Stamford Bridge - Soltsice Demo '95 (Hammersmith Records - 2013)

After the dark-medieval kind of Oi! of Battle Ruins, lets stay in the past, maybe even further. Today I will take you to the glorious year of 1066, and the Battle of Stamford Bridge, the turning point in history which marked the end of the Viking Age. If I'm doing all that historical bullshit right now, it's because we're going to talk about one of the side project of Carl from The Templars (the guy has definitely something with history), namely Stamford Bridge (named after the battle then, don't mix if with the stadium of Chelsea FC, please).

I was introduced to that band a few years ago with their split (don't know if I should say "their" here, it's a one-man band if I'm not wrong) with Karlskrona's On The Job. I remembered being told that these songs had some kind of a powerpop feeling going on (I actually can't tell this myself, I know pretty much nothing about powerpop). That's absolutely not the case of that demo made in 1995, but released only last year. It still sounds kind of light (lo-fi and distortionless guitars), but if you want my point of view (and if you're reading that you probably want it), but no more powerpop here, it sounds a lot more like the early recordings of Ultima Thule, but with the a more Templars-like sound to it all. It sounds kind of neofolk-ish in a way (yep, Death In June, Blood Axis, I don't know what's your opinion, but I love these bands). It's really melodical, even melancholical. But still, it's viking as fuck. Well, with a cover and song titles like these, what did you expected ?

Can you imagine a three-years-in-a-row winter ? I moved from France to Sweden last year, and damn I had the impression of living that...

There are 3 songs on that demo 7", namely "The Longships" (known, for some reason, as "drakkars" in the country I come from), "The Mighty Thunderer" (I can say without a doubt that this one is about Thor) and last but not least "Fimbul Winter" (the three winters in a row just before Ragnarök, the end of the world). So yes, pretty viking. If you don't like norse mythology, you're gonna be bored. Hopefuly, I like that kind of stuff, so the addition of great music + great lyrics is just perfect to me. I must say that I like these tracks much more than the one on the split with On The Job. This dirty sound (it's a demo from '95 boy, don't expect a perfect sounding stuff) just give more power to the whole thing, it makes the atmosphere the band is building much better (reading that sentence again, I'm not sure it's clear, but fuck it, that's the best way I can express what I'm feeling listening to that record). Best songs are definitely "The Longships" (great ending !) and "Fimbul Winter" (that's what I meant with the whole neofolk thing, it reminds me in a way of Sol Invictus' album "Against the Modern World", and I love that album). "The Great Thunderer" sounds maybe a bit to "cheesy" to me, but it's still a good song anyway, just not as good as the two others.

The artwork is, as I wrote before, linked to the topic of the songs : it's a viking warrior embrassing the sun (that goes pretty good with the "Solstice" title), with runes, axes and other viking traceries going on. Well done here. The only thing it misses is an insert with the lyrics. Not being myself an englih native-speaker, I have a hard time understanding all the lyrics (the sound quality is not helping as well, but that's for the greater good, as I developed before). 500 copies in a red vinyl, and I think it was released kind of late last year, so it shouldn't be too hard to find.

All in all, that's, to me, a great 7". If you like the Templars, viking stuffs and you're not affraid of slower-paced, lighter sounding music than you're usual Oi! bands, you can buy that record with your eyes closed. That's pretty much what I did and I'm pretty happy with it !