The Search
I’m going to be honest, this post will be probably be very different compared to my previous ones. I did not have any idea what I was going to write about, nor did I really want to. As my last posts I had written about something I know well or something I had already heard about before, I wanted to choose something I know nothing about. So, how do I do that? I wanted to look through Every Noise at Once, but how am I supposed to pick through all of that music? But I had an idea, I would look and choose the genre with the funniest spelling. I didn’t really care what the music sounded like it was as long as I had not heard of it before and it’s spelling looked funny. Although there were some really funny genres, I did want to pick a language I could understand or at least identify. That’s how I ended up on Faroese rock and Týr.
Faroese rock comes from the Faroe Islands which are a small archipelago in the North Atlantic. This genre of music from here seems to draw heavily on stories from Norse mythology. The band that made the album I listened to, Týr, is known for the way they are able to mix the folklore of Faroe and it’s music with modern rock. It seems that this subsect of rock is very small, with not many big artists making this style of music. Which is a shame because Týr does such a great job at producing a great listening experience with an amazing and unique sound style.
Connection Through Stories
A big feeling I had while listening to the album was this sense of connection to the story that was being told. According to Norse mythology, the only way for warriors to reach Valhalla is to die a honorable death in battle. Týr is also the god of war in the Norse mythology, so it is a very fitting name for them to be singing about intense battles and honorable deaths. I know telling stories is a feature that is present in almost every song ever, but I found that it was very fun to listen to these stories of warriors going off to die (as sadistic as that may sound). For example in the first song:
Fairest place upon this earth
Ours and all descendants right of birth
All we have of native soil
Owed to tears and sweat of forebears toil[Pre-Chorus]
Legends should recall their{Chorus}
Iron will—warrior skill
And how far away they fought
Set us free—destiny
For the blood of heroes bought
Iron will—warrior skill
And how far away they fell
Set us free—destiny
For tonight we dine in Hel[Verse 2]
He fell alone
And his name was carved upon a stone
Fire bade him last farewell
Wouldn’t mind my name up there as well[Pre-Chorus]
Legends might recall my[Chorus]
Iron will—warrior skill
And how far away I fought
Set us free—destiny
For the blood of heroes bought
Iron will—warrior skill
And how far away they fell
Set us free—destiny
For tonight we dine in Hel[Guitar Solo]
[Chorus]
Legends should recall their
Iron will—warrior skill
And how far away they fought
Set us free—destiny
For the blood of heroes bought
Iron will—warrior skill
And how far away they fell
Set us free—destiny
For tonight we dine in Hel
This song tells the story of one warrior, who I believe would be our main protagonist that we follow throughout the album, recalling the story of another warrior who died in battle and was made a legend. The warrior even mentions his respect for the one that has fallen and hopes that eventually he can meet his end just like that. I really like this kind of storytelling in the song as we’re being painted a picture of a character and their ambition. We even get to see this character become complete by the end of the album, where we have the warrior describe seeing a Valkyrie appear in order to take them to Valhalla.
Seemed my time had passed me by
Like clouds across the sky
I was lost just like a raven in the night
Most dreams waste away alas
Mine all have come to pass
Since I laid my eyes upon my guiding light
Valkyrja!
Valkyrja!
I feel like this story does so much for the overall listening experience. The story coupled with the intense music really makes you feel like you’re going off to see Valhalla with these warriors. I’ve listened to a few other artists from this genre, and while they all sound somewhat similar and all the songs are more or less about the same things, I can say that I definitely enjoyed Týr’s album the most, mainly for this storytelling.
Calming Sensation
I think I might be a little bit weird for this, but I found this album and rock and metal music in general to be very calming to listen to. I don’t know why but I love listening to high bpm, heavy bass and just loud music because something about it comes off as very relaxing to me. That feeling was the same for my listening of this album. I don’t think I would be able to pull anything from any of the songs to show an example of what I mean because I’m pretty sure this feeling I have is not one that is intentional. If I had to theorize a reason that I get this feeling, I think it would be from the energy that is put into every song. It’s like when you watch a sporting event where the players are running around a lot, and then you end up feeling a bit tired just from watching. Maybe it’s something similar to that kind of vicarious fatigue.
But if I had to narrow down a cause from listening to this album, it would have to be from the way the songs flow and techniques that are used to mix that the Scandinavian style into the rock. I love listening to medieval music, I know that it’s not the same but you could draw some similarities to the Scandinavian style from their uses of older string instruments. (Side note: there is a subgenre of medieval music called “bardcore” that remixes modern pop songs into a medieval style and it’s pretty good.) Perhaps this use of calming string instrumentals underneath the melodic rock is what is causing this feeling that I get while listening.
Implementations
There wasn’t much I could think of this time around for things that would change or improve how we listen to music. I listened to this album on Spotify which was a very easy experience that I would not be able to create a complaint for. I think Spotify already does a great job in terms how they handle categorizing their music. If there is some niche music genre that Spotify does not have a playlist for, chances are there is a another playlist created by some random person. And even if there is not any curated playlist, there is always just listening to the albums and songs themselves. As far as ways to improve Spotify in general; yes, it would be nice there would be no ads, but I use premium so I didn’t have to deal with that. Whether you choose to listen for free with ads or pay for an ad-free experience, both options are just convenient ways to listen to thousands of hours of music and countless songs. So we have got to pick our battles when it comes to services like this.
WORKS CITED-
All images from Týr’s official site: https://tyr.fo/
