A Review of the Album Called the Earth’s Deep by Finnish Folk Metal Band Finntroll

The Finnish folk metal band Finntroll has had a habit of making beautiful folk influenced heavy metal in other languages and these guys have certainly been in my playlists since at least 2007. Their 2007 studio album called The Earth’s Deep in English is their 4^th studio album following the release of their 2004 album called Night born.

The first song translated as “Dawn” is a dark feeling kind of instrumental song that kind of builds up and gets musically intense before slowing down into a darker, atmospheric kind of feel like the band Cradle of Filth. Replacing Tapio Wilska on lead vocals is Mathias Lillmans and he is a more raspy kind of vocalist similar to Jari Maenpaa. The second song called Song ironically enough tells the tales about the times when children were spending time in caves when sorcerers were roaming the land. “The Saga of the Corps” is the next song in this album and this one has some clean vocals in the mix. This one is a song about trolls laying waste to the land as many people have died. I hear a definite Ensiferum influence in this one with not just the raspy vocals but the heavy guitars and folk inspired sounds. “Decline” is a song about one man’s search for the truth of his birth and what happened to him. For thirty days and thirty nights, he climbs up to the depths of the Earth and then discovers that the story surrounding his birth is actually true. Battle Brothers or Brothers of War as this song is called sounds like a version of the band Dimmu Borgir because of the rougher vocals and heavier guitar work. Although in theory it is good to be influenced by other bands, Finntroll trying to sound like Dimmu Borgir doesn’t quite work out musically. Are they trying to get away from their folk music roots with this song? This is not necessarily a bad song but I just get the sense that it doesn’t quite fit in musically with what Finntroll has done their whole career.

Their music is similar to Ensiferum with one major difference being that their lyrics are in Swedish. This factor alone really limits their ability to market their brand of folk metal outside of Finland because what percentage of the world population speaks Swedish? If Finntroll changed their lyrics to English it would be pretty much a guarantee that they would be able to attract a much larger following and their fan base would surely expand, leading to a more profitable band and everyone would benefit immensely from this.

Now since the band’s lyrics are in Swedish, interpreting the story is going to be challenging at the least. Finntroll went to original vocalist Jamsen in regards to writing lyrics for the album. Jamsen himself is said to have had his own kinds of stories. Besides this approach, the album’s lyrics are based on Nordic myths, the Kalevala which is the Finnish national epic, and history as well.

“Under Two Runes” which is the 10^th song of this pretty good album, the journey of the warrior who took steps in the mud only to encounter a creature which drank his blood and stole his power. The album The Earth’s Deep depending upon which translation tool you use to figure to the album’s title ends with a beautiful instrumental song called Evening. This album is not as good as 2004’s Nightborn but it is still a decent one to listen to after you have heard Finntroll’s earlier releases.