I am always willing to give all genres of metal a try. This time I chose the Viking metal band THRONAR. Once upon a time, in 2003, a Dutch black metal band known as Cerberus released a couple demos. Deciding to take their musical style in a different direction they became known as THRONAR. Consisting of five men and one woman, they set out to write about medieval warfare and epic battles. Having previously released a split and an album, Unleash The Fire is their second full length

As track one Prelude To War opens, my ears are pre conditioned for the lashing they are about to take. Am I listening to a soundtrack to Conan The Barbarian or what? The next song Shield To Shield rushes in like a Viking ambush. The lyrics are comical, think Manowar. Can anyone take bands like this seriously? The image of THRONAR suggest they themselves do, donning chain mail, swords, battle face paint ala Turisas style, and large muscles like Manowar, The music is very keyboard driven, they are incredibly loud and overbearing at times. They seem to follow the guitar and vocal lines. After the first song or two they become overtly cheesy. The bass is turned up quite loudly as well. Singer Reamon sounds as though he is struggling with his clean vocals, and when the death metal growls kick in, if you close your eyes, it sounds eerily similar to Nathan Explosion from the cartoon Metalocalypse. For this fact, I have to laugh. As the album goes on, the music gives off a kind of happy, good time, and energetic vibe. With song titles like To Ride, Kill And Harvest and Eating The Enemy, it is apparent that every song is centered around stories of ancient barbaric wars and fables. It gets a bit redundant after awhile and honestly I don’t know how much longer I can take this. Though, I must say this music has epic battle enthusiasm written all over it, and it would be fun to head bang to if you were drunk enough.

If you are into the Viking Battle metal genre, THRONAR’s Unleash The Fire would be a metal battle fan’s dream. If you are on the fence about it, I suggest you grab your black metal battle axe and run for cover.