I normally hate viking metal. I love viking-era Bathory but that's about it. I just think of it as shitty, gay ass, frilly shirt, plastic sword wielding, poser genre. And god damn do I fucking hate Amon Amarth. Unfortunately Týr came along I can't hate the entire genre, which for a hater like me is a bummer.
From the Faroe Islands, where you're either descended from viking or the slaves of vikings and they still hunt whales. They play a very progressive and slightly doomy take on Bathory's version of the genre, with some Pantera-escue stop start riffing here and there. No fucking accordions or violins, just drums, bass and gee-tars.
They do a couple of Faroese folk songs ("Regin Smiður" "Ólavur Riddararós") and a Irish folk song ("The Wild Rover"). In "Rainbow Warrior" they dis on Greenpeace, and I for one are glad someone called bullshit on them. Greenpeace should be worrying about industrial whaling by Japan and not on traditional hunts like the Faroese.
Since they cover some folk songs the music is extremely catchy and since the lyrics are in Faroese and English and Faroese shares the same sounds as English it is easy to sing along to once you get the hang of it. And that's important to me.
While its not as good as Hammerheart or Blood Fire Death, Eric the Red is still one of my only favorites of the genre, and one of the few diamonds in the vast turd mine that is viking metal.
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