Album Reviews

When an album starts off with menacing sounds, a crow squawking and some chanting, you know you’re in for something a bit different…”Yggdrasil” is the second album of Warduna’s Runaljod trilogy and comes with eleven songs of Norwegian folk music and ambient.

I say folk music but there is a slight difference though between Mumford & Sons and Wardruna. For one, I never felt the need to turn on the lights while listening to Mumford & Sons. This is some dense shit though and you can almost picture a bunch of dudes chanting in a forest at night with ice and snow everywhere. Played almost entirely on the oldest instruments imaginable, Wardruna pays tribute to their roots. They also use nature sounds like the banging on trees, rocks and sounds of water and burning torches and the tracks are based on futhark, the oldest form of runic alphabet.

It might sound a little ridiculous and a bit too much ‘let’s all go and hug a tree now’ but “Yggdrasil” is actually pretty good. It has a hypnotic pull that doesn’t let you go. Probably not for everyone but check it out… you might be pleasantly surprised.