Det vilde kor

Well, here's the third (and currently latest) album from the Norwegian forest metallers (that's what they call it) Lumsk. I remember stumbling into the record store after a rough night and just looking for something to ease my hangovers - well, this (and Ulver's Kveldssanger) did the trick.

Like the other reviewers I must be quick to state that under no circumstances should you pick up this album if you're looking for something:
a) folk
b) metal
c) folk metal
d) all of the above

This is very far from being metal - sure a few tracks sport a distorted guitar, but mostly it's just soothing tranquillity pop-rock with a very heavy emphasis on the female vocals.

When comparing this album to the two predecessors one cannot help but notice how Lumsk have very obviously progressed (or regressed, your choice) from the very 'eavy metal on the debut to the relaxing melodic stuff here - with the 2005 album Troll caught in between as the bastard child of these two very different genres. Actually, this is sort of like Ulver did on their Bergtatt-Kveldssanger-Madrigal trilogy: A heavy album, a mixed album and a melodic, non-metal album. And this one is of the latter kind.

As mentioned before this stuff is excellent for curing hangovers, and also worth noting is the fact that all the lyrics are from old poems by Norwegian big-shot poet Knut Hamsun. Normally I wouldn't care, but some of the lyrics are quite beautiful (providing, of course, you can understand Norwegian!) My personal favourite of the album must be "Om hundrede aar er alting glemt" (not the Borknagar song of the same name!), which has a beautiful lyric and a somewhat catchy chorus.

If you like to occasionally step outside of the metalsphere and try something else, you could get this - it's nothing special, but it's certainly not bad either. However, if you're looking for metal you best go look for the debut album.