01	Gamen (Vulture)						04:01
	02	Euchari						04:21
	03	Halling Jaron						03:03
	04	Vedergallningen (Vengeance)						04:55
	05	Nio Ar (Nine Years)						04:29
	06	Sorgsen Ton (Stomped Bread)						04:47
	07	Herr Holkin						05:17
	08	Black (Ink)						05:05
	09	Polska						03:07
	10	Brun (The Robber)						05:57

Vengeance by Garmarna


A true breakthrough record for the entire genre of Nordic music. Garmarna have crafted a masterpiece which brilliantly fuses the ancient with the modern, traditional murder ballads with rock and trip-hop production techniques, the transcendent with the subterranean.

Vocalist Emma Hardelin's work on Vengeance is sure to earn her international recognition as one of the most compelling female voices on the planet. She delivers Swedish medieval songs about evil spells, deceit and violence with sweet, sensuous seduction. The rest of the band have risen to the task of providing real substance behind The Voice. Recorded with HDCD processing, the production and sound quality are breathtaking.

If you've been feeling at all cynical about the state of modern "popular" music, one listen to Vengeance will restore your faith. The second listen will convince you to help tell the rest of the world about this amazing record.

On-Liner Notes for this album, including lyrics in Swedish & English.



"Once you've lifted your jaw off the floor at the way ancient and modern fit seamlessly together, you'll find yourself completely hypnotized." -- Wired


"Playing a unique blend of Scandinavian folk music mixed with heavy guitar and electronic weirdness, they groove and drone, and trance out, taking the listener about eight levels deeper into the subconscious than any other band I've heard in years." -- Playboy


":an unforgettable listening experience." -- Billboard, Spotlight review (May 1999)


":potent and beautiful: Garmarna proves the frozen tundra is more fertile than we think." -- Fortune Magazine (July 1999)


"Vengeance is a terrific example of what modern music based on indigenous sources can be: it's too future-forward to get bogged down in historical reverence, but it's way more grounded in its culture than the usual techno dressed up with a few samples of authentic sounds." -- CMJ New Music Monthly, "best new music" (July 1999)


"Swedish folk futurists Garmarna have an otherworldly ability to meld ancient impulses, punk-rock passion and pulsating electronic backbone." -- Minneapolis Star Tribune


"Emma Hardelin's unclouded voice is the center of Garmarna's sonic storm." -- Request Magazine, "Great Unknowns" (August 1999)


"Raspy strings and keening distortion make for twisted medieval electronica that will leave the most fearless ravers speechless." -- Request Magazine (July 1999)


"Vengeance is an album destined to be one of the year's best in every genre it crosses." -- Twin Cities ReVue (April 1999)


"The astonishing sound of Garmarna proves that something is rockin' in the state of Sweden." -- Charles M. Young, Allmusic Zine


"To the uninitiated, I describe Garmarna as Beowulf meets Queensryche meets Joni Mitchell meets Bjork. Theirs is a music that is expansive, incorporating elements of folk, techno and rock -- they've taken everything from the past millennium to make music for the next, in a genre-resistant Manifest Destiny banquet for the ears and soul." -- Carole Alguire, Twin Cities Performing Arts Spectator


"This record will heat the tundra hotter than the gates of Hades." -- George Scarlett, VP and Director, Product and Vendor Management, Tower Records



Garmarna
Vengeance (Vedergallningen)
NorthSide-US (www.noside.com)
MNW-Sweden (www.cabal.se/massproduktion)

Since I first heard this band in 1993, I have been a huge fan. Their mix of acoustic instruments and folk roots with electrification and a punky attitude grabbed me from the start. Their 1994 album Vittrad ranks as one of the best folk-fusions of the decade. They are raw, energetic and edgy, driven by talented musicians and fronted by a phenomenal young singer and fiddler, Emma Hardelin. All that said, Vengeance seems to have discovered production, synthesizers and Euro-pop, and it is none the better for it. Cliched synth effects lessen the dark impact of the actual songs and the production's tendency toward the mainstream is at least an annoyance, and often eviscerates the songs. The sheer energy of this band can be stunning, and it appears on a few of the ten songs on Vengeance (i.e.: "Sorgsen ton [Woeful tone]," "Brun" and "Polska"), where the band seems to be left to its own devices. Here and there they tear through a song with gusto or subtly allow the vocal delivery to shine through; they tease us with moments of brilliance. Too much of it is lost to uncreative production. If I wrote for Rolling Stone, I would tell you this is the best pop record to come out of Scandinavia this year. But I always hope for more from musicians of this caliber, artists who have already proven their capability. - CF