Finsterforst
#YØLØ
Released 14th September 2016
Folk Metal
Released via Napalm Records
The German folk metal band from the “Dark Forest” region is back with their latest offering; a limited edition EP titled ‘#YØLØ’. This is a party album for the “dancing metal fan” featuring four covers of songs by pop, hip-hop and punk artists. Based on some of the song titles, this is fairly similar to what you might expect to see from their beer-loving, fellow countrymen Tankard. I am not too convinced about the choice of covers, but each to their own…
So let’s see what we have here — The party starts with Bottle Gods, a highly entertaining folk metal tune which made me think of Finntroll and Ensiferum for some reason. No trolls though, just a simple catchy chorus and some catchy accordion melodies accompanying the metal instruments. So far, so good…Now where’s that beer? Ah, here it comes. Not just one either but several as the bar starts to fill up and more of your friends join the party. And what better anthem for this occasion than Auf die Zwölf – a German-language track with a lot of the same atmosphere as the super-catchy opener. More accordion noise and a chorus so catchy that you want to dance and sing along to the tune even if your German is as bad as mine is.
Things start to go a bit haywire by the time we reach the title track. Folk metal and trumpets? Oh dear, clearly someone has had one beer too many. Well clearly someone did because the Hangover is immense. It’s so sad, such a great party and now everyone feels like crap. Oh look, there’s a karaoke machine over there, let’s all have a go at singing some random songs. Yeah… In all honesty the Finsterforst cover of Miley Cyrus’s Wrecking Ball is actually quite decent. They actually put some effort into the vocals and their metalized version works surprisingly well. However the same cannot be said for the Michael Jackson cover or the cringe-worthy hip-hop track. ‘Wild Rover’ is a fairly obvious song to end the party with. It’s been fun but now it’s really time to go home.
Overall, you can clearly tell that Finsterforst had lots fun recording ‘#YØLØ’. It’s clearly a party album that is not meant to be taken too seriously. The whole thing is a bit of a joke but luckily for the most part a good one.
3/5
Iza Raittila
Valkyrian Music 