Heidevolk – Batavi (2012)

After reviewing what felt like thousands of uninspired Viking/Folk Metal releases in 2011, we now find ourselves wondering where these kinds of albums are in 2012. After the disappointing latest release of Eluveitie, it is Heidevolk’s turn on the hot seat. “Batavi” marks the band’s fourth full-length release and it shows great maturity from the band in terms of songwriting, but not too much in terms of diversity.

Using almost no ‘fancy’ Folk instruments, the band relies on powerful and catchy guitar riffs to carve their own sound. While we would have immediately discarded this album if we heard a fucking hurdy gurdy, but Heidevolk delivers a very well-targeted riffing assault that will appeal to fans of bands like Tyr, Falkenbach and Moonsorrow. For over 39 minutes, “Batavi” delivers very traditional and ‘simple’ songs that are pretty solid due to their catchiness.

The epic Viking vibe is present since the opener “Een Nieuw Beign”, and the dense riffing is outstanding in creating the perfect atmosphere for this kind of releases. The clean vocals are also very deep and intriguing, taking the listener to the battle field in an instant. The only problem is that as the album progresses, the same atmosphere gets a bit dull and extremely repetitive.

Track like “Wapenbroeders”, “Het Verbond Met Rome” and “De Toekomst Lonkt” are almost the same and with a few changes on the riffs and drum patterns, they still don’t sound very different from each other. Things start to get interesting with the melodic passages of “In Het Woud Gezworen”, but the same formula comes back. The 100% folk “Veleda” is a much needed breather from the previous songs, and helps a bit to recuperate for a while before the next songs of more of the same.

Closing the album with “Einde Der Zege” and “Vrijgevochten”, the band delivers powerful tracks that are very melodic and have a heavy epic vibe, but by this point in time we were numbed by the very repetitive atmospheric aspect of things.

We think that “Batavi” is by no means a bad release, the band shows more maturity than before and their ‘simple’ sound is powerful and effective. But since we are very picky, we do think that this is a bit repetitive and gets dull after a while, but bigger fans of the genre might differ or even actually enjoy this. If you are a fan of Falkenbach and Moonsorrow, you should definitely get this album since it will have you headbanging in no time, however, you should stay away if you like more diverse stuff since this will bore you a bit.

Release: March 2nd, 2012 (Europe) / March 6th, 2012 (USA)

Country: Netherlands