Brakebein

Nothing can describe this band. When people try to most of the time they'll compare it to Finntroll although the two sound nothing alike. Brakebein is a wild and wacky album that surprises, entertains and occasionally horrifies the listener.


The sad thing about this album and band is that it's criminally underrated. People almost instantly assume that because the album isn't entirely about being KVLT turns people off and they forget how much effort the musicians have put into the album and assume that they're the metal equivelant of Tenacious D.


The music blends catchy folk tunes with extreme black metal influence and occasionally puts in some jazz. The vocals are raw, trollish and sound exactly like the name suggests they should. The blend of instruments is perfect and the band aren't afraid to play whatever they can get their hands on.


But of course this must mean that they're just Korpiklaani with harsh vocals right? Wrong. The guitarist actually has the balls to play something that doesn't just follow the folk melody and comes up with some excellent and memorable riffs. He also repeatedly shows his skill with an acoustic guitar especially in the song Inni Den Grotte.


If you're looking for something simple that you want for easy listening, look away. Trollfest constantly surprise me in every song managing to go from an enraged riff to a funky jazz melody in just a second. Yes, the choruses are extremely catchy and melodic but you'll have to be in your feet if you're going to be able to follow this album. This isn't just folk metal where a violinist plays a tune and the band back it up. All the instruments work together to create what can only be described as true folk metal.


Their skill as musicians shows throughout, especially when faced with putting folk melodies over screaching guitar riffs and blast beats. In the song 'Illantergesteignungh' have a banjo riff playing over a crunching heavy metal riff which shows you how amazing this band really are.


The vocals are excellent. Their screeching vocals but the definetly aren't kvlt as you'd normally receive when listening to harsh vocals. Instead, the vocals are cheeky and light hearted always reminding you of those pesky little goblins/trolls in Overlord. Even his clean vocals are melodic and smooth as you can see in 'Inni Den Grotte'.


I don't know the lyrics but clearly they're extremely cheesy as it's about trolls who are questing for legendary beer. Trollfest, never afraid, to mind-blitz the listener throw in 'I just arrived in my fantastic boat!' at one point in the vicious song 'Den Apne Sjo'.


The band aren't meant to be taken entirely seriously but should be given credit for their thoughtful melodies and well crafted guitar riffs. Trollfest truly are one of the most unique bands of our time.

I generally try to keep it clean in these reviews, but the word that immediately and consistently springs to mind when reflecting on 'Brakebein' begins with "cluster" and ends with "uck". The 2nd CD from Norwegian pranksters Trollfest, it is a jumbled and almost completely disjointed mix of black metal and 'wacky' folk melodies.

From the band's name you can probably guess that Finntroll are an influence, but the 2 bands do not actually sound very much alike – Trollfest create far less of an ambience in their songs, and their attempts to sound oh-so-hilarious are right at the forefront. The CD tells the story of a group of trolls that go looking for some legendary beer, get in a few fights, then get bored and go home. Are your sides splitting yet?

Folk metal can be a funny old genre right enough, but for the music to hold together properly the writing has to be approached with a certain degree of seriousness. A great deal of Trollfest's songs merely seem like part of a blasty, 1349-style black metal song slung together with one or 2 segments of absurd folk tunes. Some of the time this works reasonably well, but on other occasions the songs are just too incoherent, or the attempts at hilarity go too far (the CD is replete with a variety of irksome sound bites) and the music becomes at worst an unlistenable irritation.

The song that sounds most like a direct Finntroll cloning operation, with the same giddy fast-paced rhythms, is "Den apne sjo", and it is one of the up points on the CD. The acoustic track "Inni den grotte" is also very agreeable and in fact commendably restrained. When it comes to this song it's probably for the best that the lyrics are all delivered in the German/Norwegian hybrid "Trollsprak" as I can only imagine how 'hysterical' this part of the story is.

When things get bad, though, they get bloody excruciating. The 11th and 12th tracks, "Yameeka" and "Skogsgjensyn", thoroughly trample any goodwill left for the CD as it reaches its conclusion with their lurching discordance and exasperating sound effects. The fairly pleasant closing track is something of a moot point by the time its 2 predecessors are done with the listener.

The thing that really emphasises the overall failure of this CD is that, for something that sets out to be so funny, it is actually a great effort to listen to from one end to the other despite the modest 45 minute running time. Some of the songs (or at least parts of them) are certainly good folk/black offerings, but on the whole are not enough to merit repeated listens. Simply being off-the-wall and zany isn't enough if the end result is such a directionless sprawl, and Trollfest will need to realise that they need to put more work into the basics of writing complete songs before thinking about anything else.

(Originally written for http://www.metalcdratings.com/

I found this band from a friend who is very into folk/viking metal, he said Finntroll is not alone in their unique style of folk songs singing of trolls and other such fantasy creatures. He was definitely right because listening to Trollfest immediately brings up similarities with Finntroll. All their songs have folk instruments, heavy guitars and simplistic but catchy drumwork. Some of the instruments make odd "swampy" noises as I call them, sounds you would hear in a bog/swamp, another trademark of Finntroll. What I like about Trollfest is they don't have the ambient filler pieces I find on the Finntroll albums. Trollfest also adds chanting vocals along with the fast quick screeches (sound quite funny on some songs). Not all songs are heavy either, occassionally there is an acoustic guitar and other such things to break up the fast paced barrage of folk metal.

Trollfest makes the style Finntroll has done more metal and quick in my opinion but Finntroll has the better vocals. Both bands have the heavy guitars but I think Trollfest really capitalizes on them more and deserves the tip of the hat. Trollfest also has more groove laden guitars where as Finntroll has more melody going for them.

All in all Trollfest will make you think of Finntroll but say "We've got our own different approach." All the songs on the album are fun, heavy and catchy. Folk metal listeners listen, this is your cup of tea (or tankard of beer if you wish).