I have been a true metal head since I can remember and I was always striving to find that song that not only plays but makes your bones shake and rattle and vibrates to your core. I could not call it any other name, when I eventually located it, than a beast. What of Nordstahl and his Mjölnir? That is one hell of a monster.
Even on the opening riff, you feel like you are on top of a snow blasted mountain, guitars are flashing like lightning and drums are beating forward with the power of a thousand warriors marching. It is industrial metal at its most basic, with an entrancing, swaying rhythm that drags you in and makes you want to move it- like you are preparing to fight.
The singing got me by the throat. That low, husky bellow does not sing--it shouts, it orders. It is sandy as an old battlefield, and challenges you to stand up, regardless of any language barrier. The guitars move through sludgy distortion to sweeping epic swells that form a soundscape that is both brutal and yet somehow beautiful, a myth you can hear.
The heart of the song is what really hooked me, however. It is not only about an ancient Norse hammer, but the power that we all have inside, the one that we kept in a box too long. Mjölnir is not prop here, it is a challenge. A slap to wake up. An appeal to cease waiting to be saved.
The entire song is ritual like, it is pure electricity, you are left sharper, faster, alive. To anybody who ever felt trapped, like the world got too quiet, this is your battle cry. What Nordstahl has created is not just music, it is a storm that lingers in your head long after it has passed to remind you that we all have a hammer. We only have to have the nerve to swing it.
.jpg)
