{"id":100652,"date":"2023-03-24T00:00:27","date_gmt":"2023-03-24T00:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=100652"},"modified":"2023-06-27T13:54:05","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T12:54:05","slug":"album-review-viking-queen-hail-to-the-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-viking-queen-hail-to-the-king\/","title":{"rendered":"VIKING QUEEN – Hail To The King (2023) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

VIKING QUEEN
Hail To The King<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nSentralforlaget (2023)<\/span>
Rating: 8.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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This release is of Norwegian origin and boasts some of the best epic heavy metal you\u2019ll hear this year. Hail To The King<\/em> features ten tracks which emerge from the fjords as well armoured battalions that somewhat act as a throwback to the strong Swedish scene of the mid-80s.<\/p>\n

With no frills, Viking Queen is just powerhouse heavy metal glinting with steely delight and responsible for thunder claps everywhere. There are no trends here, just good old fashioned fist pumping anthems by the drove, and all led by the commanding vocals of Francis Lecquian who assembled his merry band to march across fens, moors and mountains armed with guitars that act as shields, and drums that boom throughout the ashen sky.<\/p>\n

Oh how wonderful it is to behold such gimmick-free metal as opener \u2018Fight For Glory\u2019 casts great shadows on the horizon like a magnificent black horse mounted by a steel rider. These are the sorts of images that Viking Queen conjures up and it\u2019s far from being cheese-ridden power metal. There is an unintentional level of doominess present throughout this organic thunder n\u2019 roll as great strides are made with each booming instrument.<\/p>\n

The twin axe attack of Robert Hoffst\u00e6ter and Andreas Willhelmsen are the driving force behind this opus where thick rumbling riffs enable prime cuts such as \u2018Punishment\u2019, \u2018Shadowhunter\u2019 and \u2018Berzerk\u2019 to stand out from the crowds, especially when the leads fizz through. Coupling monolithic melody with bombastic power plays, the album ploughs great furrows as Izzy Prat\u2019s drums lay down concrete foundations for the brilliant \u2018Freedom Is Illusion\u2019, the soaring \u2018Valhalla Can Wait\u2019 and the slow burning \u2018Flight Of The Valkyries\u2019.<\/p>\n

Hail To The King<\/em> is grandiose and majestic and yet sandwiched within the album is the fleeting yet fiery \u2018Attitude\u2019, a short but electrifying rock n\u2019 roller of a track which is a fine example of the band\u2019s ability to strip things back and knuckle down to some swagger. This is a top quality outing that keeps the Scandinavian fjords bubbling and the banners of old flying.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VIKING QUEENHail To The King Sentralforlaget (2023)Rating: 8.5\/10 This release is of Norwegian origin and boasts some of the best epic heavy metal you\u2019ll hear this year. Hail To The King features ten tracks which emerge from the fjords as well armoured battalions that somewhat act as a throwback to the strong Swedish scene of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5412],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-viking-queen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100652"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100655,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100652\/revisions\/100655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}