Incursed is a Pagan/Folk metal band from Spain and Fimbulwinter is their 3rd release after 2010's LP Morituri and 2009's EP Time to unsheathe our rusty swords. Looking at the album's cover, with the mountainous landscape and runes, and at the songs' titles, no one would say Fimbulwinter was coming from Spanish neighbours, so this was quite a surprise and we were not sure what to expect from this release.



The album starts with the epic-sounding intro Endless, Restless, Relentless that after 2 minutes moves into Svolder's Battle. That "HEY!" in the beginning of the song takes us away from all the epicness and prepares us for a more headbanging mood. The song isn't as festive as one would expect from that shout, but it's quite gripping with harsh, powerful vocals, nice guitar riffs and an amazing keyboard solo in the middle. Ginnungagap follows in the same mood, with the guitars riffing along with the keyboards. In some parts of the song I got some glipses of Amon Amarth, but they quickly were dismissed when the clean vocals made their appearance. The following song, Jörmungandr, starts quite differently from the previous ones with the the keyboards playing a melodic riff, almost Children of Bodom-ish. Although different from previous tracks and much more keyboard-influenced, this is a killer track, with lots of melodies, the keyboards and guitars playing along all of the time and great soloing! Feisty Blood follows, an instrumental song that brings us back to a more folkish mood, and then we move to Homeland, a nice melancholic song with some well done vocal arrangements and great feeling. Nordwaldtaler speeds things up a little and takes the aforementioned cross between viking/folk metal and Children of Bodom-like melodies and riffs to another step by including it's very own western-movie soundtrack moment. The album continues with Northern Winds a slow and raw one, half melancholic, half epic, and full of rage. Another short joyful folk-metal intrumental follows, Finnish Polkka and then we near the end of the album with Guardians of Time, a song with some mood swings, sometimes slow, sometimes fast, sometimes raw and agressive, sometimes intricate and melodic. Closing the album, Incursed left us another great song, Erik the Deaf, a really fun, tavern-like song that makes you want to sing along the whole time while brawling and drinking and cheering and quaffing. The song also includes a 2 hidden moments in the end, both quite amusing, but we won't spoil you the surprise, so go out and check the song!



To sum things up, this is a great album which will please all fans of folk, viking or pagan metal. If you enjoy bands like Fintroll, Ensiferum or even Amon Amarth, give this album a try, chances are you'll find it to your liking. Jon Koldo Tera's performance on the keyboards is simply amazing, with top notch solos and nice melodies all around. Narot Santos's vocals are also very well done, really aggressive and powerful. The clean vocals have some highs and lows, the lows mostly due to some accent issues that could have been worked better during the recordings, otherwise they fit nicely in all the songs. The remaining performances do their part, Narot Santos's and Asier Fernandez's guitars provide the power and rawness required to provide the right balance to all the songs, while Juan Sampedro's bass and Asier Amo's drums put things running. The album's production is very well done, all instruments sound in place and at the right level. On the downside, some of the sounds played by the keyboards sound a little dull and could have been replaced by different ones; also, one could say there's too much variety among the band's influences, with the keyboards going from melodic death to power or neoclassical metal, black metal growls and heavy metal riffs, all combined with pagan/folk/viking influences but as a whole, it all ends up combining in an interesting way, and so the album presents us a lot of nice songs without moving too much into cliché territory; also, although the songs are enjoyable, only a few have remained in our memory: Jörmungandr, as previously mentioned, is one hell of a song, Homeland, a really nice one also, and Erik the Deaf, a whole lot of fun! The remaining ones are fine songs, but they're missing that little special something that'd make the difference. As a result, one nice album, pleasant to listen to from start to end, with some very catchy songs and some amazing performances, so we'll rate Fimbulwinter 78 out of 100.

Rating: 78%