Goblin Island

Good American Folk Metal.... Seems like a bit of an oxymoron but alas, this Californian band has done it, and done it well. First off, their whole Goblin shtick is entertaining; it's fun and it's funny, but ultimately it’s a gimmick. Ridiculous image aside, this release is actually quite good. Putting aside the band’s place of origin and subject matter, the music its self is a great mixture of folk metal and melodic death metal with a slight black metal twist.

The guitar-work is fantastic, with some really interesting shred all over the place, in addition to amazingly melodic leads and brutal rhythm sections. The keyboards bring all the folk; without it, this band would be a pretty straight melo-death offering. These guys definitely love Finntroll and Children of Bodom, end of story. The drumming and bass won't particularly wow you but they don't detract from the experience. However, it is in this section that I will take away some points. Finally we have the vocalist, the embodiment of the Goblinism that engulfs this band; this man truly sounds like a goblin. His shrieks and screams are amazing, albeit a bit raw and unpolished. Though the vocalists screams, grunts and growls may be great, his clean vocals are pretty terrible; they sound like a 14 year old kid simply messing around not knowing what he's doing, so elitists should approach with caution.

While this album does have some filler songs in it, overall it's a really great listen. The filler tracks on this album are, for the most part, all lumped in at the end. A couple of unnecessary (but still entertaining) cover's and a stupid techno version of the track "In The Hall of the Goblin King". In addition, to the three fillers at the end, there is also one unnecessary instrumental track slapped in the middle of the CD called “The Goblin King's Wrath”. This song is nothing but guitar wankery and spoken word sections, attempting to conjure a few laughs from the listener. Ignoring the filer tracks, this album still has at least eight really good songs, four of which being truly brilliant. Stand out tracks to give special attention to are “Goblin Island”, “Goblins Ahoy”, “Goblins Are Better Than Trolls”, and “In The Hall of the Goblin King”.

All in all, I would give this album a score of about 85%. I'd recommend this release to anyone who's a fan of bands such as Finntroll, Norheim, Children of Bodom and have a healthy sense of humor.