Band:	Gjallarhorn
Album:	Nordheim
Style:	Viking folk metal
Website:	http://staff.truemetal.it/Fenrir/gjallarhorn/index.html
Release date:	June 2005

01. The Plane Of Vigrid
02. The Day Odin Stood Still
03. Ragnarok
    1 - Blood Over Asgard
    2 - Chaos Unleashed
    3 - Ragnarok
04. 200 Years Of Fury

Another folk metal album, another folk metal album with Vikings. Fans of the genre will never need to pick a book in search for information about his favorite cultural tradition, they just have to gather pieces of information from each of the million albums available and, through a self-meditative process, learn enough. But there is a problem, they all tell practically the same story, the same religious aspect, the same historical values, and therefore can easily be taken as poor reflections of this respectable culture made by some history geek weirdos.

Speaking of geeks, the guys from Gjallarhorn are a lot of that, simply breathing Viking through every pore, and this addiction resulted in the album Nordheim back in 2005. The release of the album soon after Quorthon's death led many to consider this album only as paying tribute in the memory of our friend, and that Gjallarhorn itself was just a temporary project created only for that purpose.

Apparently that was not the case; Quorthon was indeed respected as the king of Viking geeks, but the band had in mind its own visions of how to make the Viking metal sound, and warn the world to expect other works from the group. Unfortunately, they have only managed to become strong candidates to oblivion, and so we never heard from them again.

But who the hell are these guys? Well, vocalist Vali ''Deathmaster'' and drummer Gungnir ''Wrathlord'' both came from the competent Doom metal band DoomSword, and were accompanied in Gjallarhorn by two other dudes. Everyone essential for making this album what it is: good. Pretty good actually, like if we were hearing Bathory again, but with three little differences: 1- the excellent clean production (maybe with the exception of ''200 Years Of Fury," a rawer, although still catchy track); 2- we can actually hear the bass? a lot; 3- Vali's competent vocal work, different from average (but classic) voice of Quorthon.

After shouting against the lack of originality of the Viking-based bands, I got to confess that the three piece song ''Ragnarok'' is very interesting. As annoyingly common as this song title is, it is perfectly executed, and make the old description of Snorri Sturluson, even being told by the thousandth time, a little fresher to our hears. Especially in the third and last part, when the amazing emotional vocals makes the experience extra-epic.

That's it. Same music you have already heard, same theme you already know, but with great production and performance. I can't say it was unfair for Nordheim to be solemnly ignored by major metal scene, since they did not bring up anything that would justified that. But I recommend this album to fans of folk metal, or any other super geek around interested in hear the same story all over again? but hey, it's still good.