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290: TÝR's Battle Ballads | Album Review
20 Plays7 months ago
A strong contender for album of the year? TÝR's Battle Ballads!
Grab it here: https://tyrband.bandcamp.com/album/battle-ballads
#tyr #battleballads #metalpodcast #metal #heavymetal #progressivemetal #powermetal #folkmetal #faroesemetal
PODCAST THEM DOWN - https://linktr.ee/pctd https://patreon.com/podcastthemdown
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Transcript
Review of Tiër's Battle Ballads Album
00:00:00
Speaker
Tonight on Podcasts and Down, we are reviewing Tiers Battle Ballads. Hey, Metal Nation, it is I, Tim. This is Podcasts and Down. That's Matt and that is Mike and is the, is this the first time we're actually reviewing an album before the album comes out? I think it might be.
00:00:26
Speaker
This is unprecedented. Mike has his overbite scissors, which if you don't get it now, you will in like eight episodes.
00:00:42
Speaker
Yeah. That's moving along with your speech. It was doing the presentation. All right. Well, let's, let's try this. Let's work on this. This album comes out on Friday, April
00:01:00
Speaker
12th, I believe, or, or perhaps the 19th. Hang on. I need to sneeze. This is a good video. You should be watching the YouTube. Unless I edit this part out, which I definitely will be doing.
00:01:26
Speaker
The greatest part is that I can't, like I still have a lingering cough, so every time I laugh, I instantly regret it. So I'm only punishing myself. Yeah, you should get my cough button. Check this out, I can strobe cough. I know. Oh god, I'm killing Mike. But he does not, he didn't strobe his coughs.
00:01:53
Speaker
Okay. All right.
Pronunciation and Typing of Tiër
00:01:55
Speaker
Let's focus. Let's focus. All right. We got the album early because most of us saw tear in Baltimore, the first date of their North American tour. I too have the CD and Matt hold up your CD.
00:02:13
Speaker
All of us tried to see it for the record. Yeah, so we got physical copies before it came out and got a chance to listen to it once or twice, three or four or five times. So yeah, it's time to start the review. So as usual, I got to turn on the reviews. I remember everything I was thinking when I first listened to it. Okay, so we need to start.
00:02:42
Speaker
way. We always start with filling out the spreadsheet. So here. All right. Exactly. Yeah. I was, I was hoping we also addressed this on Monday show. Uh, it's to, uh, okay. We know how to pronounce it, but we're in America. So we're going to say tier.
00:03:03
Speaker
Because it's too hard to say all the time. But to type it, since I've had to write it so many times now, I have hopefully memorized the alt codes. So if you don't know what alt codes are, you're typing on a PC, you hold alt, and then you type in a code and let go of alt, and you get a special character. So if you're writing to our all-in-caps, it's 0221.
00:03:33
Speaker
All right. And that'll give you the capital Y with the accent. If you want the lowercase, it's 0253. So there we go. Battle balance. Yep. Filling it out as we go. All right.
What Genre is Tiër's Music?
00:03:52
Speaker
2024 format CD genre. What do you call this folk metal still? I feel like it straddles power metal a bit.
00:04:03
Speaker
Um, which I don't hate. I mean, I feel like I'll say tear in particular, I think is sort of a hard, harder band to pin down. Um, cause they've always straddled. I folk metal and progressive metal. I don't think that's changed except for the increased
00:04:28
Speaker
As I will say, they have more conventional, more frequent conventional harmonies on this album, which led to a more power medley sound. Yeah, I guess that's true. There are folk elements. I noticed that there are fewer, fewer
00:04:48
Speaker
songs in Faroese than, say, a classic tour album. But but at the same time, even in those more kind of power songs, there's still some melodic. Yeah, like it still sounds like it has that kind of folky element. Yeah, so I mean, I would, if anything, say, folk metal, prog and power.
00:05:16
Speaker
progressive power folk metal. I can live with that. I think that it, that hits all the major, the major things. All right. Then I have filled in the metal line. All right. All right.
Orchestration in the Album
00:05:40
Speaker
Good. Thank you. The first thing right off the bat. Well, let me,
00:05:46
Speaker
Let's just talk about the first song, Hammered. So this song starts with a hammer. So you know you're going to be a good song. That's the first sound on the album, is a hammer upon an anvil or something. And this was written by Harry Owenson, who co-wrote everything.
00:06:12
Speaker
at minimum, co-wrote everything. But this was also written by Hans Hammer. So he's like, I need to put the songs about me. But the first thing that struck me after the hammer, not literally, is the orchestration.
00:06:38
Speaker
And I wanted to address this upfront because what was the last thing tier put out? It was a night at the Nordic house with the symphony orchestra of the Faroe Islands live album, basically Metallica's S and M, but you know, smaller concert venue, I guess. Oh yeah. And tiny island. Clearly.
00:07:11
Speaker
You didn't like my pulled shirt. I probably didn't even hear it. By the way, that wasn't hard. Cooler. I said it was cooler. No, I just didn't get it. I get it now. Yeah. So, under the Nordic House, clearly Harry was like, I love this. I'm going to stick orchestration all over the next album. And that's what he did.
00:07:39
Speaker
And it's pretty subtle. It fills out the sound a bit. Tim and I were talking about this a bit. I think I disagree, actually. I don't love it. I don't think it really adds anything. So if you listen to Hammered,
00:08:01
Speaker
The, you know, I think it's tempting to dismiss the orchestration since the guitar work of Tierra is always so, like their guitar work is insane.
00:08:15
Speaker
And it always has been, and it still is, you know, even without Terry Skibanez or whatever. Skibanez, I think it was skiddly doo-bop. Skibiddly be-dee-be-dee-be-dle. But the orchestration to me adds a good amount of extra harmony to, I guess, be self-indulgent.
00:08:44
Speaker
It reminds me of like the beginning to Saxon Shore with the keyboard line. The keyboard line is subtle. Ah, yes, the very well-known Eisenborn. Yeah, very well-known. But the keyboard line in that harmonizes with the violin. So it's understated, but it's there. And I feel like there's a lot of that in this album where if you listen to the intro to Hammered, the orchestration is in fact doing a lot of different stuff that is
00:09:09
Speaker
not just mirroring a bass line or a guitar line, it's usually complimenting it in some way. Which is also how they orchestrated the Nordic House? Yeah, it's definitely not in your face, but it's very present. And I do think it impacts the sound. It gives it, to my mind, a much more melodic tone without
00:09:38
Speaker
I feel like tier does a lot of unusual harmonies. Like if you think about the intro to the edge, like the way the guitars are interacting with each other is not the way that, it's not like an iron maiden harmony, right? It's very different. And I feel like the orchestration gets away from that a little bit.
00:10:04
Speaker
but expands those harmonies. So I am very much for the harmonies or the orchestration on this album. I agree. There is a depth here. I mean, and it's not a typical expected like harmonic profile. Well, I'll just listen harder. Come on, man. It's not that I dislike it.
00:10:33
Speaker
It's a little bit more subtle than it could be, I guess. Is it more mainstream? It's like a mainstream version of Cheers' sound? Isn't that what they've been doing since By the Light of the Northern Star?
00:10:57
Speaker
It is, but I feel like this is like particularly like...
Is Tiër's Sound More Mainstream Now?
00:11:01
Speaker
No, I see what you're saying. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe not. Like they're listening to the creep from the record company. He's like, good job, boys. More of the same. My least two favorite tier albums are By the Light of the Northern Star and The Lay of Thrim, which I think is a somewhat controversial take. Yeah, generally that's the opposite of everyone else.
00:11:25
Speaker
I don't have that problem. I don't hate the albums. Yeah, I don't have an era of tier that I prefer over another. But I will say they got more power medley and straightforward for a while. And they seem to be going back.
00:11:46
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like not at the beginning of this album. We'll get there. We'll get there. But with Valkyria onward, I feel like we're back. Like there's they still retain, you know, by the light of the North, they're starting to lay firm. They're much more straightforward kick ass type of songs like. Mm hmm. The if you think about like Eric, the Red Dreams, that's a weird melody. Yeah, it is. Everything about that song is weird.
00:12:16
Speaker
Yeah. But I love that. Yeah. We lost that for those two. And then I feel like, yeah, it's being reclaimed a bit while still maintaining kind of a little bit more of the straightforward kickassery introduced by those two. And I feel like we're kickassery. And I feel like Battle Ballads is no different. We're still kind of where I
00:12:41
Speaker
I like it again, or I strongly like it again. Looking at the track length on Eric the Red, the edge is seven minutes and 44 seconds. Let's see, Rainbow Warrior is five minutes 28. Eric the Red is 7.42. Alive is 7.24. On Battle Ballads,
00:13:08
Speaker
There's nothing above six minutes. Yeah, it's three and a half, three, three, almost four, almost six, four, four ish, five and a half ish, three and a half ish, almost four and five and a half. Yeah, they've they've they've pulled a burning shadows. Yeah, I mean, the songs are much more like they get to the point.
00:13:35
Speaker
But they still have the wandering melodies and the wandering harmonies that I liked about earlier tier. Well, speaking of more to the point. So this album starts off with with hammered. And I just had an unwandered ways. And I feel like both of these are just like very straightforward, typical power metal structure. Yeah. You know, it's just.
00:14:00
Speaker
Here are the commercial songs, more or less. And you know, Unwandered Ways has more appeal than I thought. I like the song, but I didn't really think it was amazing. And then one of my daughters started singing it randomly after having listened to it in the car. And I was like,
00:14:18
Speaker
OK. Actually, I have the same thing with the last album, Hell. Yeah. I'll take the high road. You take the low road. And my daughter instantly was singing that. Yeah. Oh, maybe it's. Yeah. Like maybe this is this has more of an appeal than I thought. Like. Yeah. Well, I will say those two songs, even though they're straightforward and, you know,
00:14:45
Speaker
Predictable is not the right word, but it took a few listens for me to actually appreciate them. The next one is Dragons Never Die. So this one came out as a single the day the tour started. It was not the first single off the album, though I don't believe.
Song Reviews: 'Dragons Never Die' and 'Row'
00:15:07
Speaker
Yeah, I think hammered. They have like a sing along type. Oh, thing going on. But then this is the first track where I think the old tier style comes back on this album because they have like this percussive verse where
00:15:27
Speaker
I just don't you know, the guitars aren't really this. There's a few characteristics. I point to old tier and one of them. Yeah, one of them is that and another is just like playing notes instead of riffs or chords. You know, just notes. Yeah. Okay. And there's like a slight bend like the. Yeah. Like this is like bend. It's like that's not.
00:15:56
Speaker
That's not the progression you're expecting. It's like there's some weird, it's like a puffin in the way. I'm sure, I have a feeling that you have, Tim, but like, Matt, have you ever watched any of Harry's YouTube videos where he talks about music theory? Okay. So like the first one or two, he's going over it and he speaks about music theory and this is rapid fire. Like, well, obviously there's blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
00:16:25
Speaker
is like, switch to the dominant seventh, and then you get to the bottom. And it's, yeah, it's just fast. Oh, that's cool. Like, you can follow it if you already know music theory and pause it a lot. But his understanding is so fine that he can do this kind of wacky shit, and he knows that it's like, oh, that'll work. It's just like Gordon Ramsay or any of those chefs when they go to, like, cut a cucumber and then just go,
00:16:55
Speaker
and they're all paper thin. That level of skill is how he talks about music theory. Yeah, he actually posts a follow-on video where he's like, I'm really sorry, guys. I forgot that this stuff comes so natural to me. And it's like, you don't have to apologize. Don't worry about it. They're going to be on lots of videos now.
00:17:22
Speaker
Yep, well, get back to me when you can tell me what a tonic is. And no, it's not the thing you drink. No, all right, I know right now. So then we get to, oh yeah, you were talking about dragons, the bendy thing in dragons never died. The other thing I like in there, there's a satisfying tear style court progression in the bridge, but then the end,
00:17:49
Speaker
That song goes, dragons never die. And it reminds me of, no, we're not starting or ending the episode. It reminds me of this. Yeah, dragons never die. So next song on the album is Rho. This is a weird one.
00:18:12
Speaker
Yeah, this was the first song is a very weird song that we've gotten to that was co-written by the drummer. Oh, that explain. I mean, it's very percussive heavy, especially the beginning. And up and up and up and up and up and up and about. Yeah. And it it starts like it wants to be on a monomorph song. Yeah. And I don't mean that in an insulting way, although I I'm I'm done with a monomorph.
00:18:42
Speaker
You know, I'm glad it goes in a different direction. And yeah, it does. The chorus, again, is very catchy, but tier style melodies. And I feel like it's.
00:18:58
Speaker
Yeah. A lot of these are going in living in folk metal land, you know? Yeah. Cause they're talking about rowing. They're talking about dragons. They're talking about wandering. They're talking about hammers. You know, these, this is all very, uh, folk metal. There's lots of references to like heathen throughout the, just, just the word heathen. Yeah. Which they do a lot, but I feel like it's, uh,
00:19:25
Speaker
You know, it's, it's getting more, uh, like, like fairish. Yes. Thank you. That's exactly where I was trying to go. Um, and again, not, not in a bad way because there's like, they got a lot of weight behind it, you know? Yeah. And like looking at their earlier albums, a lot of it was literally adapting.
00:19:56
Speaker
like old Faroese or- Oh, we'll get there. But it was adapting old folk songs to metal. Right. And I feel like that only gets you so far before you have to start doing something else.
00:20:29
Speaker
The lyrics, if you read the lyrics, you will notice how weird the phrasing is in the chorus. And I feel like that's an old tier thing too. Like it's not that
00:20:47
Speaker
It's it's more awkward than the rest of the. It has. The meter is weird because it's like. Rowing this slowly. It's like slowly, dude, dude, it's got that little pickup note in there. And at first, I was like, am I hearing that? Like, what is that? And then I realized what he's doing. But yeah, it's it's weird.
00:21:18
Speaker
It feels weird. As far as the lyrics go, I actually know less of it. It's basically what you'd expect. OK, so then we get to the first actual ballad on Battle Ballads next, which is Torquil's Dothor, which is a traditional Faroese song.
Traditional Elements in Tiër's Music
00:21:39
Speaker
This is just acoustic instruments and vocals for like the first half.
00:21:45
Speaker
Um, I tried looking into what the story is and it might be something they've already covered because they're interesting. There is, uh, by the light of the Northern star, they had a song called Thorith, Thorkelsdottir spelled differently. Um, it might be in a different language instead of the T, you know, um,
00:22:14
Speaker
But basically she was a powerful, the subject of that song is a powerful person who lived in the Faroe Islands a thousand years ago. So I did not go so far as to type in all the lyrics into Google Translate to figure out what it's about. Right.
00:22:37
Speaker
Uh, and I'm a little rusty on my Faroese, but, uh, Harry Johnson also has Faroese grammar videos. If you want to look those up, Matt. Oh boy. Yeah. So the first time I listened through this album, this is the song that got me. I was like, fuck. Yes. Finally. You know? Um, yeah. Cause first listen for whatever reason, I was just, I, I wasn't disliking it, but I wasn't loving it until this song.
00:23:09
Speaker
I for whatever reason my first listen to this song I struggled with and I think it's because his voice is chorused or doubled for most of it which is there's nothing wrong with that but it gave the impression at first listen of it being over auto tuned and then a second listen I didn't get that feeling so I don't know what exactly I thought I heard but I know what I thought I heard
00:23:38
Speaker
It was fucking ice. It was ice. Can't stop it. That's cold. But do you know what I'm saying? Yes. He's singing at the very bottom of his register. And there is some processing to his vocals here. But his vocals, I mean, he's such an accurate vocalist. He just doesn't miss a note.
00:24:07
Speaker
So at first listen, I was like, this is weird. And then second listen, I was like, I just didn't hear it again. I know what I was thinking. But regardless, yeah, this song is fantastic. So if this song sounds familiar to you as it did to me, it's because it was on a night at the Nordic House.
00:24:30
Speaker
Oh, so they have already been, they already performed this song and it's been out, but here it is, the proper non-live studio version on this album. So the next song then is Velkomar.
00:24:50
Speaker
Oh man, how do you pronounce O slash in Danish? So this is a Danish traditional song. This is the greatest national anthem for a country that never existed.
00:25:10
Speaker
So this one, again, I did not look up. If you type in this song title into Google, it'll come up with the lyrics, because it's a traditional song. But I didn't, again, I didn't copy them. I didn't put them into Google Translate. This, this is another old tier sounding song to me.
00:25:37
Speaker
You know, which is probably because it's a traditional song that they're just doing what they used to do to these songs. So yeah, it came out that way. The only other thing I will add to this, other than the, there are great guitar leads in the bridge, but at the very end of the song, one of the guitars doesn't cut off with everything else. And I wonder if that was on purpose. Interesting.
00:26:06
Speaker
OK, so then next one hang man. This is the first time I heard pizzicato strings in the in the orchestration. Oh, OK. Oh, actually, can we back pedal speaking of the orchestration? Back to the previous song, I feel like the orchestration is a lot more present. On this song than it is on a lot of them. Oh, yeah. Well, I know
00:26:37
Speaker
And a Torkel's doctor, there's like a, um, you can definitely hear the cello. Right. Or whatever it is. The viola. It's not a viola. Who cares? Um,
00:26:56
Speaker
Was that it? Back to Hangman? Yeah. Back to Hangman. This one, the vocal delivery reminds me of Hell. So we've been all over the place now. So like he's been doing the really clean stuff. He's been doing a more modern thing. He's been doing, you know, like transcending the entire catalog of tier albums. But this one, he has that gruffness that he was using on Hell.
00:27:25
Speaker
So this song reminds me a lot of that album. I wrote, oh, I wrote Brass in Bridge. Apparently, the brass is prominent during the bridge. Yeah, I mean, I feel like... I think there's choir in the outro as well. Of the tracks, I think Hangman probably is the least...
00:27:50
Speaker
impressive to me. I think it's a good song, but I recall it much less easily than the rest. So if you had to pick a low point in this album, I guess I would pick it here, but I don't think it's a bad song.
00:28:11
Speaker
All right, and then the next one, Axes.
Themes of Battle in Songs
00:28:13
Speaker
Now, this was written by Gunnar, the bassist. Yeah, great. I love that song, too. Harry made it a point to say that he wrote this song on stage. So it starts with a re-cola at the beginning. Yeah. Yeah, it is. I thought it was more monastic. I wrote down re-cola.
00:28:37
Speaker
And then you got this like neoclassical riff that hits.
00:28:42
Speaker
And in the... Yeah, so it's very like... If you ever wondered what Rhapsody would sound like if they were Faroese, that's this. That's the beginning of the song. But the orchestration, I think, aids here because it like... So right after the first kind of repeat, the second repeat, it goes... You know, and it's got like the violins all going...
00:29:09
Speaker
Ah, beautiful. I really like this song. About the vocals. This one is also gruff, so it comes across hell-ish, just like the last song. It's very word heavy. I was like, man, that's a lot of words. But read the lyrics, because it is about slaughtering people with an axe in battle. It is awesome. I mean,
00:29:39
Speaker
What more is there to love? Low I spear low a spear and nimble hands and pales my side jokes on you. I split your skull to hell you riot. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, yeah. Great song. Three and a half minutes. And we get to battle ballad.
00:30:08
Speaker
which is not a ballad. It's very tear. This is, it is probably the most tear on the album. This song appears to be about singing battle ballads, but it's not itself a battle ballad. So are you saying it's like a metal word song? Not quite. It's more like sing me stories of battle. That's, that's the point of this one. Um, I wrote typical what just fell. What the hell?
00:30:39
Speaker
I don't know. This is a professional production here. This is typical tier. I really don't know what fell. I'm worried. I definitely heard and felt something fall. Well, we'll deal with that after the episode, then we'll record an episode about it.
00:31:13
Speaker
You might be wondering where Tim is. Well, his house came- That was the I-beam that supported the center. Yeah. That was like a screw holding together. I found one of those. Oh, that's a big reel. All right. Get ready to watch it. It is.
00:31:34
Speaker
My tape dispenser that I used to tape up every burning shadows, eyes and more, and recently make any graves package. Oh, apparently I was bouncing my knee too much. And you can have a one-on-one zoom call with this tape dispenser. Hey, there's a serrated edge on that thing. I could have been slightly hurt. That's dangerous. You plug a text-to-speech thing into chat GPT.
00:32:03
Speaker
start a Zoom call with one of our fabulous Patreon patrons. They could talk to the tape dispenser. Yeah. Set that up. Join the Patreon. All right. Yeah. Sounds great to me. All right. And then the last song is, oh man, is... Casa La Tronum, Noman Urum. Gesundheit. I've been wondering about this. I can tell you what that means.
00:32:32
Speaker
Okay. So, um, what's his name? I think his name is Dickalis. Um, okay. So it's a disulis. You sound like me.
00:32:48
Speaker
It's the Scottish monk who wrote what's probably one of the first accounts of the Faroe Islands in recorded history. So he says, it's kind of like he talks with other monks who have traveled a lot. And they used to live in the Faroe Islands. So they were hermits living in the Faroe Islands.
00:33:17
Speaker
But Causa latronum namorinum, they had to leave. So because of the thieving Normans. That's awesome. They had to leave. Yeah. Oh, that's so cool. Yeah, I'm pretty sure none of these lyrics are in English. So I've been trying to
00:33:43
Speaker
But yeah, I've been trying to figure this out because there's there's a lot of sounds that have that like Scandinavian flair like you know what I mean? But this seems almost like it should be Latin. Yeah, I thought it was. I guess it's not. Yeah, there's certain things in there that don't that don't seem right. Is was Norman a language derived from Latin? Could it be Norman?
00:34:12
Speaker
I mean, Oh, I guess it wouldn't be Norman though. Uh, if they're, I mean the Normans are, are, are they, well, they, uh, there's
00:34:25
Speaker
This is like in the ninth century. So they're still probably speaking like a Scandinavian language before they start Frenchifying. Normans are silly Billys. Because like, all right, they're Vikings, right? But then they like take over Normandy. And then for some reason, they all go down to Italy and start harassing. That's what Vikings do. They don't harass people.
00:34:54
Speaker
Yeah. So they, they show up at like the Eastern Mediterranean and like the 11th century and they're like, who the fuck are you guys? Your historical novel is going to be the Normans are silly. It's just a doctor.
00:35:15
Speaker
It's like, hi, uh, we're originally from Northern Denmark, but now for some reason you have not been a good a boys. All
Does the Album's Closing Track Feel Abrupt?
00:35:30
Speaker
right. Uh, and what's weird about that song is it just kind of goes until it stops.
00:35:35
Speaker
You know, then the album's over. Yeah. I mean, there was a bridge and all that, but it's just like, it doesn't seem like a, an album closing song. It's just, here's a song and it happens to be the last one. I do. I definitely want this album to go further. Like I want more. Yeah. Like, yeah. I, I wanted the next track that was the closer.
00:36:02
Speaker
I mean, I wanted to like, I mean, hell is jam packed full of songs. Like I almost want, I want a lot. I want several more songs. That's, that's what it is. What is the total running time of this? Give me a second. I can tell you.
00:36:25
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's not very like 40 minutes. What do you think? And the hell was 70 minutes. Yeah, I mean, there's there's room for at least like 20 more minutes. Yeah, but I'm I'm noticing a trend and that's like all the albums post pandemic have been 40 minutes. Are getting short. Oh, this is interesting. Hold on. Let me check something.
00:36:53
Speaker
This might be between 41 and two minutes. 41 36. Okay. So this is, I am now almost the shortest album. Um,
00:37:16
Speaker
By two minutes, because by the light of the northern star is 43 minutes, but everything else is an hour plus. Or nearly an hour. Interesting. Yeah. I mean, may as well be. Yeah. That being said, I mean, overall, I really enjoy this album. I think it's fantastic. I wish it were longer.
00:37:41
Speaker
But I mean, they, they put together a pretty badass series of tracks, I think. Absolutely.
Album Scoring and Presentation
00:37:48
Speaker
All right. So, uh, let's score this. We give it three different scores. We will not tell you what the total score is because you know, that's a left, that's, that's a, uh, yeah, that's an exercise for the list. You know, like we, I think all three of us have taught college classes before. So.
00:38:12
Speaker
I have taught the fewest, Mike, probably the next most, and Matt, definitely the most. Yeah, so we need to make sure you're engaged with the lecturers. Yeah. And we had mid-class assignments today. So score the music, the presentation, and then the trueness slash metalness of the album, and then you can work out the
00:38:39
Speaker
the averaging yourself. All right, score. I can't go all the way to 10. There's, you know, there's room for improvement, but I don't want to deduct too much. And maybe I should use the 2023 reviews as a barometer. Okay. I have been calibrated. I am going with a 9.5.
00:39:09
Speaker
Hmm. Wait, no, nine point. Uh, because there needs to be more songs. Nine point one. Yeah, that's true. Um, I'm going to say eight and a half as much as I love this. I love the music on this album. Um, yeah, song length and number of songs. Oh, good point. Eight point eight. Yeah.
00:39:40
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. I'm going to just sit in the middle here and give it an 8.7. Yeah, it's 8.9. I like everything that's here. I agree with Mike. I wish there was more here. There was no
00:40:00
Speaker
You know, sometimes you get like a solid presentation, but then there's like a flop track where you're like, well, I'll be skipping that. I don't think aren't realistic. I'll be skipping any track. And if you had, if you had to, I bet it would be. I think if I had to, I won't skip hangman either. It's just skip it.
00:40:24
Speaker
As a procrastinating album reviewer, I appreciated it. I thought it was 40 minutes, so I could get through it this evening. But as a fan of music, I wish it was longer. All right. Presentation. So the first of all, it's it's a jewel case.
00:40:41
Speaker
I hate hate ninja packs. I like them like you cases. It's a standardized size. I was I've been really alphabetizing my CDs. I have this one fucking it's a Ferrum album that does not fit anywhere because they made it a square. It doesn't fit on CD shelves, you assholes.
00:41:05
Speaker
On behalf of the future generations of the planet, I'm glad you got your nice plastic case. Hey, you know what? The plastic case will still be around when the future generations need to listen to some good music. You know, because everything that's streaming is going to be gone when the servers die. Right. And they can't go outside because the sky's on. Exactly. So you're welcome. I am doing a service for humanity. You're welcome.
00:41:32
Speaker
The artwork is tier the band singing around a campfire and creating a vision above them of a wolf eating the sun and Jormungandr pulling down a Viking ship. It's fucking awesome. I don't know why I'm holding it up. It's right behind me. Yeah.
00:41:58
Speaker
I didn't get it at first, but the album is, especially the title track, is about singing tales of battles. So that's what's on the front, is they are creating the visions with their music of tales of battles. The inside of the booklet just, there's a booklet, isn't that great? There's a picture of them.
00:42:24
Speaker
There's individual band shots between all the lyrics. They have more pages than band members, so there's just some various artwork in the middle. Yes, it's a pretty solid, pretty standard, straightforward booklet, and it's a shame that this standard is going away. People are getting away with less and less, and they shouldn't. Tierra gave you exactly what they should be giving you.
00:42:54
Speaker
The end. So presentation, I have very little to complain about. I don't think I complain about anything. So I will give it a nine. Yeah, I'll give it a nine.
00:43:14
Speaker
All right, since I will also give it a nine, but I will deduct one point since I was unable to attend the show and therefore don't have a physical copy of the album to have and to hold. For rich or for poor? Well, definitely poor because they charged a lot at the show for this. It was like 25 bucks. Yeah. All right. And it's one of those things where you're like, I could wait. Yeah, but this is literally supporting them.
00:43:40
Speaker
So it's probably the most direct way to support them. Yeah. Yeah. Other than other than buying the VIP package for 75 dollars, which I was also seriously considering. But as I said, I'm not terrible. I wanted to not be locked out of the house. Yeah. I was supporting the man. The crashing in the bed with us tonight.
00:44:10
Speaker
I get to be between Harry and Gunner. I was going to say it's like, who's going to spoon Harry and hate you? Kiss me. That's going to get nice and pharaoh in here.
00:44:27
Speaker
Um, and then the last category, trueness, metalness, like metals. It can't not be 10. You know, it can't not be 10. You can't see this dog, but I, sorry. No, you, oh my God, while I was thinking ahead, Doug and I reviewed the new ministry and these scores for the tier album, just like shit all over the ministry scores. It's amazing.
00:44:56
Speaker
Yeah, that's not unexpected, but it is amazing. If given a choice between the two... That'd be a difficult one. Except it wouldn't. So there you go. Average it yourself. You're welcome. Get the album. Pay as much as you can for it. Tierra needs the money. Those visas ain't cheap.
00:45:23
Speaker
Nope. They sure are orange. That's all I got. Oh, oh. And now the tool is once again doing the outro until next time, Metal Nation, keep your ballads in Faroese. I'm waiting for you to say something.
00:45:55
Speaker
I got nothing to say.