Finntroll
Blodsvept

Scandinavian trolls are known all over the world and has spread across the globe after thousands of years with histories, myths and lately a pretty hefty souvenir disposal to everyone that visit these countries. The Finnish trolls, however, have not spread like the souvenirs but they are pretty known around hard rock circuits and with this - their sixth album - they tie together most of their very turbulent career in to one album. If you don't know this band then I can reveal they've been through all kinds of issues with vocal chord diseases on their vocalist, death of the main character in the band and in all this misery also some success. I've personally followed them since demo days and seen they go through all their phases and I was as excited as always to get my hands on this album and I'm also pretty happy for the things I hear.

By now most people know about Finntroll, they are like the main stream hard rock equivalent for folk metal to what Iron Maiden was for heavy metal in the 80's. They were not the first band using an obscure language (in the case of Finntroll they have Swedish lyrics and we're not that many who knows this language) and unfamiliar instruments to the scene of metal but they certainty was the first global success as a band using this. Finntroll opened the gate and more bands has followed them and become popular too but Finntroll are already on their sixth album now and by now they've had the same line up for seven years and four of the trolls has been in the band since the first album and things has stabilised since the turbulance in the early mid 00's. Finntroll seems to be a band in harmony on 'Blodsvept'.

So what do we hear on 'Blodsvept'? In my ears it's a quite dark album but not bleak or somber, just a bit black. Quite hard, in my ears, pretty much in the vein of album number one and two - if you've heard them? The tempo is a bit turned up and the tone is actually pretty joyful, at least a bit playful. The 43 minutes that these eleven tracks takes to play through makes it one of the shortest albums by Finntroll but it's quality that counts, not quantity and the quality has no shortcomings. On 'Blodsvept' these Finnish trolls are just as good as they ever was and in my opinion it's one of the best Finntroll albums so far.

The album opens quick and dark but almost cheerful in a way too. The best tracks, however, starts to line up shortly in to the album for a cavalcade that never seems to lose quality. The good stuff just keeps coming and I feel very excited to hear this. As a well oriented Finntroll listener, I feel it's one to keep and I imagine all the people that likes this band will feel at least somewhat the same about it. But if you've never played them before in your life, or maybe just played one or a pair of them, you might wonder if this is the Finntroll album to start with? Well, I don't know - that kind of depends on your personal taste and everything, but I think this would work fine to be your Finntroll debut.

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