Welcome to the rhythm section. Sometimes, arcane sounds are good for the soul. And these ancient spiritual musings will give you a whiff of how that raw dispersion of pagan worship might have felt like. If only we could find that damn fully functional time machine. But there isn’t any.
And it’s refreshing to disconnect yourself from the forever nagging nailed god1 and feel the Power ov Ritual through the veins of whatever you perceive nature’s strength should be. And besides, Black Metal starts to grow stale with their ever-returning daemonic schemes and stolen rituals, stemming from ancient books probably forged by some estranged monk or something. So, break out those wardrums, ahem, synth machines, and bone sticks. Or whatever they use over at Eihwar. A pagan rave party is afoot.
The RMR crew already wallowed deeply in ancient lore and its musical transgressions on this mortal plane. The most prominent ones were the obvious culprits, such as Wardruna and the folks over at Heilung. More mainstream outfits also garnered some ungodly attention, such as the German act Faun or the sturdy Eluveitie. Put differently, the RMR crew has taken an unholy liking to the more fantastical regurgitations of musical archeology.
Enter Eihwar. A new duo of a band rushing onto the scene in 2023, with a wish to explore all those ritualistic tropes, those doorways already opened by others. And Hugrheim showcases an interesting take on this genre. You’ll find cryptic messaging galore with a ton of age-old instruments such as the Talharpa in full use. But unless the purists of the ancient woods and weird runes coming from Selvik’s corner2, these guys use – hold on to something – synth-heavy, industrially infused electronica for beats. And that gives me visions of strobe-infected club mixes being played to a crowd, shot full of illicit substances, and dressed in wild-man garb. Yet another band that understood that using electronica would give them endless possibilities to weave their tale further.
But that’s not all, of course. Hugrheim gets you the full program. A heavy stomp worse than Heilung’s warriors on a rampage. Asrunn‘s Hella-ish3 howlings galore, followed by gruff snarls and mumblings from a masked guy called Mark. All of that rolls in on a melodic vein. Often very near to the aforementioned Faun when they go fully unplugged. And to get you the complete package, Eihwar like to use some pseudo Viking tropes, such as the reincarnation of the Gjallarhorn together with watery samples, to depict the aural idea of a longship heading to port. Allegedly.
In other words, Hugrheim won’t contain anything breathtakingly new. Instead, the duo has a knack for mixing all those (known) elements into a new, pretty alluring brew. The band’s statement that their tune’s – and I quote – “…primal force is based on technoid machines…” sounds true. And that’s a new take on things, a tidbit that will send the aforementioned purists into overdrive and have them cry foul with a vengeance. And yet. Eihwar‘s approach to arcane music creates some sort of tasty amalgamation of the often obscurely austere fare that other bands in this genre section produce. A sound that will draw the masses to the fire-lit places where these soundscapes are played under starlit skies, torches and all.
But there’s, as always, a catch to it. Hugrheim‘s offering is riddled with a ton of repetitions. And I mean, a lot. After a while, this feels like being in a club at 3 am without the possibility of escape when the endless whomping starts to get to you. A tendency to circle the wagons a few times too many. And that, when extensive crispness could be had by cutting some of that fat out of the production.
But by and large, Hugrheim lost no time to sink its ancient claws into the flesh of the equally ancient old geezers at the RMR Review Desk. This is juicy Pagan Folk with an electronic twist that – for once – doesn’t seek the moral high ground. Eihwar are just here for the music. Steeped in ancient lore, rune-laden, archaic, and still modern. The outcome is nothing short of astonishing. The RMR crew went into the record without too many expectations and emerged convinced. And that’s a feat not many records achieved.
Let’s have more of that.
Record Rating: 7/10 | Label: Season of Mist | Web: Official Band Site
Release Date: 13 March 2026