JORMUNDGAND

Listening to hens in distress is no fun. A hen can be distressed when facing a fox standing in the door of a poultry house, eyeing up the a la carte menu. Hens in a poultry farm should be adequate protected against predating foxes. Hens too have feelings. I just mentioning this as the opening lines of my review of the Norwegian band Helheim's debut album Jormundgang.

My concerns about hens relates to some of the vocals on this album. An album in the viking/black metal genre. These vocals is at best hilarious funny and I kind of suspect this album being a black metal parody. Though I was present in the scene when it was released and I know Helheim was serious about this album.

The very run-of-the-mill viking/black metal on this album is pretty boring. Enslaved is in the same genre, but they are many miles better than what Helheim delivers on this album. Both vocals types, both the hens in distress and the standard black metal vocals, are horrible. The songs are very standard too.

Besides of the contributions to the preservation of the world wide poultry stock, this album is pretty worthless. Hence my rating.

1 star