Óðinn especially with rips:

The original is an Irish folk song.

 

[Velmarshal]

 

[Razosh]

do not anger Óðinn especially with rips:

My plan is to go to Folkvang, so Oden is the least of my concerns. If I had to pick between a one-eyed old man and the woman who forced Thor into a wedding gown and married him of to a giant, I'm going to go with the later option.

And if we're going to pick Irish music there are better options:

 

[Ether]

 

[deepstrasz]

My plan is to go to Folkvang,

There's a 50-50 chance and you have to die for it too in battle.

Speaking of Irish:

 

[Razosh]

There's a 50-50 chance and you have to die for it too in battle.

That's debatable, it's true that Snorri wrote that down, whether or not that's actually what people believed is debatable. The first hand source on Norse myth, the Poetic Edda stated that some of the fallen went to Thor which contradicts Snorri and it seems to indicate that maybe people just went to whichever god they most closely alligned with. Also, accourding to Egil Skalagrimssons Saga Torgerd said she would go to dine with Freya before she attempted to end her own life, which also contradicts Snorri. It's also possible that since Snorri was a poet "warriors death" might have had a poetic meaning rather than a litteral one. In fact Snorri says quite a lot of things on the topic of death which contradicts the Poetic Edda, or is simply never mentioned in any other litterature, the death realms of Gevjon and Hel are the two big offenders here. Also, should Snorri be correct, I will be awaiting my chance to join Gevjon.

 

[deepstrasz]

That's debatable

If it hasn't been proven yet, which source is the truest, then I guess the one which came first should be considered?

Love that song. This is one of my favourites from them:

I'm more into reaching Keter, at least in my dreams.

 

[Arowanna]

'The Sacking of Vedrafjord' by Mael Mórdha, from Damned When Dead.

'Godless Commune of Sodom', from Gealtacht Mael Mórdha.
'The Gaedhilic Twillight', from Manannán.
'King of the English', from Damned When Dead.

Spotify | Bandcamp | Metallum

 

[Mechanical Man]

Something that fits this site

 

[deepstrasz]

 

[Razosh]

If it hasn't been proven yet, which source is the truest, then I guess the one which came first should be considered?

Seniority is not without its merits in a world where Christianity has been the state religion for over 200 years. But the answer is also more complex, this is a religion that preserved orally between 797 and the year 1200 and was worshipped all over the place, from Gotland to Greenland so any attempt to create a ubiquitous image of Norse myth is probably going to be a failure. Seniority is however far from the only qualifier when it comes to Snorri who tries to establish a structured afterlife which goes against many other statements, sometimes even his own. One example being his depiction of the goddess Hel, whom Snorri decides as dreary and unpleasant despite the fact that none of her actions indicate that would be true.

As to why the Poetic Edda specificly is so highly regarded is because it's mistakingly thought of as one source, but unlike the Prose Edda it isn't written by one author, or just from one lifetime. The Poetic Edda is a collection of poems that we know are from vastly different time periods and from different geographical locations. We can tell this by the language in use, some words for instance which only appear in texts from the 800's or prior are in there for instance, which shows that the monks who assembled the Poetic Edda didn't actually write it, they just neatly packed togheter a bunch of long seperate sources. This makes it so that every poem in the Poetic Edda is its own source which we know thanks to the authors transparicy of their own sources.

But I'm also opposed to the idea of "the truest (source)", when I try to form an opinion I try to look at a large variety of sources, see where they agree with one another and in the instances that they do you can assume the statements to be true. For instance, lets take my favourite diety in the Norse pantheon, Freya.

"Wrothful was Freya and violently she snorted, the entire Aesir hall beneath her quaked." - Þrymskviða, the Poetic Edda
"Njords daughter was Freya, she was the first to teach the Aesirs magic." - Ynglinga Saga (Just to give you a quote from Snorri)
"Silent you, Freya! A sorceress you are" - Lokasenna, the Poetic Edda

This gives us a fairly consistant view of Freya, as a goddess of magic, on the other hand her characterization as a goddess of fertility can be traced back only to one sentence.

"She (Freya) greatly enjoys songs of love, she is good to pray to when in romance." - Prose Edda

Based on this I'm drawing the conclussion that Freya is a goddes of (among other things) magic, but her role as a goddess of love and fertility is far more questionable.

After that I think I owe you guys two songs.

 

[deepstrasz]

Based on this I'm drawing the conclussion that Freya is a goddes of (among other things) magic, but her role as a goddess of love and fertility is far more questionable.

Well, what about the evidence that these stories are older than the 8th century and that they were not inspired by Greek and Mesopotamian mythology?

After that I think I owe you guys two songs.

Manowar has many of those, their first being Thor (The Powerhead).

Also, one of my favourite bands, Therion has a full album on Norse stuff: Secret of the Runes (album) - Wikipedia

Time for Winter! (because now it's too hot...)

 

[Razosh]

Well, what about the evidence that these stories are older than the 8th century and that they were not inspired by Greek and Mesopotamian mythology?

I'm not one hundred percent ceratin as to which information you want to acquire so I'll try to answer it all and hopefully some of my answers are what you want to hear.

If you're asking how we know that the Poetic Edda is written by different scholars over different centuries, it is because it uses language which, in translation simply doesn't make sense. Traditional Norse poetry is not based on pronounciations like Christian poetry at the time but on litteration, how the word is spelled. Just an example, in English a rhyme could go "Roses are red, violets are blue. I want to hang out and watch Netflix with you." This rhymes because "ue" and "ou" at the end of "blue" and "you" are pronounced identically. But this isn't how old Norse poetry works. One example is Þrymskviða which I quoted in my previous post, where Thor is forced into a wedding gown by Freya and married of to the giant Thrym.

"Reiðr var Þå Ving-Þårr" - Þrymskviða

The problem with this sentance is that for this to be a rhyme "Reiðr" must begin with the letter "v" just like "ving", which it will do if we use the old spelling for "Reiðr", which is "Vreiðr" other regions have, unlike Iceland kept the "v" in "Vreiðr" such as Danish and Swedish who both spell the word "vred". (Although for some reason the "d" is silent in Danish, unlike us Swedes the Danes just don't know how to enjoy a good "d").

"Vreiðr var Þå Ving-Þårr", all of the sudden we have a functioning rhyme and this is something that can only happen if you translate the old word "Vreiðr" but not the old word "Ving-Þårr", and this is just one of the locations we see old words such as "Ving-Þårr" slip through, should I try to name all of them we will be here for a while.

Now, if what you're asking what evidence I have that Snorris work, the Prose Edda is not from 1,200 years ago, I can answer that by saying that we have a very good knowledge of when Snorri lived, and even if we should say doubt that evidence we also know that Iceland was first colonized in the nine-hundreds. Snorris works are however inspired by older sources such as the Poetic Edda as he often quotes it. But even if I were to play devils advocate and assume for sake of the argument that the Prose Edda is 1,200 years old (which is one hell of a stretch but sure.) Even then his statement about Freya as a love goddess still doesn't hold up.

In the Poetic Edda, in the Vafþrúðnismál poem it is stated that Frigg had her husband, Odin imprisoned and tortured just to win a bet, this is the only reference we see of such rival behaviour, and many have pointed out that this was either a myth that came into being after Greco-Roman influence, or a nit-picked story which got taken out of proportions to create a false equivelence between Frigg and Hera (the wife of Zeus). And I don't really disagree with them because outside of Vafþrúðnismál this rivalry is never mentioned. So just because something is in the Poetic Edda doesn't make it sure fact, no source grants automatic belivability.

 

[Shar Dundred]

Jesus Christ, people, this is a place to post music not to write walls of text!
Get a room you two, or a locker, @Razosh is into that kind of stuff anyway, and let this be about sharing music again.