Falkenbach
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Falkenbach () is a
viking metal Viking metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music characterized by a lyrical and thematic focus on Norse mythology, Norse religion, Norse paganism, and the Viking Age. Viking metal is quite diverse as a musical style, to the point where some consi ...
group from Germany that is signed to
Prophecy Productions Prophecy Productions is an international record label, founded in Germany by Martin Koller in 1996. It proclaims promoting "transcendental ..captivating music".
. The name means "Falconbrook" in German. They are one of the first viking metal bands, starting in 1989, with their first release that same year. The one permanent member is Vratyas Vakyas (real name Markus Tümmers) who was born in Germany, but lived in Iceland in the late 1980s.


History

Falkenbach was one of Germany's first examples of what would be labeled
pagan metal Pagan metal is a genre of heavy metal music which fuses extreme metal with " the pre-Christian traditions of a specific culture or region" through thematic concept, rustic melodies, unusual instruments or archaic languages, Wiederhorn 2009, p. 6 ...
.Florian Heesch, Reinhard Kopanski. 2017. "Klang - Text - Bild: Intermediale Aspekte der Black Metal-Forschung". ed. Sarah Chaker, Jakob Schermann, Nikolaus Urbanek. ''Analyzing Black Metal - Transdisziplinäre Annäherungen an ein düsteres Phänomen der Musikkultur''. Transcript Verlag. pp. 31-32. The band was formed in Iceland in 1989, when it recorded the ''Hávamál'' demo, and has recorded a total of seven demos; however, only five are known. Three more were released by 1995: ''Skínn af sverði sól valtíva'' (
Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...
, ''"The Sun Shines on the Swords of Slaughter-Gods"''), ''Læknishendr'' (Old Norse, ''"Healing Hands"''), and ''Ásynja'' (Old Norse, ''"Goddess"''). Of all of these except ''Læknishendr'', only nine copies were released. In 1995, recording of the debut album ''Fireblade'' began, but due to equipment troubles, production was stopped shortly before mixing began. ''Fireblade'' was not released, and in December of the same year, recording began for (Old Norse, ''"...And in Glory Will They Go..."''). The recording for this actual debut album was completed in March 1996. The album cover features a part of an illustration of the Wild Hunt, made by
Friedrich Wilhelm Heine Friedrich Wilhelm Heine (March 25, 1845 – August 27, 1921) was a German-born painter known for his genre works and paintings depicting Norse mythology. He was born in Leipzig, Germany, and died in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Life Friedrich Wilhelm ...
for Wilhelm Wägner's ''Nordisch-germanische Götter und Helden'' (1882). With this Falkenbach placed itself within a tradition that connects metal music to the Wild Hunt motif, present since Bathory's album ''
Blood Fire Death ''Blood Fire Death'' is the fourth studio album by Swedish extreme metal band Bathory. It was released in October 1988, through Music for Nations sublabel, Under One Flag. The album, although mostly black metal, includes some of the first exam ...
'' (1988). After '' ...Magni blandinn ok megintiri...'' (Old Norse, ''"Mixed with Strength and Pride Glory"'') was released, Vratyas stopped recording music so he could focus more on his
record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...
''Skaldic Art Productions''. In 2003, Vratyas returned to the studio with three other musicians and close friends to record '' Ok nefna tysvar Ty'' (Old Norse, ''"And Name Twice Týr"''). The next ''Falkenbach album'', '' Heralding – The Fireblade'', was recorded in August–September 2005, using the same session musicians he had used for ''Ok Nefna Tysvar Ty''. It includes material originally intended for the never released ''Fireblade'' album and re-working of demo tracks. In 2006 ''Skaldic Arts Productions'' released a tribute album called ''An Homage to Falkenbach''. It consists of two parts, each limited to 500 units. The work contains 16 covers by various bands such as ''
Eluveitie Eluveitie ( ; )Chrigel Glanzmann: "Eluveitie is a name in Gaulish language, which is an ancient Celtic language. Since it's not a living language anymore, nobody really knows how it's pronounced like. All we have today of this language is scient ...
'', '' Folkearth'', and ''Bewitched''. Vratyas Vakyas (whose name roughly translates to "the searching wanderer"), the sole member of ''Falkenbach'', lives in
Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...
, Germany.


Style and lyrical themes

The ''Hávamál'' demo is allegedly clean
folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...
, but since then the sound has become more raw and influenced by
black metal Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with tr ...
influence and matured into an epic metal sound. Most of ''Falkenbach'' lyrics are in English. They also write lyrics in Old Norse,
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
, and
Old German Old High German (OHG; ) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally identified as the period from around 500/750 to 1050. Rather than representing a single supra-regional form of German, Old High German encompasses the numerous ...
. Most, if not all of the lyrics in Old Norse are actually taken from heathen literature: for example, the chorus lines in the song ''"Donar's Oak"'' are actually verses four and five of ''
Grímnismál ''Grímnismál'' (Old Norse: ; 'The Lay of Grímnir') is one of the mythological poems of the '' Poetic Edda''. It is preserved in the Codex Regius manuscript and the AM 748 I 4to fragment. It is spoken through the voice of ''Grímnir'', one ...
'', a poem of the Elder Edda. (''
Hávamál ''Hávamál'' ( ; Old Norse: ''Hávamál'',Unnormalised spelling in the Codex Regius:''Title'': hava mal''Final stanza'': Nv ero Hava mál q''ve''ðin Háva hꜹ''l''lo i ..classical pron. , Modern Icelandic pron. , ‘Words of Hávi [the H ...
'', after which the first demo is named, is another such poem.) According to Vratyas, one thing that sets Falkenbach apart from a band such Bathory is that his music is underpinned by a pagan religiosity. Vratyas defines his approach to paganism as animism, animistic, through which it rejects the existence of a frontier between a person and the outer world.Fabio Petrella. 4 May 2011
Interviste - Falkenbach (Vratyas Vakyas)
. SpazioRock.


Discography

;Studio albums * (1996) * '' ...Magni blandinn ok megintiri...'' (1998) * '' Ok nefna tysvar Ty'' (2003) * '' Heralding – The Fireblade'' (2005) * '' Tiurida'' (2011) * ''
Asa Asa may refer to: People and fictional characters * Asa (given name), a given name, including a list of people and fictional characters so named * Asa people, an ethnic group based in Tanzania * Aṣa, Nigerian-French singer, songwriter, and reco ...
'' (2013) ;Demos * ''Hávamál'' (1989) * ''Tanfana'' (1990) * ''Towards Solens Golden Light'' (1991) * ''Promo '95'' (1995) * '' Laeknishendr'' (1995) * ''...Skínn af sverði sól valtíva...'' (1996)


Line-up


Current members

*Vratyas Vakyas - guitar, acoustic guitar, keyboards, drums, vocals


Session members

* Hagalaz - guitars on ''Ok nefna tysvar Ty'', ''Heralding - The Fireblade'' and ''Tiurida''. * Tyrann - vocals on ''Ok nefna tysvar Ty'', ''Heralding - The Fireblade'' and ''Tiurida''. * Boltthorn - drums on ''Ok nefna tysvar Ty'', ''Heralding - The Fireblade'' and ''Tiurida''. * Albion - bass on ''Tiurida''.


See also

*
Neopagan music Modern pagan music or neopagan music is music created for or influenced by modern Paganism. Music produced in the interwar period include efforts from the Latvian Dievturība movement and the Norwegian composer Geirr Tveitt. The counterculture o ...


References


External links

* * {{Authority control German Viking metal musical groups German black metal musical groups Musical groups established in 1989 German folk metal musical groups Napalm Records artists One-man bands Modern pagan musical groups Modern paganism in Germany