#midvinterblot

Gustav Vasa Enters Stockholm 1523 (1908) // Midwinter's Sacrifice (1915)

UNLEASHED “Midvinterblot” CD 2006 (A quite excellent eighth album from the Viking-Death Metal warmachine. ‘Hail Odin ! Drink to Victory !’)

Unleashed: Midvinterblot (2006)

Unleashed were coming off one of their very best albums, Sworn Allegiance, when they issued Midvinterblot fifteen years ago, so my expectations were both heightened and probably a little unrealistic when I dove into the Swedish death metal institution’s eighth studio LP.

And yet, there was little cause for disappointment here, because this was another formidable outing for Johnny Hedlund and his troops, who crammed these 46 minutes with a very generous fifteen, short, sharp song-shocks boasting no fat on the bone and violent hooks galore. 

Just listen to the mood-establishing standout “This is Our World Now” as you read these words, and you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about ...

Whether they were mustering their Viking troops for war (“In Victory or Defeat,” “Valhalla Awaits”), condemning religious hypocrisy (“Blood of Lies,” “Salvation for Mankind”), or even visiting Tolkien’s Middle Earth (“We Must Join With Him”), Unleashed rarely slowed down and they gave no quarter.

Plus, in a little bit of harmless fun, they incorporated the titles of all past Unleashed LPs (Where No Life Dwells, Across the Open Sea, Shadows in the Deep, Victory, Warrior, Hell’s Unleashed and the already mentioned Sworn Allegiance) into the song “Age of the Warrior” -- hell, yeah!

Ultimately, Midvinterblot’s only real fault (if you can call it that) was being, basically, Sworn Allegiance part two, but any Unleashed fan will tell you that deviating from form is neither expected, nor a negative with this band, which has trucked right along for years like the AC/DC of death metal.

l only wish I’d taken the time, then, to read into the fascinating origin of Midvinterblot and its title track in an ancient Norse myth that tells of the “midwinter sacrifice” of Sweden’s ‘ill-luck’ King Domalde, whose step-mother supposedly cursed his reign with bad crops and starvation.

As the legend goes, on the first bad year oxen were sacrificed at the temple at Uppsala, on the second it was men’s turn, and on the third year it came down to the king himself, at which point his blood (“blót”) was sprinkled upon gods’ statues and the good harvests allegedly returned.

Centuries later, the myth was to inspire one of Sweden’s “most controversial paintings” (see above and read about it here), created in 1915 by painter Carl Larsson for the central staircase in Stockholm’s Nationalmuseum and considered both an “unsurpassed masterpiece and a work of suspect morality.”

That concludes today’s lesson ... now mosh!

Assembled and decorated the gingerbread house today. ❤️😊🎄 A few days left before Jul (christmas and midvinterfest). Today the 21 is acctually the midvinter day. The longest night. ❤️❄️☃️

December 2021

Study for Midvinterblot, by Carl Larsson, 1915

Midnight Mass, Chapter 2: Sacrament

Read on A03

Poor Christine. All she wanted was go to church.