Hans & Valter – The Legend of the Oakensource – Album Review
24th April 2025I wasn’t listening to this album. I was abducted by it. Ripped from the safety of my ego-pod and hurled screaming through a sonic wormhole carved by two Swedes with names like forgotten breakfast cereals and the musical tact of a collapsing cathedral.
From the first note, it’s clear—this isn’t music. It’s ancient tree magic mainlined through an amp possessed by the ghost of a war saxophonist. The opener hits like being knighted by a thunder god mid-skydive. It doesn’t ask for your attention. It commandeers it, rewires your DNA with orchestral voltage, and casually sets your timeline on fire.
“They didn’t drop a beat. They dropped a myth, taught it jazz theory, and launched it at the moon wearing armour made of regret.”
Hans, presumably the one with the haunted stare and an intimate understanding of cosmic law, provides vocals like a thunderstorm flirting with opera. Valter—most likely the deranged architect of the multiverse’s most elaborate fretboard labyrinth—shreds time itself, bending notes into shapes never approved by physics or ethics committees.
This isn’t “epic”. This is the sound of a tree remembering its past lives as a comet and a warrior-poet. You don’t bang your head on it. You bow. Possibly weep. Maybe sprout antlers.
And don’t come at me with your “themes” and “track structure” babble. This thing flows like dream logic dipped in battle paint. There’s existential dread tucked inside every harmony, wrapped in chord progressions that feel like forgotten prophecies echoing out of an abandoned moon temple.
“It’s like if ennui had a battleaxe and was very, very good-looking.”
The lyrics flicker between solemn oaths, metaphysical side quests, and whatever happens when a bard overdoses on prophecy. Somewhere in there, a pirate gets sentimental, a stranger forgets his name on purpose, and a forest wages war on silence itself. It’s beautiful. It’s unhinged. It smells faintly of bark and destiny.
The Legend of the Oakensource doesn’t have “production”. It manifests. Each note lands like a solar flare doing ballet on your spinal column. The drums don’t hit—they reveal hidden truths. The synths whisper things your childhood nightmares were too scared to say.
Hans & Valter don’t care if you understand it. They already know what your favourite tree smells like, and they’re judging your playlist.
“It’s not an album. It’s a parallel universe condensed into sound, disguised as metal, and released by two wizards disguised as Swedes.”
The Legend of the Oakensource isn’t trying to be the greatest symphonic power metal album of the year. That’s too small. It’s trying to resurrect ancient gods using only melody and possibly a cursed oboe. And frankly? I think it succeeded.
I didn’t just hear this album—I lived it, I duelled it, and now it owes me a drink.
Score 8/10
Tracks
01 – The Legend of the Oakensource
02 – Land of the Free
03 – The King’s Call
04 – Warriors Without a Quest
05 – A Dark Road
06 – In the Name of the Oak
07 – The Scene of Life
08 – The Stranger
09 – The Endless Night
10 – Hefleth the Pirate
Label – Independant
Release – 23rd April 2025
