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On January 14th, 2004, Windir band leader and founder Terje "Valfar" Bakken left his home. He never returned home and on January 17th his body was found. He had frozen to death. This double disc was released as an honour to the late Valfar and was encouraged by his family. The first disc contains two new songs (the first being a very nice intro, the other an ok song by Windir standards), two re-recordings of really old tracks, two live songs and five covers performed by Weh, E-Head, Notodden All Stars (consisting of members from Zyklon and Disiplin), Finntroll and Enslaved. Enslaved offers a very tight and well done version of "Dauden" while Finntroll adds their unique oompa touch to "Ending", which is originally a Norwegian traditional song bearing the title "Anne Knutsdotter". The strangest and perhaps most out of place track on these two discs together is probably E-Head's electro-cover of "Mørkets Fyrste" which is hard to grip and only sounds silly on this album. Notodden All Stars marks the darkest and most intense element here with their take on "Destroy". Last of the covers is Weh who performs a gloomy acoustic version of "Likbør".
The second disc is a sort of "best of" compilation with songs taken from all their four studio albums as well as a couple from an old demo, the latter two leaving a rather poor impression both considering song writing but especially the lacking sound quality. If you would have wanted this second disc to feature the absolute best Windir songs I personally don't agree with all the picks but I suppose few do. It is still a very nice way to hear the band gradually develop themselves as the songs are ordered chronologically. Windir were one of the finer viking metal bands and although they fall victim to repetition like many colleagues they always had a very personal sound and lyrics written with care and thought which is why they have gathered a strong and loyal following since the release of their debut album "Soknardalr" in 1997. Windir is over and done with but several of the former members have formed a new band called Vreid with a similar concept in mind. "Windir, Ein Walfar" fills two functions. First of all it is definitely a must-have for fans of the band and second it is a nice collection of songs for those who don't fancy their music quite enough to buy all their previous releases. Altogether, these two discs contain more than 2 hours of music!
| Tracklist |
| Disc 1 |
| 1. Stri |
| 2. Stridsmann |
| 3. Dans På Stemmehaugen |
| 4. The Profound Power |
| 5. Dauden (Performed by Enslaved) |
| 6. Ending (Performed by Finntroll) |
| 7. Mørkets Fyrste (Performed by E-Head) |
| 8. Destroy (Performed by Notodden All Stars) |
| 9. Likbør (Performed by Weh) |
| 10. Svartasmeden Og Lundamyrstrollet (Live) |
| 11. Blodssvik (Live) |
| Playing time: 58.30 |
| Disc 2 |
| 1. Soge II: Framkomsten |
| 2. Krigaren Si Gravferd |
| 3. Sognariket Sine Krigarar |
| 4. Byrjing |
| 5. Arntor, Ein Windir |
| 6. Saknet |
| 7. 1184 |
| 8. Journey To The End |
| 9. Martyrium |
| 10. Fagning |
| 11. On The Mountain Of Goats |
| 12. Sóknardalr |
: 73.34
| Buy other Windir albums |
