The album already kicks off with a masterpiece as the title track starts with a beautiful acoustic intro before unleashing its full force. In addition to its catchiness, the song also has absolutely on point lyrics.

Vocalist Viktor Gullichsen in his own words:

“I started writing this song during the onset of the pandemic, just after we had had our best overall year, ever. As a finisher, we toured with one of our biggest idols Children of Bodom in December 2019 – a career highlight and immensely inspiring… creative momentum was at an all-time high.

A couple of months later the pandemic hit – the stress and disappointment of cancellations, end of face-to-face engagement, studio sessions etc. eventually left me frozen in a loop of frustration. It sucked, but it was an important reminder of how essential this band is in my life and how much it defines me. It’s a vessel for expression, a vessel for adventure/travel and by combining those two it becomes a vessel for validation as an artist.

‘Voices in the sky’ refers to the songs and voices of our all-time favourite metal bands and the lyrics tell of our desire to once again join them on tour – so that our joint voices may echo across the sphere of heavy metal.”

Next up is my one of my favourites, ‘Rift Between Us‘, which I could perfectly imagine as a film score for some action adventure movie, Tomb Raider, for example. It’s a massive and powerful track that for me doesn’t lack in any aspect and even though it’s almost 6 minutes long, it’s always over too fast.

‘Landfall‘ shows the technical brilliance of the unit by showcasing a lot in just one song. There is so much going on here, it’s a little overwhelming. In some parts it feels influenced by bands like Children of Bodom, while in other it feels more like the songs from Brymir‘s first album ‘Breathe Fire to the Sun’ and then again the next moment it starts showing folk metal traits. I really don’t know how one can pack this much stuff in one song and still make it work, but they did.

‘Borderland‘, which is underlined by the poem ‘My Testament’ by the renowned, Ukrainian poet Taras Schevchenko, is a heartfelt piece with intense lyrics. You can very much hear that the current situation in the Ukraine hasn’t left their souls untouched either.

‘Far from Home‘ is a folk metal-reinforced track that somehow also gives me slight Sabaton vibes. The additional vocals of Brymir’s live session guitarist Antti Nieminen add further to the quality of the song.

My other favourite of the album ‘Seeds of Downfall’ is one of the gloomier and more aggressive songs on the record. It’s an instant classic in my opinion. Even already after the first listen this songs feels extremely familiar in all the best ways.

The final track of the album ‘All as One‘ begins with a slow and delicate acoustic intro before showing us its full epicness. I think it’s a very fitting last track, as it repeats all the defining elements of the album once again and forges them into one massive epos.

As a bonus there’s Brymirs cover version of Dark Funeral’s ‘Diabolis Interium’ which certainly hits just as hard as the original.

Waved like a unifying red thread throughout the whole album are the constant changes between fast and slow, soft and hard and ups and downs. Just like those last few years have been, at least probably for most of us. Both the recording and the mixing have been done nicely and the album is very, very much exceeding my expectations. Brymir is definetely on the right track to climb to the top of the metal Olympus and join them in the sky.

BRYMIR is:
Viktor Gullichsen – vocals
Joona Björkroth – guitars, backing vocals
Sean Haslam – guitars
Jarkko Niemi – bass, backing vocals
Patrik Fält – drums

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