Been meaning to stock the US releases from Finntroll for awhile. By now, I'm sure that anyone whose been listening to extreme metal over the past ten years at least knows who Finntroll are, that absolutely ridiculous but awesomely heavy and infectious Finnish band whose members pretend that they are trolls and who play an anthemic hybrid of blackened death metal and a form of Finnish folk music called "Humppa" that's best described as a kind of energetic polka music. It sounds like an unlikely mix if you haven't heard it before, but the fact is that Finntroll's music is absurdly fun to listen to, and I'm constantly playing the three albums that have been issued through Century Media here in the states (Jaktens Tid, Nattfodd and Ur Jordens Djup). Granted, you've got to have a sense of humour to listen to this stuff, I mean, c'mon, these guys pretend that they're trolls, but their music is so insanely catchy and epic and crushing, I can't stop recommending them to everybody.

By the time 2007's Ur Jordens Djup came out, Finntroll had become HUGE. Kinda seems odd at first, a Finnish band pretending to be trolls and playing a kind of crushing, boisterous mix of blackened death metal and freaking polka turning into this hugely popular band with metal fans, but their music is so heavy and so catchy and memorable, it's really not that big of a surprise. Things had changed a little when this album rolled around though; Ur Jordens Djup saw the band with a new singer, whose voice was a little less "death metal" but still has that blackened troll-like croak, and while their music is still rooted in that Finnish humppa sound, the tone here feels darker and more ominous, and not as over-the-top and rollicking as their previous albums. The album title translates to "From the depths of the earth", which might have something to do with why the mood here is more pensive and darker than usual. Still, their music is just as catchy as ever, with the songs "Nedgang", "En M�ktig H�r" and "Korpens Saga" especially sticking out. There's the obligatory keyboards placed prominently in the mix, with lots of cinematic strings and jaunty accordians, crushing buzzing riifs, acoustic troll-folk parts, weird spoken word sections, drunken campfire jamming, even some tympani drums, mouth harp and banjo show up here. And there's plenty of anthemic singalongs that'll have you pumping yer fist in the air before you even realize it's happening. A darker, moodier bunch of trolls this time around, maybe, but this is still a total riot.