The Folk Metal Thread

[Vurtox 3]

So yeah, Turisas and Moonsorrow are out, anyone else listened to them already?

Moonsorrow's album was good, not great but good. Turisas' album was fan-fucking-tastic, IMO.

[Champ213 1858]

I liked the Moonsorrow album, though I still need to give it a few more listens. It's not an easy album, since it's basically just 4 very long songs. Huuto is amazing though, every minute of it.

And I agree, SUAF is a lot of fun to listen to. At some parts it was maybe a bit too.. I dunno, musical-like to me. But even in cheesy moments like that I still found myself enjoying it a lot, lol. My early favourites so far are The Great Escape and March of the Varangian Guard.

When I heard a few weeks before release that it would barely have any accordeon any more I was somewhat disappointed, but now it's funnily the one song that still has the accordeon (Hunting Pirates) I liked the least, cause it sounded kinda stereotypical. Still good though.

[Vurtox 3]

SUAF had so much cheese that it made the album amazing. Not to mention The Bosphorus Freezes Over is one of the best Turisas songs ever.

[Ito 2438]

I am just going through my first listen of SUAF right now, enjoying it so far (only three songs in). Any of you guys know why there isn't as much accordion as much? Is Netta Skog leaving the band or only being support now or something?

[Champ213 1858]

Nygard said in an interview that the accordeon would push the music into a very "folky" corner and that they wanted to do something different this time, more film-score oriented, but that the accordeon would still be there during lives (though I'm not sure if he meant for old songs or whether the new songs actually have accordeon live - I'm guessign the first though). However a few days ago I also read on their facebook that Netta had to retire from their current US tour due to health reasons. If this has been something ongoing it might have been a reason too, I dunno.

[DeIdeal 0]

I thought the new Turisas album was amazing, too, even though a bit different from what they've done before. They did that "film-score" style really well, End of an Empire is SO VERY EPIC! The title-track, March of Varangian Guard and the Bosphorus Freezes Over were pretty damn nice, too.

I also downloaded that Moonsorrow album, and listened the band for the first time in five or so years. Muinaiset was absolutely mind-blowing, and I usually can't stand music sung in Finnish (my only problem with Bosphorus Freezes Over). I've really been getting back into western metal during the last six months. Hmm.

[Champ213 1858]

After a few more listens I think "End of an Empire" is my favourite too. At first I thought it was a bit over-the-top, but the choirs truly give me goosebumps.

Just the line "Take a look at all these fish" makes me scratch my head. Wtf?

I'll probably go and buy the album on monday. I hope they have the limited edition in store, I heard it has a few accoustic tracks as a bonus. That shall be interesting.

[Ito 2438]

Just the line "Take a look at all these fish" makes me scratch my head. Wtf?

That line makes me lol

[Champ213 1858]

So, I actually bought the Turisas album today. Had to walk an extra 20 minutes cause my usual shop didn't have the limited edition.

The accoustic songs turned out to be a CD-extra video of a live accoustic session. I made an audio-rip of it, cause they are actually pretty nice. I didn't bother to look if they are already uploaded elsewhere, but if somebody is interested, they can drop me a PM. And if somebody actually wants the video itself, I could upload that as well.

[Champ213 1858]

The new Týr album is out today, I just bought my copy. (I also saw it on some places on the net, for those that just want to download it.).

I'm loving it so far, more than the previous album (which wasn't really bad either, but except for some tracks I never got into it that much as their other albums). My favourite songs after three listens are 'Flames of The Free', 'Evening Star' and 'Fields of the Fallen'.

[TheBistroButcher666 228]

Hi Dare,

I thought I would bring up Moonsorrow again. What album should I try out, I use to have Kivenkantaja and Voimasta Ja Kunniasta and really liked those but want to buy a newer album. Should I get the 2005, 2007, 2008 or the 2011 release?

[Guest]

If I'm allowed to answer:

2005 > 2007 > 2008 > 2011.

[Champ213 1858]

You can't do much wrong with the 2011 album (unless you don't like really long songs), though I can't comment on the 2005-2008 albums, as I haven't tried them, so I can't compare them to Varjoina reallylongassfinnishname. But it's a good album on it's own right and I enjoyed it quite a lot.

[Guest]

But it all comes down to what you prefer. Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa has alot more in commong with Suden Uni, Voimasta Ja Kunniasta and Kivenkantaja than what Verisäkeet, V: Hävitetty and Tulimyrsky has. The biggest difference is that Verisäkeet, V: Hävitetty and Tulimyrsky are darker, contains more black metal from their roots (= their demos days), are far more more epic sounding and is a lot "bigger" sound wise. They are also a lot more progressive and challenging than what Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa, which is more back to the catchy and "lighter" atmosphere than Verisäkeet, V: Hävitetty and Tulimyrsky. If you want something completely new, dark, more epic and more progressive and challenging from Moonsorrow, you should go with Verisäkeet > V: Hävitetty > Tulimyrsky. If you want an album that's "lighter", more easy listening, catchy and straight forward you should go with Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa.

Quality wise, for me at least, would be Verisäkeet > V: Hävitetty > Tulimyrsky > Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa. But you can't go wrong with any of them, as long as you don't hate black metal, epic and progressive music.

Edit: And when I say that Verisäkeet, V: Hävitetty and Tulimyrsky (especially the two first of them) are more challenging, I mean that the production isn't as polished as on Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa, which means everything isn't as "clear", and there's a lot of elements that you won't discover before you've had plenty of listens. I guess you can call them "hidden" elements in the music that's exciting and will make the albums better for every single listen. They're also not as straight forward as Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa.

[TheBistroButcher666 228]

I felt like I needed to have someone translate that last post for me.

I'll look into Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa and decide from there if I will purchase more from their discography.

[Guest]

I felt like I needed to have someone translate that last post for me.

Haha! Why?

[DeIdeal 0]

I felt like I needed to have someone translate that last post for me.

Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa = As Shadows We Walk in the Land of the Dead

Suden Uni = The Dream of the Wolf

Voimasta Ja Kunniasta = Of Strength and Honor

Kivenkantaja = The Stonecarrier

Verisäkeet = The Bloodverses

Hävitetty = The Destroyed

Tulimyrsky = The Firestorm

: P

(I don't guarantee that these are 100 % correct, especially the translation of Hävitetty)

[Guest]

If I'm not mistaken I think she was talking about everything that I wrote. That it was impossible to understand what I meant. or something. Not sure though, but I guess it was.

V: Hävitetty = Chapter V: Ravaged

[TheBistroButcher666 228]

lolnope, I'm mostly joking and referring mainly to all the long Finnish words. After I read what you wrote a part of me was thinking 'wtf did I just read?'. Anyway, what you had wrote is what made me decide to purchase Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa anyway

[Guest]

Oooh, ok. I was pretty sure that I had once again written something that only I could udnerstand.

But yeah, I do agree about the finnish words. I'll never be able to remember the song titles. Only the track numbers. "Oh, song #3 are by far the best track on the album. Have no idea what the titles is,e ven thoguh I've been listening to the album since 2003." D'oh!

However, Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa is a great place to start if one dig the three first album, since it is, as I've already said, the one that has most in common with the three first albums. The production's clean and polished and there's not that much happening in the tracks as on Verisäkeet, V: Hävitetty and Tulimyrsky. But if yuo happen to like the album, there should be nothing that holds you back from buying/downloading and getting into Verisäkeet, V: Hävitetty and Tulimyrsky. They do require way more of the listener than the four other albums, but it's worth it after one have managed to get into the albums.

And a few tracks by another folk metal band:

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?smegin should be quite known by now. Their debut album, Hin Vordende Sod & Sø, is simpley a classic within the folk/viking metal genre. Great, and even original album. Not often you hear original folk/viking metal albums. Their second album, however, was a massive disappointment and is mediocre at best. Lazare (Solefald, Age of Silence, Borknagar, etc.) did the clean vocals for the debut album, and as usual it's nothing short but amazing. What a man! Extremely nice as well. They where also quite the live band back then. Saw them live in 04 or 05 one a small, intimate place together with Lumsk, which was also pretty entertaining live, though far from the quality that ?smegin has.

But the album should be worth checking out for any fan of the viking/folk metal genre.

[Ito 2438]

I finally got around to checking out Tyr's newest album, The Lay Of Thrym...can't cay I cared for it at all. That and Take your Tyrant is the cheesiest freaking song...so bad xD

[Neon 6]

I gonna promo my friends band Frosttide a bit

Joni Snoro decided to form a folk metal band in autumn 2009. He asked Joonas Nislin to play drums. The band also got a guitarist and bassist. He himself played guitar and sang. It was harder to find a keyboard player. In the end the guitarist and bassist left for their own projects. Juho Patinen joined the band as the guitarist around Christmas 2009. For a while they practiced Joni's songs with two guitars and drums, until the band found a keyboard player, Lise Richardson in the beginning of 2010. The band entered the Toukofest band competition around this time. They were looking for a bassist, and the previous guitarist and bassist filled in for a while, until the first official bassist entered the band in spring 2010. The band was now complete. The first show was at Toukofest 2010, and the band made the shared second place in the band competition.

The band released their first EP Dawn Of Frost at the end of summer 2010.

In the winter 2010 the band came to the mutual decision to part ways with the bassist of that time and switched temporarily to another, who didn't stay in the band for long.

Currently Frosttide have no official bassist.

Frosttide are underground act of the year 2010, as awarded by Finnish Metal Awards.

"You know what, it’s been a while since we had some nice heroic folk metal. So why not throw some out there today. Who doesn’t like a bunch of long-haired Fins who prefer to stroll the forests pretending to be warriors of old, while making a cheerful piece of metal music? I know I do! "

http://www.facebook.com/Frosttide?sk=wall

Tell me if you hate it or not and what think?

[Champ213 1858]

http://www.facebook.com/Frosttide?sk=wall

Tell me if you hate it or not and what think?

I tried some songs from their bandpage. They're not bad, very ensiferum-ish and the instruments are really good. I would probably like them a bit more if they used more folky and accoustic elements (like in 'Dawn', that was pretty neat), or utilized the occasional clear vocals to make the songs more memorable. Most songs sounded kinda same-ish. But still, very decent, that guitar and drum work is very cool.

[Neon 6]

Yup

My friend plays keyboard's and she is wery good at it. I was in that korpiklaani gig and thay was wery good act

[Ito 2438]

I am entirely with Champ here, the instrument are very good, and the compositions are fairly interesting, but the vocals are ok. That and it is kinda hard to judge at the quality that is on facebook.