Feskarn are a project by Niklas Larsson, originating from Uppsala, Sweden, and formed in 2010. The guy released a first album in 2012, called Raise Your Sword. Since Pesttanz Klangschmiede were so kind to send that album together with this new one, I will write a review on that debut very soon; just watch out.
Östra Aros is the second full length, having a total running time of fifty minutes. It was done completely by Niklas with lyrics in both Swedish and English. The album opens with Oden’s Path, immediately giving an idea of what this album stands for. The song opens with a very great synth-melody, soon joined by epic vocals and a mouth harp. Shortly after, it evolves into a heavier piece with grim vocals and a very heavy and rhythmic instrumentalisation, but it has more to offer by being very varied. The keyboard lines from the intro reappear whole the time, and so are the epic chants. With some comprehensible fantasy, Bathory, Vintersorg, Thyrfing, Mithotyn, Windir and Borknagar might come to mind, but beware: this material isn’t a copy of it. It’s a direction, an idea I want to give. The second track, Two Minutes In The Darkness, is heavier, more rhythmic, yet also containing those apart synth melodies, and Birka Warriors is even more aggressive. So Östra Aros continues. It’s epic, diverse in tempo and structure, very melodious, maybe somewhat catchy. Because of its diversity (with a remarkable bonus track!), there are good songs, and there are dull ones. It’s up to you to choose which ones you prefer.
A word about the production is wishful too, for the sound is very decent and professional. Because it is rather clean, the whole comes with the catchiness I just mentioned; a rougher production would have this material turned in a more grim experience; it’s a choice Feskarn took. I would have preferred the more underground-oriented direction, but the result, anyway, is pretty neat. And the drum computer (plus, from time to time, the synths), give the whole from time to time a slightly mechanical character - a strange contrast with the organic material.