The Swedish Vikings of Grimner bring a unique mixture of folk and metal, incorporating catchy melodies, folk instruments and heavy riffs into their own, yet aggressive style of metal. With their dynamic and captivating music, lyrics sung in Swedish and looking like they have recently arrived from a fantasy world, they have taken enthusiasts of both metal and folk music by storm. Grimner’s lyrics revolve around Norse mythology and folklore, historical adventures of Vikings and life in the same era. With some songs dark and brooding; others fast, jovial and folkish, Grimner’s music is as awesome as entertaining.
In 2008, Grimner was conceived in the Swedish town Motala by lead guitarist and vocalist Ted together with the drummer Henry. Throughout the years, Grimner has grown to a strong group of six housecarls. The first demo A Call For Battle was sung explicitly in English but was soon to be replaced by their native tongue Swedish. As time progressed and new records being released: EP Färd, acoustic EP De Kom Från Norr and full-length Blodshymner. Grimner has steadily made a name for themselves. One example is being tour support for the legendary Korpiklaani during their shows in Sweden in 2015.
In 2016 Grimner released their praised album Frost Mot Eld through Despotz Records, an album that brought a totally new sound to the music community. The album received outstanding reviews world-wide, with songs that to this date have reached millions of streams. With the album and their fantastic overall concept, Grimner has been invited to perform at festival stages around Europe.
Grimner said:
Vanadrottning translates to “Queen of the Vanir”, referring to the goddess Gullveig from the Norse mythology. She is known mostly from the tale of the war between the Aesir and the Vanir, when she was captured and burned alive by Oden and his hird. Each time they burned her she would be born anew, dying three times and resurrected three times, each time in immense agony. This album has been an absolute joy to create, but like the goddess Gullveig, we have also endured a great deal of pain for it. We hope you will love the album as much as we ourselves do!
The album is very reminiscent of Ensiferum, but heavily mixed with Finntroll. At some points during songs such as En Vilja Av Järn and Fafnersbane, I genuinely thought Spotify had put Finntroll in between as suggested track. I really enjoyed the way the album held the upbeat melodies that match Ensiferum, but the deep growling vocals such as Finntroll. To me, this album is the perfect mix of folk happiness but still capturing heavy vocals. The artwork of the album is absolutely stunning with the mix of the more grey colour overall, but the oranges of the fire still make it a lively, vibrant cover.
Release date: February 9, 2018
Label: Despotz Records
Tracklist:
1. Vanadrottning
2. Avundas hennes ungdom
3. En fallen jätte
4. Kvällningssång
5. En vilja av järn
6. Fafnersbane
7. Vårt blod, våra liv
8. Dödens dans
9. Ägers salar
10. Sången om grimner
11. Freja vakar
