Valkyrja, the seventh full-length album from the Faroe Islands natives, TÝR, will be released on September 13th/16th in Europe/UK. After having unveiled the opening track on the album, the band has launched the second track, Mare of My Night, on MetalInsider.net. Stream the song new HERE.
Vocalist/guitarist Heri Joenson comments: „Mare Of My Night was by far the most difficult song on the album to write, music wise. What I usually do is work on a basic idea, a melody with a chord progression. I make variations over the basic idea and then I pick out the best variations for the respective parts of the song, verse, chorus etc. For this one I had more variations than ever before and I made more versions of this song that I’ve ever done before, so it was very difficult to choose. I’m still not sure I made the best possible song, which is not a satisfying feeling at all. But there you have it.
As for the text, once I went to work on it, it was written in a day or two, in the evenings during studio time. I had the title and the story line long in advance. It’s based on the mare from folklore, the human-like creature that lies on top of you, riding you, causing bad dreams. As in nightmare, riding like a mare etc. Our anonymous viking, the protagonist of the story, finds in this song that his earthly woman has gone from being a goddess to being nightmare. It is also the most sexually explicit piece of lyric I have written so far.”
For Valkyrja, TÝR collaborated with Jacob Hansen at Hansen Studios in Ribe, Denmark. Along with Hansen, the band recruited acclaimed drummer George Kollias to act as studio drummer and Leaves’ Eyes vocalist Liv Kristine joined vocalist/guitarist Heri Joensen for a vocal duet onThe Lay of Our Love.
The opening track to the album, Blood of Heroes, is streaming now at metalblade.com/tyr, where Valkyrja is also available for pre-order. Limited edition pre-order bundles are available that include TÝR rune pendants, t-shirt, vinyl LP, and the CD.
About Valkyjra:
Valkyrja is a concept album with a story line based loosely around an anonymous Viking age warrior who leaves his woman and goes off to impress the Valkyrie on the battlefield so that she may bring him to Valhalla, or to Fólkvangr, the home of Freyja—the goddess associated with love, sexuality, beauty, fertility, gold, sorcery, war, and death. One can say the album is also indirectly about women and how they affect men and what men will do to impress and obtain women. Front man and founder Heri Joensen goes on to explain; „the woman that the warrior leaves may represent the earthly women. Freyja, The Lady Of The Slain, may represent the perfection of Women, and the Valkyrie is the link between the two, taking men from earthly to godly women.”
TÝR will be on tour September – October with Finntroll in Europe. Dates are available below as well as at facebook.com/tyrband.
TÝR
09/08/13 FO – Klaksvik – Summarfestivalurin
12/10/13 NO – Skien – 1001 Watt Festival
Finntroll
+ TÝR
+ Skalmold
06/09/13 NO – Haugesund – Byscenen
08/09/13 DK – Aarhus – Voxhall
09/09/13 DE – Hamburg – Markthalle
10/09/13 DE – Nürnberg – Hirsch
11/09/13 PL – Wroclaw – Alibi
12/09/13 PL – Krakow – Kwadrat
13/09/13 HU – Budapest – Club 202
14/09/13 RO – Brasov – Rockstadt
15/09/13 RO – Bucharest – Silver Church
17/09/13 HR – Zagreb – Mochvara
18/09/13 AT – Wien – Szene
19/09/13 CZ – Prag – Nova Chmelnice
21/09/13 DE – Bochum – Matrix
22/09/13 DE – Augsburg – Kantine
23/09/13 AT – Wörgl – Komma
24/09/13 IT – Milano – R’n’R Arena
25/09/13 CH – Pratteln – Z7
26/09/13 DE – Aschaffenburg – Colos-Saal
27/09/13 DE – Speyer – Halle 101
28/09/13 DE – Jena – F-Haus
29/09/13 BE – Bruges – Factor
30/09/13 UK – Norwich – Waterfront
01/10/13 UK – Glasgow – Classic Grand
02/10/13 UK – Manchester – NQ Live
03/10/13 IE – Dublin – The Pint
04/10/13 UK – Bilston – Robin 2
05/10/13 UK – London – The Garage
06/10/13 FR – Lille – Le Splendid
08/10/13 FR – Strasbourg – La Laiterie
09/10/13 FR – Lyon – La Salle Du Kao
10/10/13 CH – Geneve – L’Usine
11/10/13 FR – Istres – L’Usine
13/10/13 ES – Madrid – Rockkitchen/ Caracol
14/10/13 FR – Toulouse – Le Bikini