One of many things I love about metal as a whole, both as a metalhead generally, and specifically as a reviewer, is the infinite and ever-evolving variety and diversity of it. The uninitiated, who tend to hyperfocus on the loudest, shoutiest varieties of thrash, death and grind, miss out on a genre and a community that embraces everything from Strapping Young Lad to Alcest. One of my little joys in life is playing these people something suitably ethereal and chilled, such as early Les Discrets, Alcest etc, and greatly enjoying the resulting confusion when I explain how it comes under the heading of “metal”. Because if you assume that metal is inevitably an unholy racket of noise and screaming, you go sailing past one of my favourite corners of the metal world: that lovely, and criminally under-appreciated, territory where post-metal meets various forms of folk, including neofolk and dark folk.
With that in mind, I’m going to preface this review with a recommendation – I know it’s a bit unorthodox I know, but stay with me. If you like this album and you haven’t heard Prophecy Productions’ sublime compilation album, Whom the Moon a Nightsong Sings, then that really, really needs to be your next port of call after this review. I mention Nightsong for two main reasons: firstly, it’s ridiculously gorgeous little genre and extremely under-rated; secondly, you could slot most of Fremmede Toner straight into Whom the Moon a Nightsong Sings, and you’d barely see the join. And I mean that second point on two levels – the music is an almost exact match in terms of genre (more neofolk with slightly heavier metal influences than most of Nightsong, but it still fits), but it’s also more than good enough to stand alongside it, which is no mean feat considering the outstanding calibre of Whom the Moon. It stands alongside an old Sympathy for the Record Industry compilation as one of only two albums that are responsible for introducing me to multiple new favourite bands in the space of one album. (Side note, if you only listen to one track off Nightsong, make it Ainulindalë’s Year of Silence.)
Right, now I’ve got that out of the way, let’s get back to Lumsk. Dating back to 1999, Lumsk are a Norwegian folk metal outfit with significant influences from the worlds of traditional folk, classical, rock and prog. Having got into a fairly predictable release schedule back in the 2000s, with albums coming out in 2003, 2005 and 2007, they then promptly disappeared for 16 years, until finally finishing Fremmede Toner last year. That’s not to say that they’ve been idle all that time though – this is an album with an impressive gestation period, and some of what’s on show here was written as far back as 2009.
Fremmede Toner, as well as being a long time in the making, also has a fairly striking central theme – Lumsk have taken the work of André Bjerke, a Norwegian poet and translator, and interpreted some of his best-known translations musically. And then, just for good measure, done the same with the originals of those poems. Which took me a good while to work out, because initially I was very confused about the repeated song titles (Under Linden/Under Der Linden for example, both based on Walther von der Vodelweide’s medieval poem of the latter name, and En Harmoni/A Match, both based on Swinburne). I don’t have a list of the exact poems the album’s based on however, which is a shame because I suspect there’s another layer to this album that my very rusty Norwegian and German skills are probably missing out on for the most part. Two tracks on the latter half of the album (the originals) are in English – A Match and The Day Is Done – and I can confirm that clear understanding of the lyrics makes these two even nicer to listen to, so I presume the same is true of the other tracks.
I’m not going to go through this track by track, because for the most part Lumsk have found a vibe that works, and they’ve stuck to it. Which is one of those statements that can be anything from a clear insult to a glowing compliment, by way of murky back-handed compliments, depending on what exactly you’re talking about. It can indicate composition that’s lazy and a bit stale, or it can refer to having found a formula that works well enough that there isn’t much to be gained from venturing too far beyond it. Where Lumsk are concerned, I mean it in the latter sense. Fremmede Toner maintains a fairly similar approach and tone throughout, and of the parts of the album that I take issue with, quite a few are where Lumsk have deviated from that formula.
For instance, right at the start of the album in Det Døde Barn, there’s a synth element that sounds like it’s from a different album entirely, never mind a different track. It’s all the more jarring given how beautiful and delicate the vocals and piano in that track are – the first time I heard it, I was convinced a random tab in Firefox was playing tinny game/ad music without permission as they are wont to do. The buzzing synth that makes the beginning of Abschied sound like chiptune is similarly out of place, as are the passages in the middle that sounds like boss music. I should be clear that I don’t dislike a good bit of pounding boss fight music (I maintain Death Egg Zone was well ahead of its time musically), but there’s a lot of lovely transcendental folk and atmospheric metal going on here, and it doesn’t really fit. I mean, I’d actually quite happily listen to a full-length album of the Sonic Vs Dr Robotnik-style synth metal that keeps popping up on Abschied, but as the sole example of it in an otherwise pretty, delicate, folky album like this, it’s not my favourite.
That said, there are far, far more bits of this album that are absolutely gorgeous, and that I don’t take even the tiniest of issues with. Det Døde Barn is otherwise lovely, and En Harmoni and its twin A Match are both staggeringly beautiful, as are Under Linden/Under Der Linden, and Dagen Er Endt. The remaining pair, Fiolen/Das Veilchen are pretty enough, but don’t stand out in the way that some of the other pairings do – they fade into the background pretty easily, and don’t leave much in the way of a lasting impression.
At this point, I could rattle off the usual reference points and “for fans of” lists, but I actually don’t want to. Folk, neo or otherwise, tends to one of those genres that people already know whether they like or not, so rather than compare Lumsk to other specific bands, I’m just going to stick with the recommendation I started with, which works in both directions. If you already love Nightsong, or the bands listed on it, you’ll be fine with this album, as it’s more of the same and mostly done very, very well. On the other hand, if you’re coming at this because you already love, or are curious about Lumsk, you’ll find more of what you love on Nightsong, and the neofolk/metal genre in general.
Ultimately, however you feel about the nicher aspects of this album’s appeal though, it’s worth checking out for the highlights, because when Lumsk get it right on this album, they get it truly, superlatively right. En Harmoni and A Match alone are worth keeping this album around as far as I’m concerned, especially given how often the chorus to A Match has quietly popped into my head in the last couple of weeks. A feat that’s all the more impressive in the wider context of my also having spent the last two weeks reviewing another album that I adored to the point of giving it 10/10 – for Lumsk to break through my obsession with that album tells me that Fremmede Toner will be sticking around as well.
(8.5/10 Ellie)
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