The album cover of Hedningarna's latest album with the special title & radiates pure testosterone: three tough men with bare torsos spew clouds of dust (= noise?). The Swedish folk band leaves a lot of dust at festivals because of the rough way in which they mix folk with rock and electronic influences. Since the band's founding in 1987, multi-instrumentalists Hållbus Totte Mattsson and Anders
… Norudde have continued to be at the core, supplemented on this album by Samuel Andersson. They play a fascinating arsenal of traditional musical instruments such as a fiddle, flute, mouth harp, hurdy-gurdy, bagpipe, mandora, accordion and percussion. More than ten years after their last studio album Karelia Visa - and a compilation album as a snack - Hedningarna still sounds as energetic and who knows even richer than ever. After two overwhelming fierce opening tracks, the folk band shows a varied sound palette of atmospheres and moods, with catchy melodies and energetic rhythms. What the tough guys sing about in Swedish unfortunately remains untranslated, but that does not hinder the listening pleasure! (SvdP)more
