adg211288 Canada’s SIG:AR:TYR is the one man band of Daemonskald, and Godsaga is his third album with the project. It came out in 2010. To describe the music of SIG:AR:TYR in short what we have here is far from your typical metal music. Stylistically the past couple of releases were part folk metal and part dark ambient, featuring heavy use of acoustic guitars throughout. There was also something of a black metal quality on the first two albums, Sailing the Seas of Fate (2005) and Beyond the North Winds (2008), which has really came to the fore on Godsaga, at times the guitars have a raw sound to them and the vocal delivery when Daemonskald uses growls has even more of a black metal quality to it, although his vocals are not the in your face type, at times it almost seems as if the voice takes a back seat in order to integrate itself as a part of the overall atmosphere of the album. The overall results are something that is quite hypnotic but may take several listens to fully understand for the new listener.

The record opens with the short Nights All Nine, one of the few times that we get to hear the clean vocals of Daemonskald. This is an acoustic song that gives me the mental impression of it being performed in less contemporary times with its lyrics that deal with Norse Mythology, in particular the God Odin. It feels as if it is being directly sung to Odin as in the form of an prayer. After this we start getting some more metal sounds out of the album with the excellent Midwinter Sacrifice.

I supposed however that while SIG:AR:TYR produces music that is more unique that many other folk metal bands, when looked at on its own it may be said that Godsaga is a very good but somewhat formulated album. Really once you are passed Nights All Nine and Midwinter Sacrifice you will have heard what Godsaga offers as an album and know what to expect from the rest of tracks. However if you find that you can get into this then you’ll be like me and won’t be put off by that, because what we’ve got here is something pretty special and I’m looking forward to checking out other SIG:AR:TYR releases because while this is formulated it’s also a winning formula that has come together is a great atmospheric journey through Norse Mythology and while personally I don’t see myself playing this album an awful lot I’ve been listening to it long enough to know that when the mood for it hits what we have here is a near perfect album – there is not a bad track on here.

My personally favourites however would be Nights All Nine, Midwinter Sacrifice, Blood of the North, Sonatorrek, Godsaga and Black Sun’s Bane. Admittedly that is most of the album I just listed there. The only tracks I didn’t mention are Eternal Return, Sleep of the Sword and Distant Northern Shore. These are great too but don’t quite stand up to my favourites. With an album this strong through, maybe these will be your favourites instead!

One thing that I find really special about Godsaga is the way Daemonskald plays those acoustic guitars, lead guitar parts on the acoustic are not infrequent in the music and to me are a very special part of the SIG:AR:TYR sound. They give the music an almost classical vibe at times that really does credit to the dark ambient side of the music while also working well in a black metal context. Overall really great stuff.

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven, scoring 9.3/10)