Folksy

Finntroll

Finntroll is one of the most well-known Folk Metal bands, and by well-known, I mean people who frequent online Metal forums have heard of them. Anyway, part of the band's appeal to me is that the lyrics are in Swedish, even though the band is from (big surprise) Finland. As for Folk Metal's appeal to me in general; there is something delightfully fun about having bouncy folky elements with metal music. I own three Finntroll albums: Nattfödd, Visor om Slutet, and Ur Jordens Djup. I suggest beginners try Nattfödd; it has a more upbeat, melodic sound. Visor om Slutet is mostly ambient, but also contains two of my favorite (acoustic) Finntroll songs, "Försvinn Du Som Lyser" and "Svart Djup", the latter which always gives me goosebumps. The fact that I have decent idea of what the song is about makes it that much more haunting. Ur Jordens Djup is a bit darker sounding, drawing back more to the band's Black Metal roots, while still retaining the folkiness.

Links
"Nedgång" Video from the album Ur Jordens Djup, with the band's new vocalist.

"Trollhammaren" from Nattfödd(couldn't embed)

Finntroll's Website
Finntroll's Myspace
Månegarm + Två Fisk och en Fläsk

Another well-known Scandinavian Folk Metal band is Månegarm from Sweden. I know this band mainly through their "neo-folk" album, Urminnes Hävd (The Forest Sessions). The album is under 30 minutes long, but it is a treat all the way through.

Here you can find an mp3 from the album, along with lyrics

"Sigrblot," a sampling of the band's usual style
Månegarm's Myspace

Researching the album a bit more led me to the group that calibrated with Månegarm, Två Fisk och en Fläsk. The groups are apparently linked by the violinist, Janne Liljeqvist. Två Fisk och en Fläsk's website is full of mp3s from their albums. I suggest checking out these songs in particular:


Två Fisk och en Fläsk's Website (Under "MUSIC")

From TVÅ FISK + EN FLÄSK
Douce Dame
Mit Ganczem Willen

From Jungfruburen
Jungfrun I Buren

From Flesh Workshop
Unge Erik
Bas-Umers Polska

The Denial of Death

My grandfather died the day before Thanksgiving. I had a big dinner with one side of the family and a bunch of funeral stuff with the other. I took his death fairly well; I knew that he had gone from quite active to needing help out of bed in the past few years and that he was in a lot of pain. What pained (and fascinated)me the most were all the supernatural stories and reassurances I kept hearing. "He's in a better place," "I'll meet him again someday" In the repetition I realize that deep down they may just know that he really is just gone. Without repetition and a sort of social support superstitions could not survive. Death really does seem to be the end. Any time someone pulls in a soul concept, it just collapses upon inspection. Rather than drowning ourselves in fantasies, we can accept it for what it is.

This is an appropriate post to explain the meaning of the blog title. "Mytens Makt" means "Myth's Power" in Swedish(I'll get into posts on language in future). I use it because many of these myths still hold great power today. They may give hope, but it is a false hope and I look forward to a day when the Vatican is a museum and politicians don't feel like they need to pay lip-service to some ridiculous religious belief.

"What is true is more important than what I wish to be true."

Chthonic- Melodic Black Metal from...Taiwan

Finding this band was a pleasant surprise. Every once in a while, I browse through band pages on myspace, selecting genres like "death metal", "black metal", "grindcore" and "industrial" and choosing less than obvious countries for those genres such as Japan, China, Taiwan and India. So far, this band is my favorite extreme metal band that I've found from an Asian country.

Musically, they play what one might call a more symphonic, mainstream style of black metal with a healthy dose of Scandinavian Melodeath influence. They even manage to include some local influences, most prominately in the use of erhu, a traditional Chinese two-stringed violin. They don't give it as much focus as I would like, but its wailing lines can be heard in nearly every song. The keyboards are also impressive; not satisfied just being in the support role, some of the more memorable riffs come from the keyboardist. I have their latest album, "Seediq Bale" and I just got their earlier release, "Relentless Recurrence," in the mail a couple of days ago. I need some more time to listen through it, but I can give a whole-hearted recommendation to "Seediq Bale."

Links
The Band's Myspace
Official Website
Video for Quasi Putrefaction from Seediq Bale
Video for Progeny of Rmdax Tasing from Seediq Bale
Article about the band's political efforts

What this blog may include....

Thoughts on... music, mostly in the realm of metal, religion and society and perhaps even some photography of mine.