Catalan metallers Icestorm are here, and they’ve got tales of glory to regale you with…
Clad in one of the best sleeves I’ve seen in a long time, The Northern Crusades tells of the Teutonic Knights, the Baltic Crusades and their final military denouement at the hands of Alexander Nevsky, Prince of Novgorod. It’s a thrilling ride through history, encompassing elements of death metal, folk and devotional music, and it’s riotously enjoyable if historically-informed metal is your thing – and it certainly is mine!
Taking Amon Amarth as their obvious cue, Icestorm don’t veer from the melodic death template too much in terms of song structure; more, they embellish each song as necessary with flavours designed to evoke whatever the particular song requires. This works best on the album’s rousing and anthemic standout track, The Iron Fist On The Lance Shaft (The Teutonic Knights March To War) which incorporates Russian Folk nuances superbly to create a fabulous atmosphere. Amon Amarth meets Accept? I’ll have some of that!
And talking of great mashups, how about The Teutonic Charge (Bishop Hermann of Dorpat Leading The Charge), which sounds like nothing less than a titanic battle for the ages between Saxon and Powerwolf? It’s pomp metal in excelsis, and no mistake!
Instrumental interludes and Sabaton-style narrations break up the onslaught of axe work a little, but for the most part this is prime, heads down melodeath; Jaume Roca and Thomas Meier keep things relatively simple on the guitar front, resisting the temptation to overcomplicate and it’s a policy that works well on thumping bangers like The Power To Fight (Peipus Lake April 5th 1242), where the band rely on the sheer power of vocalist Marc Storm and what sounds like a legion of warriors on backing vocals to get the point across!
The mid section of the album is really very strong indeed, with Clash of The Titans (The Battle Begins) adding orchestral flourishes to the mix to heighten the excitement; Icestorm keep a tight grip on proceedings throughout, never letting the narrative overpower the music (and, indeed, vice versa), keeping things moving at a dizzying pace. That doesn’t mean they oversimplify the tale being told however, making this one of the most accessible and successful concept albums I’ve come across in a while.
A great album overall, then, The Northern Crusades is good enough to enjoy simply on it’s merits as a strong melodic death metal album – but even better if you strap on some armour and go into battle with the band as well! Stirring stuff indeed!
The Northern Crusades releases on February 24th.
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