Mythical Creatures: Tyr

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TÝR VOCALIST-GUITARIST HERI JOENSEN remembers the first time he banged his head.

"I was 14 when I got into heavy metal," Joensen said from his home in the Faroe Islands, located between Scotland and Iceland. "I remember hearing Mötley Crüe's 'Girls, Girls, Girls' for the first time and thinking, 'What the hell is this? I must have more of it!'"

But there was an even earlier influence on Joensen, which still remains his primary interest: Nordic mythology.

"Not for religious reasons at all," he said. "For the folkloric and historic aspects of it [and] the mental view inside of our ancestors; it was their way to explain the world, which they had no better way to understand than with mythology."

Joensen combines his passions for heavy myths and riffs into Týr, which is promoting its latest CD, "Land" (Napalm Records), and headlining "The Pagan Knights Tour." (A newer album, "By the Light of the Northern Star," is scheduled for a May release.)

The group plays Nordic melodies — which are closely related to Celtic music — on modern rock 'n' roll instruments, making for a monster-metal folk-fest.

"Ever since I've played heavy metal, I've been interested in combining it with traditional music," he said. "The Faroe Islands are Scandinavian culturally — we're Norwegian originally — and the folklore themes you find here are the same you'd find anywhere in Scandinavia: Nordic mythology. And that's what present in the traditional ballads you find here."

Despite being named after a one-handed-heroic god of combat, Týr's message is one of peace — in our time. Joensen's lyrics are sung in Faroese but translated to English in the CD booklet, and it's immediately apparent that a song like "Land's" "Valkyrjan" isn't about the glories of war in the old times; it's about how men die in vain on the battlefield.

"Whatever subject I'm going to write about in Nordic mythology, it always has to have an angle to the present," Joensen said. "Otherwise, it's reciting history, which is pretty boring."

A desire to be contemporary is one of the reasons why Týr doesn't dress up liking Vikings when on stage — well, at least not anymore.

"I did wear chain-mail at one point," Joensen said, "but it's agonizing to play in."

» Sonar, 407 E. Saratoga St., Baltimore; with Alestorm, Suidakra, Nightfire; Fri., March 27, 7 p.m., $15; 410-783-7888.

» Related: "Pagans & Pirates: A Guide to Nights of Metal Knights" [Express]

Photos courtesy Napalm Records