The musical journey quite naturally continues on "Urd" …via rollercoaster throughout the northern landscapes. At its core the new album picks up where "Universal" left off, but Brun wasn’t shy about re-introducing the black metal elements Borknagar is known for. Nor was the band afraid of twisting their sound with occasional symphonics, Deep Purple-flavoured keyboards, epic vocal harmonies, and even a wah-wah guitar solo on one track ("The Earthling").
One of the most important aspects of "Urd" is the mix, handled this time out by Jens Bogren at Fascination Street Studios in Sweden. Known for his work with Opeth and Katatonia, Bogren brought everything out of the original multi-studio production, right down to the tiniest nuance.

An album with the diversity and multitude of talented musicians that Winter Thrice features certainly has its work cut out for it. Not only are Borknagar respected pioneers of the second-wave black metal sound, but additionally we have the staggering track record of every member to consider, with pedigrees stretching from the likes of Dimmu Borgir to Vintersorg. Sweetening the deal even further, former vocalist and Ulver mastermind Kristoffer ‘Garm' Rygg has returned to contribute a spot of vocals, sending expectations for this latest offering sky-high. Fortunately for everyone, Borknagar has delivered, with Winter Thrice providing a thoroughly satisfying slab of music. There's simply no capacity in which this album is a let down…

Norway's avantgarde Black Metal pioneers and innovators Borknagar arise at their most spirited and resplendend on their 11th studio album, "True North" (2019). Succeeding 2016's acclaimed "Winter Thrice" release and 25 years into the band's existence, Borknagar's characteristically varied fusion of musical styles and inimitable layered vocal arrangements elevates the hour-long array of these 9 new tracks to a sonic spectacle of epic proportions and undisputable grandeur.

After three years of waiting now follows the second part of the Reader Of The Runes trilogy and at the same time eleventh album of the Italian folk power metal legends Elvenking! With "Reader Of The Runes - Divination" this mystical journey was started in 2019, which finds another fabulous climax on "Reader Of The Runes - Rapture". For twenty years, the band has already proven that they well deserved their cult status in the scene and not only through outstanding live shows can expand their fan base more and more. With "Reader Of The Runes - Rapture" Elvenking show that they are not treading water and continue to develop their sound without losing their trademark. Another strong foundation in a usual flawless discography.

Five years since their much-acclaimed album VUUR VAN VERZET, early 2023 will see Dutch folk metal collective HEIDEVOLK return with their seventh studio album via Napalm Records, continuing to keep the pagan flame burning! Ever since their impressive 2005 debut, De strijdlust is geboren, HEIDEVOLK has taken the heavy music scene by storm, conquering stages throughout the world with their very own brand of folk metal. With dual clean vocals, irresistibly catchy songs, traditional instruments and fast metal riffing all fueled by their folkloric fire and pagan pride, HEIDEVOLK delivers for an uncompromising sound and musical adventure. Their new masterpiece, WEDERKEER, makes no exception, and proves why the Arnhem-based six-piece is one of the best, unrivaled and most exciting bands of their genre and beyond! In a world of myths, nature and legends of the Veluwe, Netherlands, the concept album is a powerful odyssey of the Self, deeply rooted in metal and folklore.

My Kantele is a follow-up to Amorphis' excellent Elegy. Elegy was an album that worked as a culmination point between death metal and progressive metal, and opened all doors in the rock world for Amorphis. My Kantele doesn't contain anything very new and special; actually, it seems that all four previously unreleased tracks are just leftovers from Elegy. That isn't a bad thing at all - the new songs work well enough and of course these kinds of packages are gold for fans. The most interesting songs on the EP are the covers, Hawkwind's "Levitation" and Kingston Wall's "And I Hear You Call." Amorphis covered "Levitation" very, very well - but unfortunately they copied Kingston Wall's arrangement of the excellent "And I Hear You Call," so it doesn't offer a lot.

To stand out in a field where the obvious signifiers are the most common, and therefore the most clichéd, elements, one has to know when to try something different. Amorphis had already shown itself to be a more than competent end-of-the-century Scandinavian black metal outfit, but there were plenty of others equally able to say the same. The inspired turning point had two points of origin - recruiting another lead vocalist, Pasi Koskinen, to sing with Tomi Koivusaari, and deciding to record an album infused with earlier Finnish folk influences, both musically and lyrically. The choice of lyrical inspiration, Finland's national epic The Kalevala, isn't necessarily surprising given how often metal of all kinds has favored tales of dungeons and grue…

"Oh wow! It’s time to put on your pirate hat and inflate your rubber ducks, because the world-famous Pirate Metal Drinking Crew ALESTORM, have just set sail on a new voyage with their seventh studio album, Seventh Rum of a Seventh Rum! Produced once again by their long-time co-conspirator Lasse Lammert, this epic swashbuckling adventure is set for release on June 24, 2022 via Napalm Records.

Swedish folk metal wolf pack MÅNEGARM take another stroll through ancient sagas and myths of long forgotten times on the successor of chart-breaking Fornaldarsagor (2019) – the upcoming 10th studio album Ynglingaättens Öde (Engl. the fate of the Ynglinga kin) – out April 15, 2022 via Napalm Records. In this multifaceted world of sound, MÅNEGARM incorporate Pagan inspired lyricism based on the old Norse poem Ynglingatal, that describes the fate of an old Norse dynasty - the house of Ynglinga. Ynglingaättens Öde offers balanced variety and atmosphere, breathing new life into ancient myths. With Ynglingaättens Öde, MÅNEGARM underline their standing as spearheads of the world of Viking metal once more and keep Pagan traditions alive, even after 25 years of existence.

Titled A Night At The Nordic House, the album from the Faroese folk metal band is the follow-up to 2019’s Hel and captures the band performing at The Nordic House in Tórshavn, the Faroes on February 8th, 2020 alongside the Symphony Orchestra.

Not only was Agalloch's Pale Folklore an astoundingly ambitious and accomplished debut, it made for a stark geographical anomaly, since its eclectic, avant-garde folk-metal was the sort of thing one would expect to emerge from Scandinavia - not Portland, OR. Epic, atmospheric, deeply melancholy, yet extremely heavy, its songs showed the same level of daring cross-pollination as those of Norway's Ulver or Sweden's Opeth, as well as off-the-beaten-path experiments with folk music forms pioneered by Finland's Amorphis, among others - yet unquestionably treaded its own, unique path. The album's fascinating journey begins with the three-song suite titled "The Painted Fire Across the Skyline," featuring forceful, driving power chords, elegiac melodies on acoustic guitar and piano, and half-whispered, half-screamed vocals backed by mood-enhancing icy winds…

FEUERSCHWANZ are set to release their new album Memento Mori on December 31, 2021. The new album will continue the success story of the medieval rockers from Germany / Franconia! On Memento Mori, FEUERSCHWANZ finally take a step away from the simpler humor of earlier days to become one of the most important bands in German folk rock. Fans of the band can look forward to an extensive deluxe edition of the album, which extends the running time of Memento Mori by almost double! Two additional CDs feature instrumental versions of all eleven tracks as well as the cover CD Die Glorreichen Sieben (The Magnificent Seven), which includes seven epic reissues from Amon Amarth to Die Ärzte and The Weeknd.