Vansind – ‘Mørket’ (2023)
Rating: 8/10
Release: 17 November 2023
Label: Mighty Music
Vansind is a six-member Danish folk metal band and Mørket (“The Darkness”) is their first full-length album. My preview is really what I like what to hear. I was familiar with them from their 2021 modest hit “Den Farefulde Færd”, which is amazing. You should look it up, and, if you like that, there’s this whole album on the horizon! At the time of writing, the track Grib Til Våben has a music video up.
Vansind’s sound is harsh, Danish death-metal vocals paired with clean female vocals backed by a standard metal band augmented with bagpipes and a tin whistle. It all sounds really good, so my only critique is that the writing is a bit flat. J. Asgaard’s harsh vocals don’t get a lot of melody, and Line Burglin’s clean vocals aren’t varied enough between songs, so it’s easy to get the songs mixed up. Take this with a grain of salt, though, it certainly doesn’t help that I don’t speak Danish.
With that bit of criticism aside, the album is epic. It has a spoken-word intro with some campfire-feeling background music. The first song Grib Til Våben (“Take up Arms”) introduces the listener to the driving sounds and what to expect for the album. Blodmosen (“The Blood Bog”) really shines on Line’s vocals and some nice layering with a folky intro and outro. The real gem, though, is Før Dagen Gryr (“Before Daybreak”). It’s longer at almost eight minutes, but really shows off all of the band’s goods in a single track. If you’re looking for a taste of the album, look no further. Hands down the best
In short, Vansind is great: a big band with an even bigger, rollicking sound. The dual vocalists are a great sonic juxtaposition, and while it’s certainly not a trick unique to this band, it’s executed very well. It’s not flawless, in my opinion, but it is really damn good.
Tracklist
- Den Store Ask
- Grib Til Våben
- Blodmosen
- Før Dagen Gryr
- Den Første Fejde
- Blót
- Rejsen Mod Nord
- Frigg