Sweden's vikings of Grimner are a rare combination of Folk and Metal. With their Swedish vocals and the fact that they dress the part, they are a unique mixture of Norse mythology, while dressing in the style of their ancestors. Formed in 2008, this six piece have some instruments involved that most of us do not hear in the Metal genre that often. Flute and keyboard don't always have a role in this style of music. It all comes together for a different concept, but it seems to have had a well reception since it has lead us up to this point over 15 years later. They are still moving forward and going strong, doing it their way. Since I only speak English, I will do my best in trying to understand the message. Hopefully the music will speak for itself so that we can all enjoy it.

We start of with a pleasant beginning. It almost sounds like we are in a fairy tale. That soon changes as they get in to the grind and it sounds more like the Vikings are headed off to battle. The flute quickly makes its debut and sounds very appropriate as it guides us through the middle part of the debut song, "Hamtad av Valkyrior". The whole vibe has a Rammstein feel to it, would be the best way to describe it, or maybe it's the Swedish vocals sounding German to my English ear. I'm not sure, but we are about to find out what is up exactly, so far so good.

The double bass of the drums quickly raise their head. I have no idea what he is saying, lol, but it sounds cool. It has a nice frantic rhythm and growl which we can all understand and enjoy. Like the infamous cowbell, we get more flute. It obviously has an important role in the band and compliments each song very well so far. We are only three songs in with "Vasterlad", but I can already tell that this album is going to come together nicely as a whole. It has a BIG feel and I can hear this band playing in the largest of venues. A smaller club would not do it justice with everything that they have going on. They definitely need some room for their costumes, theme and sound for it to be fully appreciated.

The guitar is killing it, the drums, bass, keyboards, even the flute are all rocking. Like I said, I have no idea what the message is, but the music is universal and it is all speaking to me. There are even some acoustic parts, right before the screams of course, lol. Then in the next song, "Helvandrarna", they get back to being almost as heavy as they can be. It may be my favorite so far, so that's always good when it is getting better as we go. There are eleven total tracks and sometimes that can be too many in this style of music, it gets redundant, but not in this case. I am pleasantly surprised that each song can stand alone and the album totally gets better all of the way until the end. We finally get the one and only ballad to wrap it up, a nice homage to their folk roots I suspect. I can't really say anything bad about this album. They are all fine musicians and masters of their craft. This one is definitely worth a listen and I think that you should check it out. Sweden's finest Folk Metal.