Track Listing

1. Gamen/Vulture
2. Euchari
3. Halling Jaron
4. Vedergälliningen/Vengeance
5. Nio År/Nine Years
6. Sorgsen Ton/Stomped Bread
7. Herr Holkin
8. Bläck/Ink
9. Polska
10. Brun/The Robber

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #145347 in Music
• Released on: 1999-04-06
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Enhanced, Import
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

From Amazon.com
It begins with an eerie backwards fiddle, then the beats kick in, banging for dear life, and the cool, authoritative voice of Emma Härdelin floats over the top. It's the third Garmarna album, fulfilling every promise they'd made on their first two records. The ancient and modern achieve an almost perfect balance here, the original material sounding as if it should be centuries old. Blood, guts, violence, love, they're all here, every aspect of the human condition. While the band conjures up musical magic, it's Härdelin who emerges as the sorceress, the true star, with a voice that just seems to bewitch. Put it all together, and you have something that's more than the sum of its impressive parts. This is the record you always knew Garmarna could make. --Chris Nickson

Customer Reviews

Brilliant third album. The best yet.
If you're a fan of either Swedish/Finish/Danish music. Or a fan of good Rock music, then this is a brilliant album. Garmarna are basically a heavy Metal/Rock band. But they never loose sight of their traditional Swedish roots. The music is therefore a brilliant mix of bouncy rock, and tradition scandinavian rhythms and language. The lyrics of Emma Härdelin are truely haunting. Their best album yet. Don't miss the quicktime movie of their first track Gamen (Vulture) on the CD absolutely wonderfull.

Dark and epic.
I was hooked on Garmarna upon purchasing the excellent Vittrad at the time of its release, based upon a review in Folk Roots magazine. When their second album Guds Speleman came out I was initially disappointed at not hearing an album that matched my expectations, it was bold and confident and a few shades darker than Vittrad, and the reviews were positive, but I think that Garmarna were evolving in different directions from those I was heading, so whilst that first encounter was powerful and spot on, subsequent releases couldn't replicate the initial impact of the first album, and anyway, it was unrealistic to expect lightning to strike twice. Leaving expectations aside, I found Vedergallningen to be a magnificent album, particularly the opening three tracks, which have remained the highlights since my first play of the album back in 1999. I was listening to a fair bit of music by the likes of Radiohead and Bjork at this time, and Garmarna's third album was, I felt, marrying a similar aesthetic to the deep ancient musical core of their heritage, and the results were stunning.

Another reviewer here describes Garmarna as a metal band, a thought that had never occured to me and I think it an inappropriate description. The label metal comes with all sorts of baggage for one thing, but Garmarna are something else altogether, closer in spirit to folk and alternative (two more hopelessly broad-ranging labels replete with baggage, I'll admit). They have also been decribed as folk-rock, though in their case the term seems too outdated, though some classic folk-rock bands are certainly a source of inspiration for them. They are influenced by a broad spectrum of musical styles and Garmarna bring many elements to their sound, modern touches such as electronica and trip-hop fuse with folk melodies and ancient poetry to create a neo-medieval menagerie of songs ranging from menacing to brooding to transcendent (Euchari includes elements of Hildegard Von Bingen's devotional chant alongside modern Swedish lyrics, creating the moment of greatest brightness on an album full of shadows) and the end result is a sophisticated sound that swirls like a maelstrom, that is contemporary but draws deeply from the ancient traditions.

For a few years Scandinavian folk and roots music, in its varied forms, was central to my musical tastes, and Garmarna were my favourite of the artists I was listening to. Fans of Gjallarhorn, Hedningarna and Mari Boine should consider checking these guys out. Vedergallningen would be a good place to start, though I'd probably recommend trying out Vittrad first.

Wonderful spooky pagan sounds
I don't speak Swedish, but it doesn't stop the beautiful, expressive vocals conjuring up powerful imagery for me. Amazing fiddles and hauting violins swirl over the backdrop of strong dark beats. It's really haunting, but also really uplifting. It makes me think of pagan dancers around a wild fire! The album is varied and intriguing.