Trollfest - Brumlebassen

Artist: Trollfest

Album: Brumlebassen

Label: Napalm Records

Genre: folk metal, black metal

Brumlebassen is the fifth full-length album of the Norwegian folk metal band Trollfest – and as the bandname already tells you, they just sound like a bunch of trolls having a drunken party.

Trollfest make folk metal, which is “fashionable” at the moment, so by times Brumlebassen sounds like more of the same stuff. However, Trollfest add some cool elements to typical folk metal, that make them stand out on some tracks: their use of saxophone and accordion, their fictitious language Trollspråk (a mixture of Norwegian and German), the cantus-style parts and elements from black metal.

The overall atmosphere of Brumlebassen is darker than on your typical hoompah-metal album. In their more cheerful parts, Trollfest sound like drunken trolls where their Finnish counterparts of Korpiklaani sound like a human tribe living isolated in a forest. In their darker parts, Trollfest sound more like the newer black metal bands, such as Finsterforst.

While some folk metal bands appear to be very serious and passionate about the roots of the tribe/culture they have incorporated into their music, Trollfest seem to take it all with a grain of salt. Their cheerful cover art is a lovely example of the lightheartedness of these Norwegians.

Brumlebassen covers furious blastbeat passages as well as slow and soft acoustic parts. Some great examples of the acoustic parts are “Hevlette” and Mystisk Maskert”. The tenth track of the album “Bråk” brings some elements of death/black metal along with the accordion and the mowing of a cow – a not so common mix.

If you are a fan of the folk metal genre and you appreciate a good laugh, a nice bit of acoustic music and some heavier work along the side, make sure to check out Brumlebassen.

Buy Trollfest - Brumlebassen