Viking

[skeptik]

Okay, for those of you who don't know, Viking is the band that Brett Erikson, Jim Durkin's replacement on the last Dark Angel album, came from. They only put out two albums, and both are ridiculously hard to find. However, lucky me, I came across their first album yesterday, Do Or Die. This is some incredible thrash right here. The album is only about 31 minutes long, but it is extremely well done, with some great leads from both Brett Erikson and his 'brother,' singer/lead guitarist Ron 'Erikson' (real name Ron Daniel). The brother gimmick was a selling point for the band. The lyrics deal with war and vikings, without being too cheesy. There are some of the greatest thrash riffs of all time on this album as well in my opinion. Ron is a great singer too. All of the members, Matt Jordan on drums and James Lareau on bass, are great at their respective instruments. The only thing wrong with the album is that it's not long enough.

Now, right before their second album (and last), Man Of Straw, Ron and Matt became born again Christians. Due to this, Ron rewrote all of the lyrics to be more Christian-friendly, but without overdoing it. However, both Ron and Matt saw that life on the road would be much too tempting to their newly-attained religous zeal, so they left Viking and the rest disbanded. Ron and Matt moved to Oregon, where Ron later became a minister. James pursued a career in art, and Brett, obviously, continued in a musical path by joining Dark Angel as a full time member.

If you ever come across either album, I strongly recommend you pick them up. This may be my favorite Thrash Album now. If not, definitely one of my favorite.

 

[one man]

About 5 years ago I managed to download a couple of songs off "Do Or Die" and I must admit I was impressed. Not being able to find any of their records anywhere (as well as to dl more tracks), I almost forgot how good this band was- thenks for reminding me about'em.