Pros: stunning vocals, great lyrics, superb arrangements
Cons: the album only has 10 tracks!
The Bottom Line: Bold fusion of modern western music with Swedish folk tradition, not to mention a stunning lead vocalist and deliciously morbid lyrics.
I first heard Garmarna's dark, yet energetic sound on one of World Link TV's World Music blocks (a program on a satellite dish network channel.) The video, for Gamen (Vulture,) is eyecatching; it features lead singer Emma Hardelin centerstage in a stunningly simple white gown, motionless, while band and audience members almost explode around her in bursts of energy. The scene is symbolic of Garmarna's music - while filled with the energy and life of modern music, at its center is the folk mythology and music of Sweden and Scandinavia. The song, Gamen, itself is indescribable, as are all other 9 tracks on the band's Vengeance album.
I bought Vengeance in the world section of a NYC Virgin Megastore, for the exorbitant price of $21. However, Garmarna's record label - www.NoSide.com - sells it for $16, including postage. It's well worth it, too, as I listen to the CD endlessly.
Garmarna combines the folk tales and musical tradition of Sweden with today's rhythms and arrangements, and the result is powerful, dark, and heavily engaging music. In fact, Garmarna has it all: an empowering female lead singer with a strong and unbelievably beautiful voice, a group of talented modern and traditional musicians, and lyrics that border on the disturbing while making the Swedish language seem almost hypnotic. Garmarna's music holds something for everyone: the Gothic-at-heart, to the hardcore Nordic or world music fanatic, to any curious listener. Vengeance awaits, and it's impossible not to fall in love with it!
Garmarna is steadily becoming a well-established Nordic band, and when listening to the band's 4 albums in chronological order, one definitely hears the development of the band as musicians. They are continuing to grow and expand as musicians, and in the fall, their newest album will be released in the U.S.A. - it consists entirely of songs written by Hildegard Von Bingen (a medieval abbess) and adapted by Garmarna. One of the songs, Euchari, can be heard on Vengeance, and perhaps it's Euchari that shows Garmarna's ability to adapt and combine the ancient with the modern, the sacred with the secular, and the traditional with the innovative.
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