King of Asgard - Fi'mbulvintr (2010)

As you probably guessed from the band’s name, today we have yet another band from Sweden that plays Viking Metal. Featuring members of Mithotyn, Falconer and a bunch of other bands, King of Asgard plays a very generic Viking Metal with countless influences from Amon Amarth, Týr, to pretty much every other Viking Metal band these days, paired with some hints of Dissection and Primordial.

As many other bands, in paper King of Asgard does sound awesome, since we used to love Mithotyn back in the day where Viking Metal was not as exploited as now. Falconer also has had good stuff over the years. But none of these musicians can save King of Asgard from falling in the pitfalls of sounding too much like somebody else.

After a very generic and uninspired intro (sounds like Týr had a day off and just cooked something up in 2 minutes), the band quickly starts things very decently with “Einharjar”. This track is probably the best one of the album, and it surely shows that everybody can create a very epic Viking atmosphere, that Karl Beckmann has good pipes, and that the overall sound of the band will be focused on epic guitar melodies and tight drumming.

“Vamods Tale”, the second song of the album quickly changes things from sounding too much like Týr, to sounding too much like Amon Amarath with less powerful guitar work. This might not be too bad for Viking Metal fans, but for somebody looking for something different, it will feel very re-hashed and will lose its appeal very fast.

Notice that we are not saying the band is bad by any means, they have pretty solid songs like “Einharjar”, “Snake Tongue”, “Heroes Brigade”, but the overall repetitive and ‘feels like this other band’ feeling through the album choked our intentions of liking King of Asgard too much. This might happen to more picky fans of the genre, but for people looking for something to bash their heads to while not listening to Amon Amarth and Týr, then it’s a very good album for them.

Overall, the musicianship and songwriting for “Fi'mbulvintr” is very solid, since the band manages to create powerful riffs, catchy melodies and captures the Viking atmosphere perfectly. But if you are looking for something less vanilla, then look somewhere else.

Release: August 17th, 2010

Country: Sweden