Gathered Around The Oaken Table

"Gathered Around The Oaken Table" was the third and final album by Mithotyn; a band whose ashes and remains gave rise to the power metal trio known as Falconer. It was because of Falconer and the history prior to their creation that I became very interested in the music Mithotyn. When you listen to "Gathered Around The Oaken Table", you can here many of the elements that are now found within Falconer. Musically, there is not much difference between what was Mithotyn and what we now know as Falconer. Mithotyn was a four piece outfit from Sweden that consisted of Rickard Martinsson (vocals, bass and choirs), Stefan Weinerhall (guitar and choir), Karl Backman (guitar, keyboard, choirs and vocals) and Karsten Larsson (drums and choirs). Their music can best be described as Viking power metal with some folk and pagan black metal influences. Karl Backman's and Stefan Weinerhall's guitar power chords and majestic guitar harmony leads where characteristic of the power metal influences, as was the pounding drumming of Karsten Larsson. The harsh vocals of Rickard Martinsson provided the dark, black metal persona of the band. The keyboards, acoustic guitar passages and male vocal choirs gave the music the Viking/folk traits. Out of Mithotyn's three albums, I find "Gathered Around The Oaken Table" the most listenable. The songs range from slow to mid tempo to very fast, switching gears back and forth. The music is very good but aside from the clear and mighty sounding male vocal choirs, it's the pagan black metal vocals that do take some getting used to. I can see why Mithotyn was disbanded and Falconer was created. If Mithotyn's music was going to be taken to the next level, they would have had to acquire a good power metal vocalist. I can only imagine what Mithotyn's music would have sounded like with a vocalist such as Falconer's Mathias Blad. Still, "Gathered Around The Oaken Table" really grows on you with each listen and over time you learn to accept it for what it's worth. There is plenty of melody in the songs with big vocal choir parts found throughout. The lead guitar is the main driving force behind the music and is what made Mithotyn memorable and stand out. "Gathered Around The Oaken Table" is one of the more unique sounding Viking power/black metal albums out there. I recommend this album to fans of bands like Bathory, Thyrfing, Finntroll and Falconer.