By Lauren Leuschner
The Lay of Thrym is the sixth full length album from the folk metal band Týr. The title comes from a section of some old Norse poetry. An alternate title for this album is the pretty epic “The Fetching of Thor’s Hammer”. Týr remain proud ambassadors of the Faroe Islands, a self-governing territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.
Týr has been doing very well for themselves in the past few years. In 2008 they were part of Paganfest in Europe and North America with incredible acts such as Ensiferum, Eluveitie, Turisas, Moonsorrow and Korpiklaani. They also took part in the “Black Sails Over Europe” tour in 2009 with Alestorm who were promoting the release of their album Black Sails at Midnight. In 2010 Týr went on tour with Amon Amarth and Holy Grail on Amon Amarth’s North American tour for select dates. This past January, Týr played the “70,000 Tons of Metal” cruise ship with forty other bands.
Lead singer Heri Joensen’s vocals are mixed perfectly here and the drumming comes across as a bit deeper and more aggressive than on previous releases. This album isn’t breaking any new ground, but if you’re a fan of clean-voiced heavy/melodic/viking metal (with some power metal mixed in) this album is for you. “Take Your Tyrant” will definitely stand out as a track making the audience pump their fists in the air during live sets. On this record, Týr offers fans of their slower ballad-type work such as “Evening Star” and “Konning Hans” which have great blasting double kick.
It’s clear that Ronnie James Dio was an influence for this band as they cover Rainbow’s “Stargazer” and Black Sabbath’s “I” and both are incredibly well done. Normally I’m not a fan of when bands mess with an original masterpiece, but on this record, these covers blew me away. Fans of Black Sabbath or of Dio himself, you will not be disappointed.
(Napalm)
