The first two tracks on Kvelertak’s Nattesferd indicate the
dynamics of the entire album. “Dendroful for Yggdrasil” is black-n-roll with
touches of Seventies Rush, while “1985” immediately calls to mind Eighties Van
Halen. The rest of the album navigates the territory around these soundscapes,
with results that are never less than metal.
Kvelertak is a Norwegian band and Nattesferd, their third
release, shows a band that has found a distinct sound. As frontman Erlend
Hjelvik screams lyrics in Norwegian about Norse mythology, ancient ones from the stars,
berserkers, witches and necromancers, no less than three guitars continually
chug and wail, while the drums pound, sometimes reaching blazing speeds. There
are no clean lead vocals, there are no ballads. The cover art, in the style of
old fantasy paperbacks, features a bearded and armed warrior hunching amid
craggy heights beside the band’s mascot, an owl.
How metal is that?
But while Kvelertak may black like Khold and roll like Vreid
ca. V, Nattesferd has more polish. The songwriting is pop-tight, with touches
everywhere alluding to past decades. Like many metal bands, Kvelertak clearly
have roots in Seventies classic rock, but the Eighties influences stand out
most, with “1985” hearkening back to Van Halen’s 1984, and “Svartmesses”
featuring guitar practically lifted from the opening of Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger.”
I would also swear there are Nineties alternative influences,
among them female backing vocals on “Nattesferd” and “Heksebrann” reminiscent
of The Pixies and Smashing Pumpkins.
But for all that, Nattesferd never sounds retro like
Wolfmother, The Sword or recent Opeth. It’s as if Kvelertak have adopted as
a musical philosophy the statement on the band's website that introduces the lyrics
for “1985”:In the future, the only way
forward will be to go back. Kvelertak’s sound has taken a leap forward into new
territory for the group, and for metal, by mining sounds from the past for
blending with the group's black-metal heritage.
I liked Nattesferd the first time I listened to it, and it
only got better upon further listens. There’s nothing wrong with doom and death
in metal, but this album, while heavy, only rises. You feel at times like the
warrior on the cover--or even better, his owl, gifted with flight--surveying the
world as it spreads beneath the blue vault of Heaven.
I arrived late to the Helloween game--as late as Straight Out of Hell, which was released in 2013. That’s 29 years after the band’s debut
album and long after the classic albums that established the band for all eternity
in power-metaldom. Last week, when Helloween released My God-Given Right, I found
its cover to be an interesting text for interpretive exploration.
At first, I wondered if the image was intended to express
anti-American sentiment. Helloween is a German band and Europe has its share of
anti-American sentiment. On the album cover, the band has chosen to show the
Statue of Liberty buried in snow up to her eyeballs against a frozen urban skyline
suggestive of Manhattan, while a figure stands atop her head inciting a horde of
minions that has triumphed in America’s downfall.
In this context, the title My God-Given Right would be an
ironical jab at America’s belief in its divine appointment to conquer and
civilize the world. This belief is explicitly stated in the doctrine of Manifest
Destiny and remains operative to this day. The album art could be saying “Like
Rome, your empire will fall. This is what will become of your hubris.”
But is that really what the cover is saying? Turning to the
song “Lost in America” for a nitty-gritty critique of America, I instead find
lyrics based on a true story about the group being drunk and high on an
airplane with faulty gauges somewhere over the United States:
That’s hardly piquant social critique, but there is more
than a “plunder the sky bar” mentality behind the image. Occasional Helloween
cover artist Martin Häusler explained his thought process to Blabbermouth:
During my research, I stumbled upon the blockbuster Day
After Tomorrow and the idea of just leaving the world to the “Pumpkins” was
born.
In this light, it is not just America but all of human
civilization that has fallen. The folly of those who pull the world’s strings has
finally brought us to apocalypse, perhaps through nuclear war or environmental
catastrophe. One song on the album, “The Swing of a Fallen World,” laments what
may become of our world if The Powers That Be do not change their ways:
The treasure we had so crazy and mad Was sold out by people who cannot be glad A handful of greed A contagious seed A handful of assholes who never recede This adverse evolution Mankind knows no solution It’s the swing of a fallen world
For all that, My God-Given Right is not a dark album. The
cover suggests a brighter world to come, for when the mighty fall, little
people rise up. In this case, the little people are the “Pumpkins”--humanoids
with jack-o'-lantern heads that represent the band and its Pumpkinhead fans.
What would a world ruled by Pumpkinheads be like? Well for
one thing, it would be crazy in true heavy-metal style: booze, loud music and
late nights. Helloween sings about this lifestyle in “Stay Crazy.” However, according to lead vocalist Andi Deris, the song “My God-Given Right” was inspired by
words his father said to encourage him in a life of music:
He said, “You’re my only son. If I see you happy, you make
me happy and it’s your God-given right to do what you want with your life, or
at least give it a try.
Freedom to do what you want. Comments made by Helloween’s
band members suggest they have faced opposition throughout their lives and
careers for being different, and this theme runs throughout their music, from
lyrics to musical style. Like most metal bands, Helloween has come under fire
anytime it does anything different, but for artists, exploring new creative
avenues is the stuff of life. A world run by Pumpkins would be one in which
people follow their bliss1 and no one lets the bastards grind you down.2
Or is that all wrong? The video for “My God-Given Right” keeps
the theme of individual freedom, but shows a lone female rebel fighting against
shock troops in pumpkin helmets--which makes the pumpkins the bad guys.
Furthermore, she eventually defeats them with grenades that briefly take on the
appearance of the Statue of Liberty’s torch--which could be construed as pro-American.
Thankfully, interpretation as well as heavy metal is more
about play3 than restrictive definitions and theories, so there is no need to
search for the correct meaning behind the cover of My God-Given Right. The
album rocks, the cover is cool, and both provide food for thought.
Footnotes: 1. Comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell's advice for fulfillment in life. 2. Drawing on lyrics from U2's "Acrobat." 3. A concept in the writings of philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer.
