| CD REVIEW Faanefjell |
|
|
Band: Faanefjell The very young Norwegian band Faanefjell was formed by Danish vocalist Ben I. Jørgensen (aka Syrtroll; also involved with Grivf) and Kim A. Karlsen (aka Grimtroll; think Cutthroat, Rules Of Engagement, EON). The duo created a concept around the mountain Faanefjell, which sort of became a battle field between humans and trolls, the latter having been driven away by the human conquerors. Trollmarsj is the first introduction to this story. Remarkable are the session and guest musicians, amongst whom members of Trail Of Tears, Imperia, Scariot and Dimension F3H. The album was recorded at the end of 2009 at Mayhem Music with producer / mixer / engineer Audun Grønnestad (Imperia, Angel), who did also contribute as guest musician, and it was mastered at Finnvox by Mika Jussila (The Foreshadowing, Ajattara, Finntroll, Shape Of Despair, Trail Of Tears and hundreds of others).Trollmarsj can best be referred to as symphonic Folk / Black Metal, I guess. The songs differ between two extremes: epic, joyful Folk at the one hand, and fierce Battle Black Metal at the other. Some excerpts can be considered narrative: spoken words (all in ancient Danish/Norwegian) with just some back ground instrumentation, to explain or give introduction to another part of the story. The use of keyboards is very ‘wide’: sometimes bombastic, then atmospheric, floating or heroic. Most of the folkish parts are clearly Scandinavian and, unfortunately, too predictable. Even the use of traditional elements or acoustic parts does not bring anything renewing. The heavier pieces too sound Scandinavian (rather than ‘Nordic’ or simply Norwegian), yet of the limited-original kind too. And that’s a pity. The performance is all right, and so are the compositions, but this rather safe approach won’t make this album 2010’s most remarkable debut at all. For fans of Asmegin, Arckanum, Windir (the album, by the way, includes the instrumental Windir-cover Soknardalr), Borknagar or Cor Scorpii, to keep it Norwegian; Scandinavian in a general sense brings us to Finntroll, Mithotyn, Fortid, Solstafir, Thyrfing or Svartsot too… 75/100 Ivan Tibos. |
