Saturday, October 11, 2014

Troldhaugen - Obzkure Anekdotez for Maniakal Massez

Troldhaugen are an Australian group who released their second full-length album in August of this year. I'd never heard them before, so I came into this without any expectations or back-story in my mind. All I knew was that Metal Archives calls them Avant-Garde folk metal.

Honestly, that's the best label I could imagine. It's no secret that I like bands who do weird shit, so I absolutely loved this. To make the quickest, most obvious comparison I can think of, Tollhaugen sound a lot like a fusion of Finntroll and Mr. Bungle. Their style, while in carries on that "trollish" vibe throughout, wanders all over the place. One minute you're listening to a power ballad, the next you've got death metal vocals snarling over top of synthesizers and xylophones. The band's energy is through the roof. The range of instrumentation is massive. The musicianship on display is as sharp as it is schizophrenic. The vocals hit on virtually every style you can imagine, though that Finntroll-esque growling speech seems to be the closest thing to home-base for them.

There's really no way to accurately describe in detail everything this band does short of writing a full book, because there's just so much going on in this album. The short version would be this: if you like Mr. Bungle, Sigh, or just hyper-actively energetic weird music, you'll like this. If you prefer more conventional metal, you'll probably be mostly annoyed and confused by it.

So there you have it. Not for everyone, but amazing for those of us who enjoy this kind of thing.

Grade: A


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