Ah, there we are. A beautiful clearing in the forest. The perfect woodland scene, a lilting, delicate sylvan song in the hazy air. Fresh air, beauty. Happy inebriated trolls enjoying the sights and the sounds of nature as they play. Oh, look, a bumble bee. How cute!
All this is thankfully trashed by said bee stinging a couple of them, so causing the mob of drunken trolls to stumble, belch and whirl across their perfect picnic as they attempt to subdue the aggressive little stripy jumper clad party crasher. Yep, Trollfest are back and, bless their cute ‘n’ ugly heads, all is right with the world.
After the chaotic but very danceable-while-drunk title track (I tried, the neighbours looked on with their usual care-in-the-community faces), ‘Bose Tivoli’ starts with some creaking fairground sounds, a confused troll grunting and then spinning off into an energetic jig with a slightly drunk carnival melody that is very catchy. Talking of catchy, the Mexican Cantina Band catch up in time for ‘ Illsint’ which really rounds out the sound. By the time the barking mad and oh-so-sweet little tune ‘Hevlette’ finishes (it sounds like a slightly squiffy troll village mayor accompanied on accordion and xylophone giving instructions for a square dance while a drunk bee farts into a trumpet and it just made me smile and giggle even though I have no clue what it’s about) I am a happy little Gizmo.
Now I rarely feel sympathy for band managers but, honestly coping with this lot must be like kitten herding at a knitting festival. While hungover. So for the second time I overlook not having a blessed clue what this is all about, with no hints or translations, apart from the one track in English which we shall get to in a while.
Last time I met up with the trolls they were doing something about filling the Holy Grail with beer and crashing a Mexican wedding. This time? I think they are attending a village fete and bee festival (probably having misread ‘bee’ as ‘beer’), thankfully with the cantina band still in tow. And there is probably something about cows.
I’ve made no bones about my opinion that the current state of folk metal is lamentable, so why do this lot perk me up so much? Not just their unadulterated sense of fun, but for all the folk music, accordions and the glorious brass sound they still bristle with black metal riffs like stubble on a very trollish chin. And it’s not just chucked together. Oh, it has that lovely air of constantly teetering off balance and half a drink away from utter chaos, but somehow it not just holds together but has hooks and bounces off down the rough country path at breakneck speed with you the honoured listener carried high on their shoulders. These trolls can play like utter demons and for all the fun they seem to wear their hearts on their sleeves, too. I think they really care a lot about this stuff and it shows. There is something so generous about this band. Something friendly and rather warming and that, you know, is a Nice Thing.
Oddly I also think as a whole it is a touch more aggressive in parts than their last album, but also the individual songs are stronger in their own right. The acoustic songs like ‘Mystisk Maskert’ which are sprinkled throughout are excellent little pieces full of fun and joy or reflection and nicely add breaks for breath between the heavier stuff without disrupting the atmosphere of the album. In fact they are part of the intrinsic fabric of this gem; firm roots in the folk from which the character of Trollfest grows.
At times, like on ‘TrinkenTroll’ it is like watching highly accomplished circus clowns wringing every ounce of melancholy from a tune, and on others like ‘Verboten Kjaerleik’ an over wrought tavern performer doing the same, and it all works with superb musicianship and a lovely sharp humour.
In contrast ‘ Brak’ is a fair surprising stomp over Finntroll territory with a following cow (?) before the unexpected but haunting Amorphis like refrain just takes your breath away with superb clean vocals and an utterly compelling tune.
The one song not in Trollsprak is the track ‘Sellout’. Yep. The lyrics go (I think) along the lines of ‘ once upon a time the trolls went to the market to sell their souls to the highest bidder’. With a chorus of something like ‘ Give us your cash, give us all your hard earned Judas pay. Give us all your money, we’re asking for your money, give us all your Euros…’ Now anyone thinking ‘sour grapes’ at someone else’s success needs to listen to this. It is such a perfect, clichéd commercial folk metal song complete with female vocals and rap breakdown and it is done so deadpan that it would be swallowed hook line and sinker by Kerrang! TV. But with both the lyrics and the angry black metal vocals it is… both a beautifully funny piss take and a sad look at what the band seem to think has been done to the music they love. It makes the point so poignantly and through humour, and is done in such a brilliant off the cuff ‘see we could do this any time we wanted to but we don’t’ manner, that it just highlights what a superb band Trollfest are. And it still retains musical echoes of the Trollfest sound in some of the themes threaded through the structure. It actually kind of chokes me up, this song. Go figure.
Thankfully it is unceremoniously swept off the stall by some jolly drinking that explodes into a kind of thrash accordion driven song ‘ Rundt Balet’ which is short, joyous and slaps the grin back on my face and asks if I haven’t got a home to go to.
And off I go: Happier, dancing badly and full of beer waving goodbye to those nice little trolls. And walking into a tree.
Exemlpathingy… Brillni…. Good. Yeah. Good. Verrrrr’, ver’ good. *Hic*. They’re my besh frens in th’ wurl….
*thump*
(9/10 Gizmo)
Leave a Reply