Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
When you think of what monumental actually means, the images such a word can bring to mind, you would be within your rights to argue that it is a discussion with others that would centre around historic events or even the sense of Time captured in the raising of a building, an iconic feature on the landscape, whether by human design or by nature’s own fearsome vision, monumental is to the naked human eye, a jaw-dropping colossus that cannot be tamed but to which civilisation is based upon.
Monumental though does not go far enough when placed in the realm of the art. The Death of Nelson, Hamlet, The Lord Of The Rings, Howl, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, monumental is too small a consideration, instead they are epic, human endeavours that dig deep into the psyche, the nature of human existence with a powerful resonance that arguably cannot be found in the cold exterior of a building or in the controversary of an event that divides by opinion dictated by politics and agenda.
Epic in nature, vast in its significance, Leaves’ Eyes have produced arguably their finest work to date in their latest album, The Last Viking; no mean feat when you stop and consider just how immense their offerings of ritual and prodigious music have actually been since their humble beginnings.
It could be said that we have neglected the sagas of the Nordic lands to our own dismay, a rich vein of tales and stories that have become lost through time, our Time instead finding the chronicles of the south a greater pull than the narratives associated with hardship and heroism from a land of ice and snow. However, in Leaves’ Eyes’ The Last Viking, an epic of artistic history has been presented which goes some way to balancing the scales which has tipped heavily in favour of the Mediterranean rather than the fjords and the mountains of north.
The Last Viking is not only touched by sincerity, but it is opulent in its natural polish, it is soaked in the progression of the story, that of Harald III and the last moments of a history that shaped the British Isles for a thousand years to come, the lost battle of Stamford Bridge, the moment that allowed history to become relevant.
Through tracks such as Death Of A King, Serpents and Dragons, War Of Kings, Two Kings One Realm, Flames In The Sky, Serkland and Night of the Ravens, the truth of King Harald Hardrada’s damnation and near forgotten legacy in Britain is shown to be beyond monumental, like the Norse poems of old, it is unashamedly epic.
For Elina Siirala, Alexander Krull, Thorsten Bauer, Micki Richter and Joris Nijenhuis, The Last Viking is art itself, an epic that breathes fire, ambitious in its outlook, heroic in its capture; a final journey for the kings of the genre to play havoc with the hearts of all.
Leaves’ Eyes release The Last Viking on October 23rd on AFM Records.
Ian D. Hall