RAGINPIT MAGAZINE

Leaves' Eyes - Njord
Release Date: August 26, 2009

Tracklist
1. Njord
2. My Destiny
3. Emerald Island
4. Take the Devil In Me
5. Scarborough Fair (Simon & Garfunkel Cover)
6. Through Our Veins
7. Irish Rain
8. Northbound
9. Ragnarok
10. Morgenland
11. The Holy Bond
12. Fröya's Theme
13. Landscape of the Dead (bonus track)
14. Les Champs de Lavande (bonus track)

Line Up:
Liv Kristine - vocals
Thorsten Bauer - guitar
Mathias Röderer - guitar
Alexander Krull - vocals
Alla Fedynitch - bass
Seven Antonopolous - drums

Njord is the new album from Leaves’Eyes, one of the most successful female fronted bands in Europe. In short, Leaves’Eyes is the sum of ex-Theatre of Tragedy singer Liv Kristine and the German band Atrocity. She also has a sister, Carmen Elise who sings in (believe it or not) German based folk metal band Mitnattsol. Well, they are family after all.

I did an interview with Liv Kristine some time ago, just before the release of Njord. Here are Liv's comments about various tracks on the album.

Track 1 - Njord: If I should describe "Njord" in four words I would say bombastic, emotional, contrastive, and pure.

Track 2 - My Destiny: "My Destiny" is a song you can easily "tune into." It's a good way to introduce the album.

Track 5 - Scarborough Fair: I was an exchange student in the English town Scarborough and I got very interested in their culture. This song is a folk song sung in the middle ages, also by the Vikings, on a trading market in Scarborough. I wanted to rewrite the tune into a more heavy version and I am very happy with the result!

Track 12 - Fröya's Theme: "Fröya's Theme" is one of my favourites on the album, too, next to "Irish Rain." "Fröya's Theme" is about eight minutes long, it includes five languages, inclusive two "speaking" parts done by Alex and myself respectively. It tells the story about Fröya, the Goddess of sex with her extreme power of beauty. However, her lover Od leaves her as he has "wandering eyes" for other beautiful women. Fröya travels around and through the worlds in Northern mythology to find him. Her tears are made of gold and they heavily strike the earth.

Track 14 - Les Champs de Lavande (bonus track) As we had composed the instruments for this song, I thought about France immediately! I immediately sensed the smell of my favourite flower and scent, lavender! The Provance Lavender was famous already in the Middle Ages. I sat down and tried to put together a Franch lyric, and a friend of mine in France corrected it. This song just had to be about Lavender, and it sounds more authentic and special when it is sung in French.

Njord is the logic next step from Vinland Saga, their last album, but with more choirs and more bombastic music. If you are a fan, then you can buy/download this album without doubt.

The limited edition will feature a model of a Viking boat, a Drakkar. About the Drakkar:

This is a way for us saying thank you to our fans and friends. Remember, many of them are collectors. I used to collect Madonna and Black Sabbath/Ozzy special merchendise objects.

A highlight for me is the Simon & Garfunkel cover (I never imaged to feature those two in a metal review!) The song gives room to Liv’s beautiful voice without being masked with all the goth bombast.

Overal quality of the songs is high, but it lacks the spontaneous feeling Lovelorn (the debut album) had. Thorsten Bauer, the guitar player and mastermind behind the music did a good job composing the songs and husband & supplier of the grunt vocals on the album Alex Krull did a solid job recording and mixing Njord at the Mastersound Studio (which Liv and Alex own).

This album is for:
A romantic evening with your girlfriend in a log cabin somewhere deep in the forests of Norway and do not forget to bring some good wine and fire wood.

Some links:
http://www.leaveseyes.com/
http://www.myspace.com/leaveseyespage
http://www.myspace.com/livkristinepage
http://www.myspace.com/atrocitypage
http://www.myspace.com/carmeneliseespens