Double Scandinavian Feature! Lumsk’s Det Vilde Kor & Vintersorg’s Solens Rötter
Don’t worry, I’m not doing a track-by-track this time.
Two of the albums I’ve been most eagerly anticipating are Lumsk’s Det Vilde Kor, and Vintersorg’s Solens Rötter. Believe it or not, these two bands used to sound somewhat similar within the folk metal genre. Unfortunately now, neither one plays “folk metal”. Though they’d each probably still tell you they do, each has gone off in a completely tangential direction, ending up pretty far away stylistically and thematically.
Lumsk’s Det Vilde Kor comes on the heels of 2005’s Troll, easily one of my favorite albums of all time. When I heard that the new album would be based on the poetry of Knut Hamsun, a wacky Norwegian poet/writer with Nazi sympathies and a really cool monocle, I started to get worried, but still had faith in Lumsk’s ability to turn out another amazing album.
So here it is, and as I feared, it continues on their trend of de-metalization. To be sure there are the grinding electric guitars in places, but hardly enough to qualify it as “metal”. The violin and vocals are still by far Lumsk’s best assets, and the horn making its appearance in a few tracks is a nice addition too, but none of the tracks in particular stand out in my mind, at least as amazing songs. There are some interesting parts - I’m not sure I like the funk that rears itself at a certain point, and I’d definitely keep it in my library - but it’s a rather mediocre album in absolute terms.
I’d written an anticipatory blurb a while back about the evolution of Vintersorg’s sound, hoping that the “ethnic feel” he promised for the new album would mean more folk metal and the ditching of the “progressive” metal paradigm.
So much for that!
Though the cover, a medieval-looking woodcut using the old logo, was promising in that regard, there was pretty much no discernible folk influence in the whole album. It had its good moments - the acoustic guitar section at the beginning was nice, for example - but unlike Lumsk’s, this one sounds much too similar to his previous, The Focusing Blur in its meandering melodies and unstructuredness, for me to want to keep it around.
Seems like I’ll have to get my Scandinavian folk metal fix elsewhere now. If you can recommend any good bands, I’m all ears.
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2 Responses
Mar 28 at 7:12 pm
I like new Lumsk more than their previous album.. and I don’t really care it’s not metal anymore.. at least it’s not shitty commercial music like last Within Temptation..
Apr 24 at 8:56 am
new lumsk is not metal at all but it’s a nice record, with a soft folk-prog atmosphere and great female vocals. Troll’s is still the best one, but De Vilde Kor easily surpasses Asmund (which i never liked much).