There are bands that have influenced more than one generation of young musicians and I think that (next to others) the influence of BORKNAGAR and WINDIR for the Viking Metal genre can’t be denied. The first releases of both bands are pure classics and especially the feeling of these times can’t be reproduced – so for every newcomer it’s very difficult to offer something new/unique when feeling inspired by those titans. GALAR from Norway is a further young band (all members are between 20-25 years old) which set their sails to the hall of the slain and for a debut they’re are more or less successful to get a chair on Odin’s table. “Skogskvad” is an interesting release for fans of SOLEFALD and KHOLD and especially old TULUS due to the fact that GALAR’s music is heavy depending on the rough and clean vocals of their purely Norwegian lyrics. A lot of the atmosphere is created by the vocal parts added by quite uncommon instruments like a bassoon. So the will to differ from the big mass of Viking / Pagan Metal bands is definitely there nevertheless that after 25-30 minutes the songs start to sound quite similar. The cover artwork from the Norwegian artist Robert Hoyem (see also the latest DRAUTRAN release) is really impressive and captures the given atmosphere. Altogether I think that GALAR still has to find their own niche but “Skogskvad” is good enough to look forward to further releases of this band. www.heavyhorsesrecords.de, www.galar.no