Manilla Road to the World - Part 13: Blood Eagle (Voyager)

Voyager is where Manilla Road take yet another very interesting turn for their music. Voyager is an entire album dedicated to vikings. This may not be your typical "viking metal" band but Mark Shelton does a fine tribute to the Norse mythology even if hundreds of other metal bands had beaten to him already. Voyager is yet another record that's full of doomy riffs and Mark Shelton even shows his roughest and lowest pitched vocals out of everything he's done, even coming close to the sound of a death metal vocalist. For an album that lasts a little over an hour, you can be sure to be on quite a journey when hearing Manilla Road's Voyager.

Blood Eagle starts with a cathedral organ which drops off the sudden dark riffing. The first section of the track could have been cut from the rest to be on its own but it adds more flavour to this very song. When the main course arrives, there is some headbanging to be done and it only steps down a bit for the chorus. The chorus even has a power metal anthem feel to it which is rather bizarre when you're throwing in fast doomy riffs with a slight hint of death metal grunts. Six minutes seem to go incredibly fast here but then again, it does accompany with the organ intro. The song takes on the vikings heading to Vineland and confronting the bishop in the name of the norse gods. They sacrifice the bishop to avenge Thor and Odin. The song may be religiously controversial but those were very tough times back then and Mark Shelton has reflected that well with this beast.

Week 23: Bathory - Baptised in Fire and Ice

The artist: Bathory was a one man band held by Quorthon. Although the history of Bathory had other band members as well, it was mostly just Quorthon who played all the music. Bathory is highly praised for being a pioneer band for not only black metal but also viking metal. To be credited for being a huge influence in two genres is quite an achievement. Quorthon recorded many great releases with Bathory such as Blood Fire Death, Hammerheart, Twilight of the Gods and Blood on Ice. His later works were a planned Nordland quadrilogy. However, Quorthon only lived long enough to finish two of those albums. He died of a heart failure on 3rd June 2004 and it only makes sense for me to pay a tribute to Quorthon this week to remember him and his contribution to heavy metal.

The album: Hammerheart was released in 1990 and is one of the groundbreaking metal releases in 1990 along with Rust in Peace and Painkiller for its major contribution to viking metal. Hammerheart continues the path to move away the black/thrash metal sound the first few Bathory albums had and also maintains the more complex structures of songs Blood Fire Death boasts. Although Hammerheart is the most recognisable Bathory album, especially with One Rode to Asa Bay having a music video on MTV, it's hard to help but think one song doesn't get as much appreciation as the other songs. After all, it's one song the all-star tribute band Twilight of the Gods didn't play for the live shows or played the least.

The song: Baptised in Fire and Ice starts off with a catchy beat which is shortly followed by Quorthon's chants with "Fire and Ice". The chants in the song give off a great atmosphere and although it's not the only song that uses choirs and chants in Hammerheart, there's something about this song that has a stronger choir feel to it that's almost as good as what you hear in One Rode to Asa Bay. This song reflects rebirth and the early life of a viking who travels across the seas far away from home, traveling across snow and crossing through fire. The said viking also remembers these days later on in his life when he was baptised.

Baptised in Fire and Ice has mid-pace riffs that are heard throughout the album but from the guitar performance, the highlight has to be the solo halfway through the song. It lasts for a minute and even goes side by side with the choir which again, gives off a great atmosphere to the song and has to be one of the best moments in Hammerheart. Overall, Baptised in Fire and Ice is rather under appreciated and deserves more credit for the chilling choirs which even goes along with the solo for the song. It's not a song to skip when listening to this album.