The Flight Of Sleipnir is stoner, doom, and folk metal band from Colorado, and was first formed in 2007. Sleipnir was one of Odin’s horses in Norse mythology, and could essentially carry him anywhere he desired. The band has released a total of 7 full-length albums during their time together. This album, Eventide (2021), is their most recent release, which was released last month on May 28th. The Bandcamp listing for the album includes tags such as black metal, metal, psychedelic metal, doom metal, heavy metal, stoner metal, stoner rock, viking metal, and Denver. I came across the album in my Apple Music recently released suggestions, and I’m pretty interested to give it a listen. With that said, I’m going to jump on into the music.
“Voland” starts out with some bright, really melodic guitar work that seems to glide atop the drum beat. Oh wow, I’m really digging what I’m hearing already. The music seems to almost fight against taking a dark turn with determination and extremely sweet melodicism. Holy smokes, the vocals have come in, and the tune seems to take a somewhat heavier, somewhat more dissonant turn. The screaming vocals have a super interesting reverb on them that make them sound pretty distant in the mix. Holy smokes, the track has entered another movement that is much mellower and very melodic, and notably without much distortion if any at all. Listening to this really takes me back to when I was super into black metal, while at the same time incorporating a really interesting, seemingly psychedelic doom metal structure. Holy smokes, the track changes up again as everything falls away but a really sweet, distorted, mellow, and melodic guitar line that seems to serve as a bridge of some sort. Oh wow, I really dig the reverberation effect on one of the guitars, which almost gives that particular guitar a sort of modern Los Angeles psychedelic (garage) rock feel while playing melodic lines that match up with the metallic nature of the soundscape really nicely. Great track, and I’m excited to hear more.
“January” gets started right away with really melodic guitar work that is backed up by a super strong, speedy rhythm section from what sound to be double kick drums, a strong snare, heavy cymbals, and a bass line that seems to groove along between the guitars and drums. Holy smokes, the tune mellows out a ton, dropping the distortion and screaming vocals in favor of some meltingly psychedelic and melodic guitar work and bass work. The song title seems fitting, as the music almost makes me feel like I’m looking out the window at a foot of freshly fallen snow on the path leading to a forest comprised of leafless trees and wintry pine trees. Oh wow, the track changes up again to a strong, speedy, heavy, melodic movement. Holy smokes, the track has entered another movement near the end of the song filled with birds chirping and mellow, melodic, melting guitar work and bass work that I’m really digging. Wow, great track.
“Thaw” starts out with some super big, strong, spacious distorted chords that seem to create waves in the soundscape, which are soon backed up by a super crunchy metal guitar that I’m really digging. Holy smokes, the soundscape seems to get increasingly melodic as the screaming vocals come in. Oh wow, everything but the bass falls away for a moment, and I’m sort of vaguely reminded of TOOL for that moment. Oh wow, the guitars come in with some super groovy, melting flavors that seem to evoke a sort of psychedelic stoner rock sound. Holy smokes, the soundscape picks up with speed and intensity as the double kick-drums and distortion come back in. I’m really digging the background vocals of the track, which have a melodious Gregorian chant-like sound; I really dig the contrast in flavors between the screaming lead vocals and the background vocals. Oh wow, I really dig the outro movement to this song. Great track.
“Bathe the Stone in Blood” starts out with some super sweet acoustic guitar that is backed by a mellow bass guitar, which immediately catches my ear and makes me think of the sort of folk metal sound that Metal-Archives.com listed as one of the genres of the band. Holy smokes, it sounds like there’s some pedal steel guitar adding in some flavors that remind me a bit of Pink Floyd. Holy smokes, the song picks up with intensity and heaviness a ton as the acoustic guitar is replaced by heavy, distorted metal riffs from some electric guitars. Holy smokes, the guitar work seems to combine the metal flavors with some super groovy psychedelic rock lines that vaguely remind me a bit of psychedelic rock from the late 1960s. Oh wow, the soundscape mellows out a ton as the distortion falls away in favor of clean, melodic guitar and bass work. Oh wow, the picks up some distortion again and seems to enter something of a heavy stoner rock movement that I’m really digging. The way the songs thus far have evolved so naturally and melodically makes me think of some of the more progressive metal-oriented songs from TOOL. Wow, great track.
Holy smokes, “Harvest” starts out with a super sweet blend of acoustic guitars, a seemingly gentle swing from the drums, and an almost ominous piano line that adds even more sweetness to the soundscape. Holy smokes, the vocals come in, and have an incredibly sweet feel as they’re not currently screaming, but are presented in a sort of melodious Gregorian chant way. Holy smokes, an electric guitar comes in and plays some super sweet, melodic lines that play off of the rest of the instrumentation really nicely. Holy smokes, the acoustic guitar falls away and the soundscape switches up to a sort of Pink Floyd-esque movement with pedal steel adding some spacey psychedelic sounds that I’m really digging. Oh wow, the instrumentation becomes a sort of spacious heavy stoner rock/metal movement as the distortion is added, the beat intensifies, and screaming vocals come in. Holy smokes, the melodious Gregorian chant-like vocals come in the soundscape as the guitar work seems to become more melodic; my immediate impression of this particular movement was that this reminds me a lot of TOOL. Wow, awesome track.
“Servitude” gets started with some heavy double kick-drums, really big-sounding, distorted guitar chords, and screaming vocals seem to add grit while blending really nicely with the distorted guitar work. Oh wow, I really dig the melodic feel of the lead guitar work in this track. All of the guitars seem to harmonize really nicely with one another across different octaves. I really dig the rhythm section of the track too. Holy smokes, the track has mellowed out to something of a mellow, psychedelic stoner rock section that I’m really digging. Oh wow, the track continually progresses through a variety of metal-oriented genres really nicely. I really dig the big distorted chords and the spacious beat in the outro movement, which makes the soundscape seem as though it’s coming through my speakers in waves. Holy smokes, the lead guitar comes in and adds some really groovy, melodic lines that have a sort of stoner rock and progressive metal sound that I’m really digging. Wow, great track, and a great way to finish up the album.
Holy smokes, this album is great. It’s been a long time since I listened to an album that had so much screaming for the vocals, but I’m definitely glad that I did. The genres contained within these six songs on this album have a ton of range; the band covered different subtypes of metal throughout including (but not limited to) black metal, doom metal, folk metal, heavy metal, psychedelic metal, and stoner metal, while also incorporating elements from tangential genres like psychedelic rock and stoner rock. If you’re a fan of TOOL and/or heavy doom metal and stoner rock, then you might want to consider checking out this album. If you do decide to give this album a listen, then I sincerely do hope that you enjoy the listening experience at least as much as I did.
-A