Review of the Album "Inner Force" by Austrian Folk Metal Band Heathen Foray

“Inner Force” is the 3rd studio album by Austrian folk metal band Heathen Foray and it was released in 2013. If you enjoyed Heathen Foray’s first two albums you will more than likely enjoy this one as well. Right away, this album begins with a furious pace with the song Inner Force. There is an inner force pushing us to the top as the song says. The song’s message is basically that even if you get knocked down to the ground while trying to reach a certain goal, get right back up and keep on going because those you quit will ultimately fail in life.

In this album, these guys decide to take a somewhat different musical approach, having five songs in a row in the German language. If you can imagine melodic folk metal sung in German, your imagination has got to be pretty good! The mostly German lyric song Ragnarock tells the tale of brave warriors who have set out to fight what is thought to be their last battle. The prediction is that they will not survive but there will be a brighter future.

But let’s for a moment focus on how this album begins. It begins in the usual folk metal fashion with the beautiful acoustic guitar as the first song builds up slowly. There are times when we know what our feelings are deep inside of us if they are not based on what the ego wants. To the end we will chase our dreams and nothing will deny us. Through the play of this song, I can detect the greatness of European metal particularly this kind in the genre. The song slows down again later as the style that we see even in Ensiferum’s music is present here and then suddenly, the song speeds up again with some decent lead guitar work. Illusion is a song that lyrically is about a person that is really being challenged in their life but in spite of this challenge, he knows that he won’t fall because if he fell that would be the equivalent of failure. As the sun comes out again, he feels that he has broken free from the chains that were holding him back. The vocals in this album remind me of the vocals for the band Rammstein. Granted, Germany and Austria are different countries but they have the same national language which is German.

“The Wizard’s Life” features not only some interesting guitar work but it also starts with clean vocals. Lyrically, it is a tale of a child that was born to do the work of the gods. He was blessed with a certain power but he used this power to advance his evil schemes. However, this wizard got too arrogant and power hungry and he was tracked down by knights who would then be hit by a sword and would lose his life. The song has an interesting interlude that repeats. However, the guitar work in this song is not quite good enough to match that of Ensiferum but then again, it will be very tough to match Finland's best folk metal band. The album ends with the song No Mercy and this song lyrically is about a commander that sends his soldiers into battle and the soldiers are expected to do his bidding without disobeying him. Overall, "Inner Force" is a good melodic folk metal album with a little more variety than Heathen Foray’s first two albums but the guitar work is just a notch below that of Ensiferum.