Jaktens Tid

The press release calls Jakens Tid "trollish hoedown metal," which is to say that Finntroll incorporates some of the folk- and polka-based musics indigenous to their native Finland into their Wagnerian death metal. The fusion of styles apparently began as a drunken experiment, and it's hard to tell whether the resulting humor was intended or not. Indeed, it is hard to listen to this Tolkein-esque death metal square dance without experiencing flashbacks to Spinal Tap's Stonehenge scene. Although Finntroll's synthesis of traditional Finnish music and black metal is worth noting for its adventurousness, it falls short of its ambitions: to be an eerie and hostile new genre in the metal world. Rather, it sounds prankish and silly -- how could a polka influence but undermine the intended threat of a death metal band?