Global Domination | Reviews | Rebellion: Arise (from Ginnungagap to Ragnarok

Recent updates

Recent discussions

Reviews

Rebellion: Arise (from Ginnungagap to Ragnarok - history of the vikings, vol. III)

22/09/09 || Euthanatos

This is the 307th viking themed album I’ve reviewed for GD. No, really, I’m keeping count. There are also 307 bands named Rebellion in the world. Coincidence? I think not! Anyway, this Rebellion is the one with the Grave Digger defectors, and usually they play your slightly above average power metal. This new album, however, is a bit different.

See, I know for a fact that I’ve been following this band ever since its inception. I’m also fairly certain I’ve listened to every single album they’ve ever put out, particularly this “The History of the Vikings” trilogy, because, well, I’m obsessed with all things viking. I don’t know if you know this, but my right arm has a considerably large viking-themed tattoo. Yes, the obsession is that bad. I have no idea why. I was either a viking in a past life, or I fantasize about large, unclean Norwegian men.

Anyway, I swear to all that is sacred and holy, I have absolutely no recollection of what the first two parts of this trilogy were like. I remember I enjoyed them, particularly the second part, but the songs in themselves are not lodged in my memory as to make comparisons with this new bit.

Therefore, I would like to hijack the review in this moment to talk to you about something much more important than Rebellion’s new album. That thing, good sirs, is viking themed movies. See, we don’t really have a bunch of those, do we? Vikings surely have taken a hold of our contemporary imagination, sharing the spotlight with other treasured creatures such as pirates, ninjas and zombies. But while those other three have a multitude of films (decent or not) being produced, vikings have been somewhat relegated to the back of the bus, ironic as that may be. You see, you have your quintessential viking movie, the father of them all, that “The Vikings” movie with Kirk Douglas, which was okay, if you consider when it was made and the kinda lame story. Then we spend years, YEARS without so much as a decent epic adventure. Sure, we had “Erik the Viking” , but that hardly counts (or “Asterix and the Vikings”, for that matter), and the book, which was serious, not a comedy, was much better. Then came along “ The 13th Warrior”, which is actually a movie I really like, even though Antonio Banderas plays the worst Arab diplomat I have ever seen in my life. The vikings are a fun bunch in that movie, the only screwed-up CG scene we get is when they’re on the ship at night, and the fight scenes are glorious. Throw in a rehashed Beowulf storyline and you’ve got gold.

I hear scenes were cut because of budget constraints, so if there was ever a Director’s cut of the thing, I’d give an arm and a leg to have it. Speaking of Beowulf, that 3D version that came out a couple of years ago wasn’t half bad, Ray Whatshisname was really good in it, but I only watched it in the theater, I have a feeling it wouldn’t have been nearly as entertaining without the 3D or the big screen. We also got some terrible, terrible movies, like “Pathfinder” and “Outworlder”, which were just… yeah, terrible, I mean, some people have “Outworlder” in high regard because of its campy nature, but I thought it was incredibly boring, and the acting was just atrocious. The only good thing in it was Ron “Hellboy” Perlman. Now there’s a couple of movies I enjoyed right there, though, the “Hellboy” movies! Sure, they weren’t all that good, the comics are infinitely better, but as far as mindless adventures go, those two certainly are fun. So, to summarize and end this essay, it is therefore my conclusion that the world needs more viking movies. There was some talk of a badass, historically accurate one with Sean Bean in the works, but I haven’t heard anything about that one in a while.

Shit, right, the Rebellion album.

It’s not so much a typical power metal; far from it. There are a lot of different elements here. The music sounds darker, particularly the vocals (alas, they do still sound too much like Grave Digger), sometimes reminding me of Iced Earth, and the songs go from stuff that sounds really heavy, almost Amon Amarth like, to others that are almost doom, as well as your expected power metallary (I just invented that), such as in tracks like “Odin”.

The faster tracks like “War” and “Loki” are worthy of checking out if you enjoy old-school Grave Digger or Running Wild, or you like power metal but feel tired of the mostly gay bands in the genre.

I did find, however, that the more I listened to this album, the more I thought of it as less appealing. I don’t know if that’s also a problem with the previous two (since I can’t remember them, there’s a hint in there somewhere), but there’s nothing really spectacular or memorable in “Arise”. It’s a pretty decent record if you’re into a less cliché kind of power metal, and will keep you interested enough if you like reading/listening about vikings, but even with all my passion for savage Norse warriors, I wouldn’t go out of my way to buy this.

Well, maybe if all albums were in a special 5 dollar fire sale, so getting all three for 15 bucks would definitely be worth it. Or, you know, if you illegally download them, though we don’t condone that kind of attitude here. At all. You didn’t even hear me utter that suggestion. It is a lot better than the shit Grave Digger has been releasing recently, though.

I do think this was the largest album title we’ve had this year in a review. Hell, it might be the largest album title we’ve had on the site ever. Not that that’s important in any way whatsoever, but I’ve ran out of things to say.

Oh, yeah, there was the Techno Viking too. That guy was rad.

The cover: Ohh, this is really neat, it has a big, badass Odin, with his crows, and rain and thunder and a starlit sky and shit. Very vikingy (I also just made that up).

Information
Released: 2009
Label: Massacre Records
Website: www.rebellion.st
Band
Michael Seifert: vocals
Uwe Lulis: guitars
Simone Wenzel: guitars
Tomi Göttlich: bass
Gerd Lücking: drums

Tracklist
01. War
02. Arise
03. Asgard
04. Odin
05. Runes
06. Bolverk
07. Thor
08. Evil
09. Loki
10. Prelude
11. Ragnarök
12. Einherjar

Reviews