The Wave of Giants is one of Einar Selvik's standalone companion albums for Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and it is a stunning deep dive into Old Norse poetry set to music. Selvik, best known as the force behind the neofolk project Wardruna, composed and performed these tracks using period-authentic instruments and vocal techniques, giving each piece a ritualistic weight that the main game score only hints at.
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Every song title appears in both Old Norse and English, underscoring the scholarly care behind the project. Tracks like "Vigahugr - Lust For Battle" and "Hausbrjótr - Skullcrusher" carry the raw aggression of a Viking war band, built on pounding frame drums and throat-tightening chants.
But the album is far from one-note. "Helreið Oðins - Odin's Ride To Hel" draws from the Poetic Edda for a haunting narrative journey, while "Til Vinskapar - To Friendship" offers a surprisingly tender skaldic ballad that could have been sung around a longhouse hearth.
The closing track, "Vegurinn til Valhallar - The Way to Valhöll," serves as an almost spiritual send-off, building slowly from a lone vocal line into layered harmonies and droning strings. For anyone who loved the atmospheric moments in Valhalla where Eivor pauses at a cairn or stares across a fjord, this album bottles that exact feeling across ten meticulously crafted tracks.