Frontman Heri Joensen comments: “‘Axes’ starts with a battle horn followed by a fast melodic and symphonic guitar riff introducing the progression and main theme of the song. ‘Game Of Thrones’-ish lyrics of gory and glorified hand-to-hand battle of Viking times, told from a first-person perspective. The verse is slow and heavy with a gritty, yet theatrical and melodic voice. The chorus is fast with a singalong choir, alternating vocally between intricate and brutally simple phrasings. It’s a short face-melting metal song based on a single melodic idea.”

When TÝR teamed up with the Symphony Orchestra of the Faroe Islands on February 8, 2020, to record the double-disc/DVD release “A Night At The Nordic House”, founding frontman Heri Joensen was thrilled to bring together two of the music forms he loves most — folk and classical — into his band’s unorthodox form of music. But at the time, he couldn’t have imagined what a profound impact the collaboration would have on his musical vision, and how much it would influence and inform the album he would write a few years later.

“There’s a reason classical music is called classical,” Joensen says. “It’s the classical way of doing it. And it creates these epic sounds that fit in perfectly with the kind of metal we do in TÝR. So, there’s full orchestration on all of the new songs.”

The follow-up to the band’s 2019’s powerful progressive folk metal album “Hel”, the new “Battle Ballads” is aptly named — a crushing, soaring, batch of classical embellished songs that conjure images of galloping steeds, clashing swords, and hard-fought victories. And, as if it needs to be stated, the title “Battle Ballads” has nothing in common with the lighter-raising songs so prevalent in the 1980s.

“There are definitely two versions of a ballad,” clarifies Joensen. “A lot of people think of hair metal, when they think of ballads. We are looking at ballads here in the Medieval sense. Apart from a couple of softer parts on the album, this is very much straight heavy metal with some folk and classical influences. I’m not sure what exactly one would call it — power metal, Viking metal, folk metal. It still fits in very much with what we do, only it feels bigger and more like these big soundscapes.”

As much as TÝR would have liked to write, rehearse, and record with a symphony, schedule conflicts made it impossible to have the band and classical musicians to be in the same place at the same time. So the band did the next best thing. With Joensen at the helm, they wrote ten thunderous songs for “Battle Ballads”, then the bandleader sent the compositions to a Danish colleague Lars Winther living in England, who added the orchestral samples, paying close attention to the tone and tempo of the songs so the violins, violas, cellos, woodwinds, and horns fit complemented the traditional rock instruments. When the samples were all in place the album sounded impressive, but the tones weren’t perfectly blended. So, TÝR sent the album to veteran producer Jacob Hansen (VOLBEAT, THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER, AMARANTHE) in Denmark to put together the final mix.

“Battle Ballads” features the artwork of by Gyula Havancsak and will be released on CD and digital formats as well as vinyl.

“Battle Ballads” track listing:
01. Hammered
02. Unwandered Ways
03. Dragons Never Die
04. Row
05. Torkils Døtur
06. Vælkomnir Føroyingar
07. Hangman
08. Axes
09. Battle Ballad
10. Causa Latronum Normannorum

TÝR is:
Heri Joensen – vocal, guitar
Hans Hammer – guitar
Gunnar Helmer “Gunz” Thomsen – bass
Tadeusz “Tad” Rieckmann – drums