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posts for january 8, 2011.

the finnish band finntroll is a more popular choice than most bands i presented so far, except lacuna coil. finntroll‘s lyrics are troll-centered. not internet trolls or fantasy trolls though, but the skandinavian ones. for that reason, they also sing in swedish, because it sounds more trollish than finnish or english. they tell tales about trolls, including their wars against christian missionaries. the music comes from the melodic black metal genre, with some humppa (sometimes described as finnish polka) influcences. most of them feature fast melodic heavy music with screamed/growled lyrics. the band also makes use of orchestric parts and is well suited as party music or to dance to it (well, i guess it depends on what you mean by dancing). one good example is vindfärd/människopesten from their 2003 album nadfödd:

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

another example is from their newest album, nifelvind:

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

a third song i want to present is relatively calm, compared to the above two. it’s from their ur jordens djup album, and very danceable:

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

finally, here’s a rather different piece from their 2003 album visor om slutet, an album i already raved about on spielwiese (in fact, that was my first post there after the obligatory hello world post). the album is purely accoustic and often also instrumental. this is a nice piece with vocals:

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

in case you like something atmospheric, folkish, try that album. it’s not typical for finntroll, but nonetheless great!

mar de grises is another one of the bands i found out about in my favourite record store. they are a chilenian band producing intense and melodic death/doom/post metal tunes. by intense, i mean: not just powerful and heavy, but also interesting. the first piece i want to present is from their second album, draining the waterheart. it’s one of my favourite songs, heavy, but beautiful:

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

the second song i want to present is from the same album, but a slower, less brutal song, having only clean vocals:

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

the third song is the opener of their debut album, the tatterdemalion express. again, a more powerful, heavy song, also having many slower, calm parts:

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]

the last song is from their newest album, streams inwards:

[[for legal reasons, i do not want to include youtube videos here anymore. please click on this link to watch the video at youtube.]]