Danheim – Heimferd
Release Date: 31st October 2025
Label: Season of Mist
Bandcamp
Genre: Nordic Folk, Ambient Neo Folk, Viking.
FFO: Heilung, Wardruna, Eihwar.
Review By: Paul Cairney
Danheim is the brainchild of Danish producer, singer/songwriter and all round talented guy, Reidar Schæfer Olsen. Steeped in Viking Neo-folk, Heimferd is not a metal album. It does not force-feed you with the raw aggression that only metal can provide.
No, instead we are hit with an almost ambient, hypnotic soundscape that features strings, horns, animal noises, pan-pipes (I think) as well as chanting and easy listening sequences. If you are in the right mood, it is utterly captivating, taking you into a greater plain that you will expect.
Opening track, ‘Agermark’ is a gentle opening, although to be fair, the whole album is gentle. It is a melodic, tranquil and atmospheric opener containing the aforementioned ‘animal’ sounds, fitting as it translates as ‘arable land’. It takes you into the past, welcoming you with open arms.
‘Haukadalur’, the albums longest track, is littered with layered instrumentation, and the vocal is as uplifting as any on Heimferd. It is like a warm scarf wrapped around you on a cold day. It oozes class, placing you in a specific place and time.
Perhaps the only issue with the album is that you need to be in a specific mindset. It is an album to listen to when you are doing something else. It can frustrate as much as it entrances. Sometimes you want it to have a touch more variety, but it doesn’t. Danheim has taken the Danish Viking-folk genre and expanded it.
Sometimes, when listening to a few tracks, it is easy to imagine yourself as being sat round a camp-fire in the woods, with minstrels leading the sing-along. In a British context, you can place yourself in Sherwood Forest with Robin Hood (as far away from the Viking concept as you could probably get, both in location and time). This is the strength of the album – it does take you away from your daily life.
By the time ‘Yggdrasil II’ (not the Rotting Christ song – but about the same subject matter – an immense and central sacred tree in Norse cosmology) draws to a close, you will be relaxed and content.
If this is your goal, this could be for you. It is both relaxing and entertaining, but only if you are in the right frame of mind.
(3.5 / 5)
