Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Fun discovery re: Grimfrost, Viking ware, and so forth

So my girl and I were checking her Facebook feed to see how many of her friends had posted Lemmy obits independent of their being my friends, too (because we share bev davies as a friend, and of course bev has been posting plenty of Lemmy stuff). The answer ultimately was three - also including Jim Cummins, who is, weirdly enough, her friend but not mine (though I enjoyed chatting with him at a Christmas party recently and might try to write about him at some point, so I might amend that).

Anyhow, along the way, there was a sponsored ad on her page where some guy with a Viking beard is talking about the origins and customs of Jul (Yule), and how Santa Claus is likely based on Odin. We had just been watching Vikings, the TV series, and we're both kind of interested in the pagan sources of Christian tradition (apparently many, and overlapping, so they're hard to keep track of). We were watching the video, and I'm thinking to myself: damn, if that doesn't look like Johan Hegg, the lead singer of (Swedish Viking metal band*) Amon Amarth...!

It is. That's a link to the Grimfrost homepage, where he's listed as one of three partners; there's also their Facebook here. I actually don't need any drinking horns, Viking axes, jewlery, leatherwork, or so forth - and my beard never gets long enough to merit a Viking comb - but I like the idea of Grimfrost plenty. So for those of you shopping for the perfect gift for the Viking in your life...

*Apparently Hegg doesn't like Amon Amarth to be called Viking metal, but, you know, if Amon Amarth isn't a Viking metal band, by me, there are no Viking metal bands (which is also possible; Hegg does have a point that lyrical themes aren't enough to type a band by).  They're working on their tenth album, apparently. I wasn't that keen on Deceiver of the Gods, to be honest - it didn't grab me at the time of its release, anyhow - but I loved Surtur Rising and Twilight of the Thunder God, so I'm keeping a keen ear pitched. In other news, I hadn't realized the guy I interviewed from Amon Amarth, Fredrik Andersson, is no longer with the band!

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