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By: Nicholas Kobe, Staff Writer

[Metal Blade Records; 2024]

Rating: 6/10

Key Tracks: “Hammered”, “Hangman”, “Torkils Døtur”

Hailing from the Nordic Farhoe Islands, Týr has become one of the mainstays of Viking Metal over the last 20 years. The band’s newest record, 2024’s Battle Ballads is Týr’s first record since 2019’s Hel. According to a biography by Metal Blade Records, the band intentionally tried to streamline their usual complex and progressive writing style. While this may come at the cost of some of Týr’s uniqueness, it’s not without a great deal of benefits. 

The record’s opening stretch is arguably its strongest, with “Hammered”, “Unwandered Ways”, and “Dragons Never Die” being blood-pumping, triumphant, and instantly memorable. For a progressive-leaning band to be able to lean this far into straightforward, catchy songwriting is extremely impressive, especially considering the bangers don’t stop. “Battle Ballad” and “Hangman” are notable latter-half highlights. While the guitar and vocals could be given a lot of credit for making these songs so instantly catchy and fun, there’s a lot more to love instrumentally under the surface. The symphonic elements of the album are also very tastefully incorporated, serving as an enhancement to Týr’s traditional metal instrumentation without ever becoming overbearing. The rhythm section on this album is also fantastic, with the rhythm guitar, bass, and drums providing a formidable wall of sound that never lets up in its power. 

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Judging the songwriting of Týr is a little harder than the music. Lyrically, what is here is alright, but with a sizable portion of the record sung in Faroese, it’s hard for most listeners to grasp all of the lyrics without jumping through hoops. Considering the band takes its name from the Norse god of war and is from a Nordic country, it’s no surprise that Týr sings primarily of pre-Christianity Norse culture, religion, and history. 

While I’d argue Viking metal (such as Peyton Perish) has become oversaturated and an exoticized fantasy of real history, Týr’s respect for their own culture and experience in metal prevents them from falling into this trap. However, what Týr’s lyrics do suffer from is being generally generic. Dealing with themes of perseverance, death, and bravery, there’s not much that Týr is doing that you couldn’t find better inside and outside their own discography, or metal in general. No topic is given too much depth or attention, with the best of the English-language songs lyrically being “Hangman”.

In terms of the Faroese songs, while lyrics are hard to decipher, the folk-inspired instrumentation they bring in, such as on “Torkils Døtur”, is the best musical diversion Týr takes. However, besides a few spare moments, we see a lot of the other side of the double-edged sword of Týr streamlining their sound. It’s treading pretty tired ground. Even though Battle Ballads is catchy and impressively performed, the record fails to stand out in a sea of similar-sounding genres like power and symphonic metal where soaring clean vocals, bright guitar leads, and dramatic instrumentation are all a given. If you’re familiar with those genres, not much on Battle Ballads will surprise you. While the record still holds up to other bands in the space, such as Epica and Sabaton, it puts them into a more oversaturated pool than they started in. 

It’s an album that’s riding almost entirely on being an efficient ass-kicker, to which I think it succeeds. This is a record that may fail to capture the interest of prog metal or fans who want to see more genre-bending, but taking Battle Ballads for what it is, it’s pretty good. It’s laced with great performances across the board, enjoyable instrumentation, and larger-than-life choruses. Despite failing to break through to the upper echelons in terms of creativity and lyrical themes, Týr’s Battle Ballads is still a damn good time and a record I can envision myself frequently returning to for the rest of the year. 

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