Germany’s Equilibrium formed in 2001 and released their debut album in 2005. The band is a part of the explosion of Viking-folk metal bands that has gained prominence over the last four to five years. Equilibrium seem to have benefitted from the sudden popularity of the genre as their second album sees them move from the obscure Black Attakk label of their debut to Nuclear Blast for Sagas, their sophomore effort.

Now, the band has a very happy sounding take on the whole epic Viking folk metal sound and at times come across like Mithotyn jamming with Rhapsody and Children of Bodom. The folk effect is largely thanks to the use of a pan-pipe through parts of the album and lots and lots of keyboard/ synth bombast but the band also seems a bit more influenced by the Lord of the Rings soundtrack and the work of Basil Poleduris on the Conan movies than on any actual folk. The music is, like I’ve already mentioned, very upbeat and happy sounding and since the lyrics are in German I really have no idea what they’re singing about. Still, most of the songs on Sagas sound like the stuff that the Vikings would play around a campfire while drinking their mead and dancing arm in arm with their fellow warriors.

I suppose Turisas covering Boney M has made the whole love of disco an acceptable thing for these brave Vikings but when they hit a horrible disco-pop synth melody on Unbeseigt things get a bit strange and not in a good way. In fact, right through the album, the synth is multi tracked and there’s a very pronounced Euro-pop feel to it. I’m not sure how disco fits in with Vikings but it’s there and it’s not a pleasant combination. Sagas is an album that will get more and more irritating with every successive listen. The pace is ridiculously fast right through and the riffs begin to sound the same pretty quickly. Plus, the ever present synth is like a fly that’s constantly buzzing around your ear.

At the end of the day, Equilibrium is one of those bands that will probably appeal to fans of the happier side of Viking metal. If Turisas, Fintroll and Korpiklaani are among your favourite bands then you’ll probably love Equilibrium.



Label - Nuclear Blast
Year of Release - 2008