Search - Turisas :: The Varangian Way

Holy Krap! These Finns are Knuts! The Pinakkle of Battle Met

LawrenceSvetlana | USA | 05/27/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Fist, the only way you want to experience this is with the cd/dvd edition, because you want to get the absolute Finnish fire treatment. I listened to the cd and was quite impressed, but the dvd brought the whole experience to life. This is the best concept album I've heard in a long time and it may be the best metal studio/live combo I've seen yet. I'll review the cd first and then the dvd. WARNING: THIS IS A LONG REVIEW. IF YOU DON'T LIKE LONG, MINUTELY THOROUGH REVIEWS, PASS ON, PLEASE. I JUST THINK THESE GUYS DESERVE THAT KIND OF SERIOUS ATTENTION.



I have to say something of the packaging right off, though. John Coulthart has illustrated a lot of things (perhaps, most famously, several works of Alan Moore's, you know the Watchmen scribe), and he illustrates each song just like a book is illustrated (so that when you get to "A Portage to the Unknown," for instance, the picture tells just how the men got these vessels through such impossible straits). The whole packaging is magnificently done. Okay, onto the songs:



The first song, "To Holmgard and Beyond," has become an opening staple for the band; the music brandishes off into an inspiring, hopeful, operatic song about setting off from the lands of the Varangians and Scandinavians to Kievan Rus and all the way to the glorious Greeks and Byzantium. (Sorry; some history lesson seemed apropos.) This song has everything from double bass to keyboard (without camp) to fine guitar work to violin and - is that a flute? - inspiring singing. A fantastic opening tune.



The second song, "A Portage to the Unknown," sets this scene: Hakon the Bastard and his crew having been sailing high seas (well, okay, very wide rivers) and then hit the Lovat River. To get past it to the Dnieper River, the crew has to portage the vessel. Wow. No wonder Mathias Nygard goes from the heavenly vocals of the first song to enraged Goth growls in parts of this one. For all that, this tune hits a near pirate sing-song with accordion accompaniment. But its brought back to a serious set of suspenseful notes and ends in melancholy strings. Weirdly, it's also an inspiring tune.



By far, my favorite is "Cursed Be Iron," Nygard's interpretation of the "The Origin of Iron" section of the Finnish epic, The Kalevala. (Man, what happened to the days when metal was only about sex, drugs, and p**sing off preachers?!) It starts with sounds of a hammer on anvil and Mathias expertly going from growling curses about the pain iron has caused and then switching to very philosophical questions about just what elements and sports of nature could have caused such metal to be formed in the swamplands of a green planet. The musicianship is remarkable. These guys go through time changes and tone changes that rival Maiden in this song. Awesome.



"Fields of Gold" is a celebratory, highly danceable tune: think all those Irish jigs illiterate drunks - like me - do thinking they're being multiculturally cool and then ratchet it up thirty notches. Good stuff. And I'm not just saying that. You'll think I'm being a blabbering fan boy until you actually hear all these songs yourself.



"In the Court of Jarisleif" finds the adventurers in Rus and has Olli Vanska and Lisko riffing on electric violins and accordions in ways that make lead guitar players blush. This, to me, is the most unique aspect of this band. They've taken instruments that are so not-metal and made a mockery of anyone who doesn't believe it could be done in a metal band. And the entire band merges right into rock rhythms that, in this case, are all about celebrating achievement. This is full of beer drinking chants, tambourines, clapping, and then you get to hear Mathias playing a buzzed Jarisleif, exhorting his charges to drink, drink, dance, and live, live, live.



"Five Hundred and One" changes the direction of the album entirely. It starts off with haunting piano work and explodes into Hakon's insomniac questioning of everything he's believed in up to this point in his life. I can't describe the music as anything other than amazing. It's a song I think these guys will be remembered by and/or a fan favorite.



"The Dnieper Rapids" is a keyboard led tune that, believe or not, has a river's flow to it; it starts of fast and high on the octave scale and then slows down into a wild rush of Goth growls and screams and then hit's a heavenly chorus (the calm before the descent) back into the Goth pell-mell staccato guitar chords and then it swirls around awhile again in an eddy of heavenly voices and ends in a cinematic calm.



The "Miklagard Overture" is a recap and reassessment of all that Turisas (musically) and the character of Hakon (thematically) have created on this journey. It starts with acoustic guitars as Hakon nostalgically assesses his goal of Holmgard-or-Hell (or, as we might say, Holmgard or Bust), how much he lost by leaving home, how much he gained by the journey, how he and his men are "breathing history / veiled in mystery / the sublime / the greatest of our time / Tsargrad!" It's a nice touch that Hakon talks of "an empty chest," and you're not quite sure whether he's talking about the lack of gold in his coffers or his own heart. Very nice stuff, there. Muscially, this song is a very maturely composed rendition of everything Turisas has done on the entire cd; everything is redone without being copied and you get some weird 70s disco sounding guitar work that actually, well, works. (Experience it for yourself before you call me a weirdo for thinking so!) This stuff is operatic and awesome.



On the Limited Paganfest Tour Edition, you also get the genre-creating song "Battle Metal" and their very popular cover of Boney M.'s "Rasputin." I have to say something about this one. Turisas takes funky 70s pure disco-jive sexiness - from Germany at that! - and turns it into a hardcore metal tune. Amazing. Another testament to their genius. (And if you haven't seen Boney M. on you tube yet, go right now and look it up. Afro-raising hilarity!)



The dvd gives you six live videos ranging from small venues to huge, open-air stages; the video of "Rasputin," and a Karaoke version of "To Holmgard and Beyond" as well as wallpapers for your PC, laptop, whatever. The dvd is unbelievable. These guys are putting on a show that is unforgettable; they have people in the crowd wearing Finnish warrior paint, toting faux-axes and swords and Viking helmets and all kinds of outlandishness. Personally, I haven't seen as memorable a stage show since KISS first broke open the music-theatre-comic-book-hero musical mythos. Mathias Nygard literally acts on stage, even going so far as to enact a drunken warrior's moment of self-pity so well that I was honestly reeling with laughter myself. Tude Lehtonen simply tears up the drums. Jussi (guitars) and Hannes (bass) work in tandem. Lisko (accordion) is a crazed looking little fright with his blackened eyes and whole-set maniacal sneers and grimaces. My favorite, though, was little guy Olli Vanska, who puts on a mini-electrical lightning show with his violin and then has the crowd screaming "Eff the Guitar Solo! Eff the Guitar Solo!" and then, full of manly pride, invites the women backstage Wacken so he can further proselytize as many as possible concerning his god-given "mission"! Wonderful stuff. A ton of fun.



If you miss this, you've missed one of the best current metal cds, dvds, and shows this side of the year 2000.

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Turisas!

C. Manzella | 07/06/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Varangian Way is a great record for all that love viking metal with a twist of folk. It's just a great record from a band who is still very young and who I believe has a bright future in front of them!"