Sigil by Gåte is a very Nordic-sounding folk/rock album that can be, at times, soft and ambient and, at other times, dancey. To my surprise, it also has elements of metal in the music.

The epic intro build-up song “Bergteken” goes from a soft first half to an intensely heavy second half that draws influence from metal. Combining electronic-like moments with live instrumentation, Sigil has uniquely carved out its own space by not having a foot planted too firmly in a particular genre, making it appealing to anyone between a metalhead and a Scandinavian folk music fan.

“Oskorsreia” was the first track to really stand out to me with its almost djenty intro. It gets as close as the album does to being full-on metal among the folk and electronic elements of the other tracks. The catchy chorus is also a bit of an earworm. “Aude” is another surprisingly heavy track while managing to have a mouth harp on it.

“Songen” at times reminded me a bit of another Norwegian artist, Aurora, with some of the playful vocal melodies. “Mi Jord” is another standout track with its catchy chorus, ambience and space, and almost cat-like chorus: “meoux.”

The album closer, “Jostedalsrypa,” ends on a very soft and intimate moment. It sounds like a farewell. Although fitting in with the other song lengths of the album, it still feels like we’ve said goodbye too soon. It feels necessary to take a moment after the album is done to reflect.

Although the songs I mentioned stood out to me, I found that the middle of the album started to blend together after a few listens, with some songs not leaving as much of an impression.

It’s very much in that Nordic folk-rock style, with the album ranging from heavy metal moments to soft intimacy. It features many instruments rooted in Nordic culture and history, from the nyckelharpa, mouth harp, Hardanger fiddle, and hurdy-gurdy, along with more familiar instruments like guitars, bass, and drums.

This keeps one foot firmly planted in Norwegian folk while the other dabbles in these other genres. Personally, I enjoyed how the music didn’t seem to be about the dance element as much, which made it much more up my alley. That also gave it more of a band feel rather than an electronic, crowd-focused type of music.

The central point of the album seems to be Gunnhild Sundli’s vocals, which are powerful, soft, and just lovely to listen to. Because I don’t speak Norwegian, her vocals took on a certain instrumental quality, similar to a violin or another beautiful instrument soaring over the top of Gåte’s music.

Artwork

Sigil’s artwork is very much the title of the album: a sigil. It’s a very cool cover that looks like a rune. I can picture the image on vinyl perfectly, with the centre hole sitting right in the middle of it. I hope they do that for the record!

As the feedback fades, I’ll admit I was initially expecting the dance elements to be more dominant, but I enjoyed finding that Gåte sounded primarily like a band rather than being designed to get people dancing.

Going further than my surface-level understanding of the Nordic folk genre, I thought all the bands sounded pretty similar. However, it’s been interesting for me to discover that, just like any genre, there are core elements that make it that genre, but each band within it does things their own way—and Gåte certainly does it well.

I will be adding the songs I mentioned above to my Bloodhymn playlist. Thanks, Gåte, for the mystical music.