Nifelvind

Where would we be today without Finntroll? How would the metal world have fared if a drunken Somnium (R.I.P.) hadn’t had the gnawing need to mix black metal’s bestiality with folk/polka rhythms and melodies? If you ask me, it wouldn’t’ve fared well at all…and we should be on our knees thanking his unholy spirit for evoking one of the best sub-genres any well-meaning, open-minded, I’m-So-Metal-I-Rust-In-the-Rain dickhead could jig himself into an early grave to. Well, OK, sure, SOME folk metal groups existed before “Jaktens Tid” threw us for a loop, but they took themselves a bit too seriously and weren’t quite as much the fun-loving novelty acts many of their ilk are today, and it’s to that end that we enjoy every passing second of it.

The Troll-boys have been at the forefront of this folky invasion for many years, so one should ask…would their latest still prove an indelible source of metallic enjoyment?

Upon placing myself knees-deep into “Nifelvind”, I found a surprisingly darker, heavier, and, more serious present Finntroll mixed in with the fun-loving past we all know and love. It’s a bit surprising, but not completely, as their blackened roots made them in a bit of a league of their own amidst the folk metal explosion, and as a result, one is able to simultaneously head-bang and dance it up pretty much riff by riff. Once more, this listener is taken deep into the icy, shadowy Finnish woods to bear witness to a bunch of inhuman beasts dancing and howling at the moon around the campfire; that sort of escapism that makes it necessary to leave the ugly real world faded away (and with good reason…). Proving that there’s still plenty of pith and vinegar in the troll corpse, Vreth and company let loose with a venomous, thrashy rage combined with the Disney movie orchestral lines of albums past that add a few extra pounds to your form due to its ability to satisfy and then some, always astounding and ensuring a prominent shelf life for this and other (I hope) equally prominent listeners. It’s always refreshing, rewarding, and other positive assorted “re-” words to venture into albums that deviate so much from what is meant to be the musical norm, at least on my end, as their existences warrant an enjoyability factor far too few newer bands possess in this or any other year, where the explosive and heavy guitar riffs/leads, dramatic orchestrations, bouncy melodies, bruising percussion usage, and the dual approach of animalistic growls and troll gang chants burst forth with the energetic madness you’d come to expect, tossing casual song arrangements to the wind like so many used loin cloths. Problem is, this time around, all those ideas flitter by faster than they should, and before you know it the song you’ve been bobbing along to is over sooner than expected. It’s a mild deterrence, though, and nothing to hold against the group, as fine auditory examples such as “Solsagan”, “Ett Norrskensdads”, and “Tiden Utan Tid” attest as brightly as they can.

At the end of the day, Finntroll’s latest beastly dominates and tickles this listener a nice shade of pink. You’d be doing yourself a disservice were you to not give this a listen, and another, and another. Trust me on this.