In Norse legend, the giant Ymir gave his life to create the world, and after the world’s end in the fires of Ragnarök, the souls of the honourable shall feast eternally in the sacred hall of Brimir. Or so I’ve read in the biography of a Finnish band from Helsinki called Brymir, who took their name as a conflation of Ymir and Brimir — representing the beginning and the end, before and after.
Brymir released their debut album, Breathe Fire To the Sun, on Spinefarm Records in April. I missed that news, but what I didn’t miss was the band’s official music video that became available today for a song called “Retribution”. Visually, the video employs an often-used theme in extreme metal videos — the scourging punishment of a man by unknown forces for unknown reasons, alternating with shots of the band playing against a black backdrop and in the great outdoors. Although the visual theme isn’t breaking any new ground, it’s well-executed.
The music may not be breaking any new ground either, but man did it hit my sweet spot. The song is a powerful, symphonic blast of melodic death metal with a pagan flavor. It conveys an epic, even cinematic, sweep, with a cavalcade of hard-charging riffs and anthemic keyboards. The vocals, which mix the unclean and the clean, are also quite good. This got my day off to a really nice start. If you’re a fan of bands such as Wintersun and Ensiferum, this video is worth checking out — and you can do that after the jump.
Brymir’s Facebook page is here, and their official site is at this location. I found the CD and mp3 downloads at Amazon (at least in the US), and I suspect it’s available on iTunes as well.
11 Responses to “BRYMIR: “RETRIBUTION””
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Not bad, I thought. The clean singing wasn’t even annoying or anything.
But since I couldn’t understand what he was saying, I can only assume the song was about how badly he wished someone would let him take a shower.
Also, I now have a strange desire to watch Connan the Barbarian….
Haha! The moral of the story: Going through life is like being forced to roll around in the mud while blindfolded, or strain against chains that tether you to a big fucking bolder, and every now and then you get a good bullwhipping for your efforts. And no shower.
Well…at least he’s not whining about his girlfriend leaving him….
Dude, when Jacob Bannon whines aobut his girlfrined leaving him it sounds like standing in a tornado, but the air is made out of broken glass.
I need a “like” button on NCS. A smiley will have to do: 🙂
I am humbled, good sir!
After checking the video im feeling abit meh. It was good, but not in a OMGHOLYSHIT-way. Still, something i’m gonna listen more. Btw, Finntroll’s Solsagan video anyone? Striking similarities if you ask me!
Good catch on the resemblance to the Solsagan video! Now you’ve got me playing Solsagan in my head. Such a great song!
Not bad. I may have to check out more from these guys.
I think Phro may be onto something here though – I think I heard references to dirt in the lyrics and I’m pretty sure he says “cleansed” near the end.
But seriously, why is Wes Borland whipping the singer in this video?
Ha! Nice comparison, though I’m not sure Wes Borland ever looked as good as the punisher in this video.
I totally dug this one. Intro piece is superb and gets me in the spirits to watch a really good and really violent medieval battle movie 🙂