Composer Reacts to Windir - Todeswalzer (REACTION & ANALYSIS)

Bryan reacts to and talks about his thoughts on Todeswalzer
ORIGINAL VIDEO // • Todeswalzer
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0:00 Intro
1:03 Reaction
6:00 Analysis - Did I Enjoy More Black Metal?
9:15 Analysis - The Importance of the Violin
12:15 Analysis - Lead Instrument Roles
16:24 Analysis - First Major Composition Shift
22:00 Analysis - Cleaner Production
22:45 Analysis - Variation On Old Ideas
25:33 Analysis - Lyrical Dive
34:36 Analysis - Tying the Themes Together
37:33 Outro

[@paolosmeazzetto2159]

Valfar was a great musician, a huge loss for the genre. I'm glad you listened to him, his music is a gem unknown to many people.

[@atheist101]

One black metal artist said listening to black metal is like listening to opera, you have to train your ear to hear it properly. Once you do it's beautiful

[@katarinastene9069]

He just felt this thing....when our soul talk without words. He KNEW how it sounds. He catch it exactly. I think this is secret. When you listening to Windir, you have feeling that you listen to your own soul, you remember your childhood time and song what were around you, and many other things.... He did not make music as only entertaiment, it was something much more.

[@Ruija27]

this entire "1184" album is excellent

[@CriticalReactions]

While not the 1184 album, I will be checking out the entire Arntor album tomorrow!

[@tlotredits]

@@CriticalReactions wow can't wait for that

[@warbutcher7706]

@@CriticalReactions great!!!

[@Tonepusher]

Windir is probably my favorite black metal band ever. I've been listening to this for like 20 years BUT having this said I'd like to add something very important. Most of Windir music and riffs were copied from folk and traditional music from his village/country . Valfar was an accordion player and he literally transferred notes for notes from his folk music books the riffs into metal music. I remember finding some videos (in Norwegian) online where you can watch him take the book and transfer the song into his computer/sequencer. Also, I can't find it anymore but I remember finding the actual original folk song online, and it was basically a Windir song. Having this said, I still LOVE his music nor deny his talent. But I think it's an important thing to know hehe

[@JvG0]

This is definitely one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite albums from one of my favorite bands.

[@Discostick55]

Haha, I love how you're realizing Black Metal is growing on you. For some it is absolutely an acquired taste, for me it was too. I had a friend who was into Black Metal as a kid before I was ready to listen to it, and I remember HATING it at the time, I just wasn't ready. I was just starting to listen to metal myself at the time. I had to make a journey through several subgenres of metal before I could appreciate BM, it was a lot of fun to revisit and absolutely love those exact songs I hated before.

[@RemyBonnici]

This comment resonates with me. Some of the songs/music genres I hated listening to and couldn't click with are some of my favourites now.

[@coldwhitespring5004]

It's not really Black Metal though, it doesn't have the satanist lyrics. It's a genre called Sognametal, named after the area it came from.

[@GrossePutea5Dollards]

​​@@coldwhitespring5004LOOOOOL! What you talking about ? You probably a newjack just discovery the diversity of Black Metal. Black Metal don't need to have satanic lyrics to be considering Black Metal, its the atmosphere, the way they play, the tremolo picking, the transcendences, Windir got all that. There plenty of Black Metal subgenres such as pagan black metal, folk black metal, atmospheric black metal, melodic, symphonic, and the list goes on and on. Btw those days many BM bands dealing with paganism, nature, norse mythos, ect. Paganism, legends and folklore is in Black Metal since day one. Windir just took their brand of melodic Black Metal and infuse that with their own cultural background just like plenty of others BM bands do it before them. They called their style Sognametal to makes a hommage to their cultural background. Imagine thinking satanist lyrics is all black metall its all about.. LOOOL! In that's case that means even 70s occult bands was BM ? Loool! Windir is a melodiv black metal band, end of story.

[@coldwhitespring5004]

​@@GrossePutea5Dollards Yes you are right, it's a subgenre. I never said satanic lyrics is all the genre is about, and I'm not going to argue with you about what the genre includes. What I'm really referring to is that Valfar said himself that he preferred that his music be called Sognametal as he was not all about the satanic lyrics and didn't want his music to be associated with the church burnings and everything else that had happened in Norway at that time. This is of course all the association people had in his hometown, and he wanted to separate himself from that.

[@sc2thrashmetal]

You need to react to the entire album! This is one of my favorite songs of all time. Great reaction, thank you!

[@katarinastene9069]

P.S. If you listen to lyrics, it`s very special also. It`s unexpected that the person at 15 - 16 years old was wrighting such texts like in "Det Gamle Riket" for example.

[@xyced]

Todeswalzer with the 's' is how you would normally speak about a deathwaltz. Todewalzer sounds archaic, if not wrong to me.

[@MetalZoned]

Thank you for checking it out appreciate your insight and analysis! This is my favorite song from Windir. It's interesting that you perceived that it could be divisive amongst BM fans, which is correct. When this album was released 20 some years ago some were not pleased that there was cleaner production, and that they moved away from the more folk influenced preceding album. I have a generally similar outlook as you regarding the lyrics, not my worldview, but I understand that often this serves as the artists outlet/venting.

[@jasonadams2]

And purists love Windir. They arr pretty universally loved amongst us.

[@DennisTrovato]

The only Black Metal band that can get away with putting literal chiptune parts into their songs.

[@berserker8884]

One of my favorite bands! And this is my favorite album of theirs.

[@FeRReTNS]

I always wonder where this band would have gone if they were still around today. With the electronic they experimented with in their music I'm sure it would have really interesting, perhaps something like modern Enlsaved.

[@TorkelLian]

I guess maybe something like Vreid? Since most of Windir is in Vreid?

[@FeRReTNS]

@@TorkelLian Wow, I feel dumb I had no idea about Vreid. Really interesting stuff, I'm gonna have to check out some more.

[@TorkelLian]

@@FeRReTNS haha 😆 youre welcome 👌

[@Equilibrium2903]

@@TorkelLian Vreid is great and they did, at least initially, try to continue Windir's legacy a bit. But it is very noticeable that Valfar was the mastermind behind it all.

[@TorkelLian]

@@Equilibrium2903 I agree. They are not on the same level as Windir. I think Vreid use to play Windir songs on their conserts. I hope I'll find out soon, since Vreid are playing in my hometown i October 👌😊

[@melryan9412]

Love this band!

[@kit_ty_kate]

If you want a condenced version of all the things typical of Windir (i won’t say too much to avoid spoilers), I would highly recommend the track "1184" from the same Album.

[@progrockplaylists]

love the lyrics

[@jonathanhenderson9422]

I think I said on the last Windir video that they've been a band that's been on my list to check out for a while. I think I like this track more than the last one if only because this one reminds me a lot of Dissection, which is one of my favorite black metal bands. It's really all about those melodic tremolo guitar riffs, and I really that shifts to the chugging section, and then into the almost symphonic metal chorus. Good stuff. FWIW, when it comes to lyrics my interest in them vacillates depending on the music and how much importance the band/artist seems to place on them. With BM a lot of the lyrics are written as fantasies. Whenever they use the word "I" the "I" isn't meant to refer to the person that wrote the lyrics, but to whatever character's perspective they're writing from. Obviously this isn't always the case as many BM bands do write from their own perspectives, but generally when talk turns to gods and vengeance and stuff I interpret as being akin to the dark fantasy genre. Immortal does this almost exclusively to the point that they invented their own fantasy world with places and characters and events. So you basically have to approach the lyrics as you would fictional writing, and there's plenty of great fiction written from the perspective of awful people (Lolita comes first to mind, but also a dramatic monologue like Robert Browning's My Last Duchess).

[@CriticalReactions]

For sure. I think I do a decent job of approaching most of the music on the channel from the assumption that it's art; and I give it the benefit of the doubt that the topics are safely explored rather than advocated for or promoted. There are a couple of artists who make that line very blurry but otherwise.... However whether this is just some dark exploration or not, I'm still not a fan of the narrative portrayed. Execution is very important when handling something like this. And I've noticed that the songs that tend to give me this strong negative reaction to the lyrics are all BM tracks. Which makes me wonder why I have a more difficult time seeing this genre as something than can provide a nuanced take on these subjects.

[@warbutcher7706]

My fav band.

[@progperljungman8218]

Pretty neat song 😊 I think you would need to read up on Viking religion (or, to make it easy, just watch a couple of episodes of "Vikings" 😁) Great musical analysis anyways!

[@CriticalReactions]

I've heard good things about "Vikings" and I think it's on my watchlist. Given all of the Viking based songs we've had it might be a good idea to bump it up my list a bit.

[@progperljungman8218]

@@faust8218 I believe it shows good enough how they looked upon their gods. Fits pretty well with what I've been taught and what I've read. It's exaggerative "for dramatic purposes" but shows the "ideas" behind the religion pretty in depth.

[@progperljungman8218]

"Done a couple of dozens bm tracks"... Understatement of the year?

[@Kraakesolv]

@@progperljungman8218 To make it easy I'd turn it around; read up instead of the Vikings show. Or find a half decent YT vid about it. The show is fantasy with Norse-ish names and that's it.

[@progperljungman8218]

@@Kraakesolv Ok. I'm just talking about one aspect m/point here: Their "relationship" with or view on the gods as opposed to monotheistic religion. There were more similarities to antique religion. Gods being more like super humans with pretty human characteristics.

[@kamal3002]

Every time Windir came up in any video recommendation, I'll play Svartesmeden og Lundamyrstrollet. Beautiful melody.

[@CriticalReactions]

I think you'll be excited for tomorrow then :)

[@kamal3002]

@@CriticalReactions can't wait

[@blahizard]

definitely check out Mirrorthrone for something similar, if not a lot more aggressive. Carriers of Dust is incredible.

[@user-zb8ye3xi4n]

WINDIR the best metal band ever!R.I.P.VALFAR,HEIDRA WINDIR

[@sagebooker]

Interesting vocals, and very singular acceleration

[@Todeswalzer]

YOOOO Hell yea man

[@Todeswalzer]

So I found your channel fairly recently...ive been subbed but didn't have notifications on. The bell is definitely on now. Anyways you seem to be moving through the absolute favorites of my highschool catalogue and I can't wait to see what else you run past. I'd say more but I need to sift through your already released content. I know you already hit electric wizard, agalloch, and now windir. Top notch stuff and thank you for your insights. I consider myself a dumb listener and the commentary you provide helps me understand the concepts behind the music I love at a very simple base level of enjoyment. I've listened to some of these albums thousands of times and you show me something I never knew on your first listen. Bravo

[@Todeswalzer]

Funny you talk about the importance of lyrics in here. I've always been one to almost always completely ignore lyrics and let the melodies tell the story.

[@JvG0]

A lot of, if not most, Folk black metal has clean vocals FYI.

[@CriticalReactions]

That's good to know.

[@2510LuL]

Huh? I listen to tons of folky bm and sure cleans are common as atmospheric and backup vocals but the lead vocals are almost always harsh

[@JvG0]

@@2510LuL You're right most folk BM uses it in a similar fashion as Windir does in this song.

[@2510LuL]

@@JvG0 oh sorry im dumb hahaha, i thought you were saying most folk black mainly uses cleans ^^

[@pedroassuncao24]

I can't here any violins.... Are u referring to that melody guitar or the synthesizers?

[@jasonadams2]

Drudkh - Furrows of Gods

[@progrockplaylists]

if the snare wasnt so annoying this would go to my playlist

[@n.afonso7171]

Hi. You should also check out other two Norwegian Melodic Black metal bands: Arcturus and In The Woods. 😎✌️

[@Trollberg]

This is the Pinnacle windir album

[@annodomini1991]

There's no real violins here it's all done by keyboardist Righ. Oh just remembered an interesting Black Metal band would be Necromantia from Greece, 2 bass players one with traditional 4-strings and another with 8-strings with guitar only used for solos.

[@thegrimner]

See, now if I wasn't essentially perpetually broke, I'd do you even one further than trying to find hi fi black metal you might enjoy: I'd find you lo fi black metal you might enjoy instead 😄. If I ever get to do a song request it'll be one by Obtained Enslavement. Their Witchcraft and SOulblight albums are a treat in terms of using black metal aesthetics and apply them to symphonic compositions. Done mainly on guitars, and very much like Windir here, they don't simply put orchestral elements on top of rock, but instead construct the music as being classical from the ground up and very, very melodic, just coated in very harsh trappings. Musical sweet and sour, if you will. Their song "Carnal lust" has as good use of a counterpoint as the lyrics are silly. How silly are the lyrics? well, the song's entitled Carnal Lust. The other band I'd impose on you would be Bal Sagoth. The aural equivalent of Basil Pouledoris redoing his Conan OST with Metal instruments. You know you want to. Windir are yet another good demonstration of the fact that we may have led you a bit astray with all the "rules" of the genre, but I guess knowing about all those basic elements is quite important in understanding just how many bands would gleefully break them. Valfar's death was sadly untimely, but the band would eventually repackage itself into Vreid, who are a bit more rock and roll, and sadly a teensy bit less impressive, musically (though not by all means bad, just lacking quite the same compositional chops). But they sing less about vikings and more about norwegian resistance to nazi germany. Which again, in this minefield of a genre, should be highlighted and commended.

[@CriticalReactions]

I'll be beyond surprised if I ever find a lo-fi BM track that really works for me. You've got me interested though :)

[@nebojsarodic1720]

Later on they did change their production (Obtained Enslavement did) but have kept their traditional lyrical, uh, brilliance, with songtitles such as Ride the Whore. My personal fav might be Lucifer's Lament from the same album, with one of the cheesiest cover arts ever. I once read a comment that said the cover looks like it was made for a vampire romance novel, now I will forever look at it that way. Ragnarok could also work with something from Diabolical Age, as could early-ish Naglfar, speaking of album titles containing the word "diabolical". When you say lo-fi and melodic black metal in one sentence though, the first song that comes to my mind is Setherial - A Hail to the Faceless Angels for some reason

[@HideousConformity]

Symphonic compositions... One of the bands that was formed by members of Windir after Valfar's death was Cor Scorpii who replaced the folk influences of Windir with classical ones. The band has listed composers such as Prokofiev, Grieg, Rachmaninov and Satie as influences for their music.

[@annodomini1991]

Obtained Enslavement would be great, Witchcraft or Soulblight full album review would be awesome.

[@2510LuL]

You should do Drudkh, Taake, Thyrfing and more Mgła! Lovin the BM content

[@Kraakesolv]

Banjo BM would be amazing.

[@luisandresvaldebenito319]

Reactions Los Jaivas song guajira cosmica

[@katarinastene9069]

Terje`s music is just himself.