The best albums of 2021 include Marina Diamandis, The Marias, The Fratellis, Maximo Park, Morgan Wallen, Wardruna, Prince, At the Gates, Hayley Williams, Andrew W.K., Miranda Lambert, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Liz Phair. RIFF’s writers reviewed hundreds of albums in 2021, and although the year isn’t over,…

Einar Selvik of Wardruna wrote all of the songs on “Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: The Weft of Spears.” Courtesy. One of the best aspect of video game “Assassin’s Creed Valhalla,” besides the realistic game playing experience, storylines and CGI, was the soundtrack. The game, released in 2020, featured original songs…

It’s been two years since Wardruna dropped Skald, and half a decade since the last album featuring the full Nordic folk collective. Skald featured solo performances from project leader Einar Selvik, evoking the skald poets of pre-Christian Scandinavia. The album’s limited nature hasn’t hindered Wardruna’s journey, following up its…

Wardruna (Einar Selvik center), Courtesy: Kim Ohrling. Einar Selvik was once known as “kvitravn,” which translates from old Norse to “the white raven.” That was back in his days as a drummer in the Norwegian black metal scene. Since the early 2000s, Selvik transitioned from black metal to something…

After helping pioneer death-doom and gothic metal alongside Anathema and Paradise Lost during the ’90s, England’s My Dying Bride has remained much more loyal to its seminal approach. The band’s compelling consistency has guided its 30-year career of crushing melancholy. The journey almost ended over the past few years,…

Wrekmeister Harmonies It’s finally here… the time when music nerds scramble to compile all of the albums they enjoyed during the year! This was a particularly strong year for music of all types, both mainstream and independent. I even had a hard time narrowing down my favorites down to 50…

Skaldic poetry largely defined the rhetoric and literature of the Viking age, making the Skalds of ancient Scandanavia powerful forces of culture, religion and catharsis in pre-Christian Scandinavia. It’s hard to think of a more appropriate heir to the Skaldic mantle than Norway’s traditional folk collective Wardruna. The act’s…