Grimen

Hardingrock | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 23, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Candlelight
• ASIN: B000SKMUAA
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #394,928 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Experimental Adventure 4.5 stars, November 9, 2007

By 

Corneille (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Grimen (Audio CD)

I read some good reviews and some bad reviews about this. Bad reviews, mostly it was about inconsistency or hermetism. Those reviewers find it diverting,or something. Clearly, they don't understand what's going on here. Folk Metal ? Not really. Don't expect it to be like Finntroll or whatever. The project find its roots in Knut Buen fiddling and texts. The « modern » parts added by Ihsahn and Starofash (Ihriel). But all theses tunes are genuine norwegian folk tunes (even Grieg was inspired with this folk heritage) reworked in what the trio have called Hardingrock. All the lyrics are sang in nynorsk. Knut Buen does all the recitations in the same taste he did on some of his previous recordings. Ihsahn uses his harsh vocals on some of the tunes (Faens Marsj and Fossegrimen) and a type of singing quite experimental for him I think, on Fanitullen (though it can be linked to somes clear vocals he did on his solo album). Those three songs are the only ones with a real metal taste. The others are clearly more in an rock, ambiant, classical and very folkish mood due to Buen fiddling. People not aware of the particular sound of the hardanger fiddle can be push back by it on first listen. I think it's an acquired taste. To me it's almost a mystical instrument. Owning a couple of Buen's albums, I find it very interesting to link those to this one, which I consider to be a Buen album with the collaboration of those two great musicians. I also really appreciate Heidi's voice, so etheral, her voice never ceases to improve from previous recordings to newer ones. She is also responsible for all the keys on Grimen, those are very fitting. Ihsahn, like I said previously, do some singing and all the strings, which are in very classic metal fashion and done perfectly, not to overwhelming, very fluid guitar playing and no black metal tremolos for those who may ask. The songs structure differs alot from one tune to another which I believe could get some listeners lost. But, being a Peccatum fan, I can deal with this, in fact, I love artists who break the rules and do what they want to do. It is obvious that these three LOVE music.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Death Folktronica? Forget about the label, this is simply music that needs to be heard, May 22, 2008

By 

Ty Arthur "xFiruath" - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Grimen (Audio CD)

Stretching the boundaries between genres of music to their breaking points is nothing new for Norwegian performers Ihsahn, of Emperor fame, and his wife Ihriel, who has made her own mark in the music industry with the keyboard driven act Star of Ash. Despite the presence of Ihsahn's trademark harsh growling vocals and lyrics that are mired in the antics of the Devil and other supernatural beings with dubious intentions, Grimen is easily the most accessible album either of these two highly talented artists has even been involved with, and is as likely to be discovered among the collection of a connoisseur of classical or folk music as in the CD case of a head banging metal fan flashing everyone the devil's horns. Grimen is the first release from Hardingrock, which is a collaboration between the aforementioned musicians and Knut Buen, who masterfully plays the strings of the Harding fiddle, Norway's national instrument. While most in the U.S. will have never heard of Knut prior to discovering Grimen, he is a well respected fiddler in Norway with quite a large following there.

From open to finish Grimen drizzles down an unceasing flow of aural experience at once refreshingly new and yet oddly familiar. Arcane and cryptic keyboard pieces layer themselves atop the eerily haunting sound of the Harding fiddle which fuse with heavy, but never overly technical, guitar. Ihsahn keeps his standard growl when appropriate to the music, but he also moves into new vocal territory here, utilizing a strong and clear clean singing not ever heard in his solo album or from his experimental band Peccatum. Ihriel continues her trend of moving even further from the shrieks and screams of her past work into an exquisite singing which is the auditory equivalent of a gossamer spider web, both spectral and insubstantial but still beautiful and strong. When not working magic with his fiddle, Knut provides simple and unassuming spoken word parts which construct a counterbalance to the more extreme sounds and keep the album grounded in its folk roots. All of the vocals are entirely in Nynorsk, a dialect of Norwegian, and while the album insert contains English descriptions of a few of the songs, there are no direct English translations of the lyrics. Keeping the exact meanings of the words just out of reach serves to deepen the enigma of Grimen and creates a need to delve deeper into the music to puzzle out its intended significance.

Electronica backed black metal might at first glance seem an odd choice to blend with fiddle driven folk music, but the often melancholy sounds of Grimen show that the distances between styles of music are only as far as the listener's preconceptions make them. Whether mired in the mysterious and transcendental meanderings of "Daudingen", drowning in the increasingly oppressive atmosphere of "Fanitullen", or drifting in the rapturous sea of Knut's deceptively soothing voice in title track "Grimen", Hardingrock reveals that all forms of music have commonalities that can be successfully built upon to create new and innovative sounds, and as long as the music can invoke a deep feeling in its audience, then its label is entirely irrelevant.

The sensation of hearing Hardingrock is like falling through a field of dying stars, each crying blood red shouts and moaning pitch black sighs. The sky below is nothing but pulsating white strings, each vibration yearning to teach a lesson of the deep folklore ridden past. Sometime during this enduring fall the rotting stars gave way to fiddle playing imps, their faces downcast in sorrow because their sounds cannot be heard. Now turn off Grimen and return to reality.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars emperor singer, September 9, 2011

By 

Dale G. Koch - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Grimen (Audio CD)

yup the singer from emperor is in here and they use rare folk instruments in here, this a good folk rock album it really stands out from other bands out there in the same genre