Trollhammeren
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Everybody polka! Yeee-haaah! Well, "Everybody Humppa!" would be more correct. Get your filthy mind out of the gutter! Humppa is traditional Finnish polka music, and not some bizarre sex act. With the bands new EP"Trollhammeren", Finland's Finntroll have once again come up with a damn nice album filled with some of the catchiest songs this side of Skyclad.
"Trollhammeren" sees a lot of changes coming around from their last metalized effort "Jaktens Tid". As most people know, guitarist Somnium has passed away and has been replaced by Routa. And due to health problems, original vocalist Katla has been replaced by new vocalist Wilska. Actually, all of these changes took place on their last album "Visor Om Slutet", but that was an acoustical album and doesn't really represent the metal aspect the band usually has going for them. Routa seems to do a very good job in replacing Somnium, but Wilska is a different matter. While Wilska is great, he fails to capture the extreme folkiness Katla injected into Finntroll with his clean vocals. See, Wilska sings in a harsh style almost all of the time on "Trollhammeren", and Katla mixed up his vocals from the harsh style, to the clean style that fit the polka style music very well. Wilska can sing indeed sing in a clean style, as that is they style he used exclusively on the acoustic "Visor Om Slutet" album, but it's completely absent on "Trollhammeren". It's a small gripe, but I think it would have sounded much better if he tried to mix up the two styles here and there instead of relying too much on the raw vocal style. That said, I find myself liking Wilska a lot better than I thought I would, and I hope he stays in the band for the foreseeable future. And while Finntroll are from Finland, all lyrics are written in and sung in Swedish. Jah...?
The music itself is very reminiscent of "Jaktens Tid". Majestic and sweeping metal with tons of polka melodies that sound like what one may hear in an old timey pub. Thing is, quite a bit of the traditional "folk" aspect of Finntroll seems to be gone. While there are a lot of parts in this EP that get very polka-ish and make you want to get up and slam way too much beer just for the hell of it, there's not nearly as many of these parts as was on "Jaktens Tid". Not by a long shot. That seems to be a trend in folk metal bands lately. It seems with each album they put out, the folk aspect of their music lessens and lessens. I hope this trend doesn't continue.
The production is very good on "Trollhammeren". In fact, it's probably their best produced album to date. That's probably due to being signed to a larger label that gave them more money to record, I'm sure. The bass parts are really deep and the acoustic guitars come through clean, and all the while the accordion comes in at just the right level.
The packaging is fairly decent. "Trollhammeren" is released as a digi-pak, and that makes the artwork on the cover really come across as bright and vivid. The album cover depicts a naked female troll with thorn pierced nipples. She looks pissed too. There should be trolls with thorns rammed through their nipples on more album covers, I say. In a first for a Finntroll album, the lyrics aren't included inside of the digi-pak anywhere, which is kind of a let down even if I couldn't read them anyway.
When all is said and done, "Trollhammeren" is a damn fine EP. While I may have seemed to slag on this one at a few points, I actually enjoy it thoroughly. Do I like "Trollhammeren" as much as their earlier albums? No, but I would still consider them one of my favorite "folk" metal bands right now. The only real big gripe I have about this is its length. Clocking in at a little over 17 minutes, this should have been marketed as a CD Single, not an EP. Just because there are 5 tracks, that doesn't mean it's an EP with this short of a running time. Actually, I've seen CD singles that did have longer running times than this. Still, even as short it is, it is the perfect thing to keep me satisfied until their new full length comes out next month. Until then... Kung Over Folken Av Troll!!!
[ - - - ]
Everybody polka! Yeee-haaah! Well, "Everybody Humppa!" would be more correct. Get your filthy mind out of the gutter! Humppa is traditional Finnish polka music, and not some bizarre sex act. With the bands new EP"Trollhammeren", Finland's Finntroll have once again come up with a damn nice album filled with some of the catchiest songs this side of Skyclad.
"Trollhammeren" sees a lot of changes coming around from their last metalized effort "Jaktens Tid". As most people know, guitarist Somnium has passed away and has been replaced by Routa. And due to health problems, original vocalist Katla has been replaced by new vocalist Wilska. Actually, all of these changes took place on their last album "Visor Om Slutet", but that was an acoustical album and doesn't really represent the metal aspect the band usually has going for them. Routa seems to do a very good job in replacing Somnium, but Wilska is a different matter. While Wilska is great, he fails to capture the extreme folkiness Katla injected into Finntroll with his clean vocals. See, Wilska sings in a harsh style almost all of the time on "Trollhammeren", and Katla mixed up his vocals from the harsh style, to the clean style that fit the polka style music very well. Wilska can sing indeed sing in a clean style, as that is they style he used exclusively on the acoustic "Visor Om Slutet" album, but it's completely absent on "Trollhammeren". It's a small gripe, but I think it would have sounded much better if he tried to mix up the two styles here and there instead of relying too much on the raw vocal style. That said, I find myself liking Wilska a lot better than I thought I would, and I hope he stays in the band for the foreseeable future. And while Finntroll are from Finland, all lyrics are written in and sung in Swedish. Jah...?
The music itself is very reminiscent of "Jaktens Tid". Majestic and sweeping metal with tons of polka melodies that sound like what one may hear in an old timey pub. Thing is, quite a bit of the traditional "folk" aspect of Finntroll seems to be gone. While there are a lot of parts in this EP that get very polka-ish and make you want to get up and slam way too much beer just for the hell of it, there's not nearly as many of these parts as was on "Jaktens Tid". Not by a long shot. That seems to be a trend in folk metal bands lately. It seems with each album they put out, the folk aspect of their music lessens and lessens. I hope this trend doesn't continue.
The production is very good on "Trollhammeren". In fact, it's probably their best produced album to date. That's probably due to being signed to a larger label that gave them more money to record, I'm sure. The bass parts are really deep and the acoustic guitars come through clean, and all the while the accordion comes in at just the right level.
The packaging is fairly decent. "Trollhammeren" is released as a digi-pak, and that makes the artwork on the cover really come across as bright and vivid. The album cover depicts a naked female troll with thorn pierced nipples. She looks pissed too. There should be trolls with thorns rammed through their nipples on more album covers, I say. In a first for a Finntroll album, the lyrics aren't included inside of the digi-pak anywhere, which is kind of a let down even if I couldn't read them anyway.
When all is said and done, "Trollhammeren" is a damn fine EP. While I may have seemed to slag on this one at a few points, I actually enjoy it thoroughly. Do I like "Trollhammeren" as much as their earlier albums? No, but I would still consider them one of my favorite "folk" metal bands right now. The only real big gripe I have about this is its length. Clocking in at a little over 17 minutes, this should have been marketed as a CD Single, not an EP. Just because there are 5 tracks, that doesn't mean it's an EP with this short of a running time. Actually, I've seen CD singles that did have longer running times than this. Still, even as short it is, it is the perfect thing to keep me satisfied until their new full length comes out next month. Until then... Kung Over Folken Av Troll!!!
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| Tracklist: 01. Trollhammeren 02. Hemkomst 03. Skog 04. Forsvinn Dusom Lyser 05. Hel Vete |
| Rating: 9/10 |
| Release Date: 2004 |
| Length: 17:10 |
| Review By: Britton |
| Total Reviews: (1) |
| Bands Website: Go Here |
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