Finland’s Bronze Hall is a project I’ve quickly become a big fan of since last year’s Honor & Steel dropped seemingly out of nowhere. The particular strain of epic black metal conjured by lone member Yöpyöveli–someone who is quickly building a respectable catalogue of material by way of Forgotten Vale and Houre, a project with Magus Olaus of the delightfully medieval meloblack outfit Kaikkivaltias–pulls from the playbooks of Bathory and Falkenbach without an ounce of shame or remorse, and the project is all the better for it. Honor & Steel was an excellent first step for Bronze Hall, and last month, they released a new offering, Embers of the Dawn.
Embers is similar to Honor in several ways, but this isn’t a bad thing; Bronze Hall’s style doesn’t necessarily leave you hoping for stylistic evolution or significant musical progression. It’s the optimal soundtrack for engaging in “Hell yeah, brother” activities. As was the case with Honor, Embers brings another six tracks clocking in at a slightly longer 42 minutes of Quorthon worship; Quorship, if you will.
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Where Embers shines is its opening song and second half. “Embers of Remembrance” is a great kickoff track with a slow acoustic build that doesn’t go too long before reminding you that you’ve entered the Bronze fucking Hall. The leads are memorable and creative, the vocals are pissed, and the riffs are mean–the whole track proves that Yöpyöveli’s Bach, Bath, & Beyond approach to songwriting comes naturally to him. Still, starting your record with a nine-minute track can be dicey, but it’s executed quite well here. Also, I hope you’re a fan of Bathory’s Hammerheart, because Embers of the Dawn is essentially a love letter to that record.
The following tracks, “Call of Steel” and “Night’s Black Wings,” are great in their own right, but they are unfortunately overshadowed by the songs surrounding them. To be clear, they aren’t bad whatsoever; they just don’t hit the same massive high as “Embers of Remembrance” or Embers of the Dawn’s second half. Still, there’s plenty to love about them. The viking horn intro to “Call of Steel” that transitions to the first full band section with a huge sword unsheathing is fucking badass, and the main riff that comes back several times throughout is an earworm. Something that happens with “Call of Steel” as well as “Night’s Black Wings” is that the riffs in the middle of the songs don’t grab me as much, but I’m still having a good time. Still, the solo at around 5:10 and the closing riff at around 6:00 immediately draw my attention again, with the latter being a contender for one of my favorite riffs across the whole record.
That being said, the main riff in “Ravaging Flames” is one of the best on the entire album and signals that Embers is going to pull out all the stops from this point forward. The Bathory influence shines especially bright on this track, but the key here is that Yöpyöveli never lets that cloud his greater vision. Sure, this track may take a couple cues from “A Fine Day to Die,” but it maintains its own identity and purpose. The tempo and pacing song delivers something more brooding and sinister than you would expect from Quorthon, and even though the way the melodies and vocal phrasing are presented certainly harken back to Blood Fire Death, it feels more like an honorable nod to those who paved the way while treading one’s own path, rather than an attempt to pantomime the past with a new coat of paint. This sentiment echoes throughout the rest of Embers.
“In Northern Twilight” is an absolute heater that uses the Falkenbach and viking-era Bathory playbook convincingly. The synths, the harmonized guitars, the leads, and the pacing, trading speed for heaviness, had me wishing I could raise a tankard of ale and yell “SKÅL” to the souls in Valhalla. The acoustic break leading into the solo on this one is perfectly done too and, along with the bombastic synth melody that culminates the song, is another example of Yöpyöveli going for broke.
“Galloping in the Sunlight’s Embrace” is the longest and final track on the record, which is a bold choice, but it’s clearly done with well-founded confidence. The first minute is a dungeon synth intro that’s reminiscent of Gothmog’s Medieval Journeys. Then it retains the slower and moodier pacing of “In Northern Twilight” when the full band kicks in, but uses that reduced energy expertly with lilting harmonized riffs and a drum break with double bass and tom work. The following ice-cold riff adorned with synths eventually drops out with the rest of the band to leave the synth playing alone in pure triumphant splendor, only for a beautiful guitar lead to resurface and slowly build up with more layers before the song hits its apex, eliciting visions of standing on a mountaintop with your sword held high in victory, A final guitar solo enters before the fury ends and an Agalloch-flavored stack of acoustic guitars plays us out. I need a cigarette after that, good lord.
Embers of the Dawn’s obvious influence is impossible to overstate, but they’re integrated in a way that so few bands manage to execute well. There are certain songwriting cues and melodic ideas that are clearly inspired by Quorthon’s playbook, but those elements are also infused with cues from Macabre Omen, Falkenbach, and Moonsorrow. These influences inform Bronze Hall and result in a reinvigoration of a style that, while tried and true, has needed a band to carry the torch of the genre forward. Embers of the Dawn is comparable to its predecessor Honor & Steel, but it improves upon what was already a winning formula, and Bronze Hall is proof that the future of viking metal shines as brightly as the sword it wields.
–Eric Wing
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Embers of the Dawn is available now.