Album Review: The Age of the Hunt Also Known as Jaktens Tid by Finnish Folk Metal Band Finntroll

The Finnish folk metal band Finntroll released their 2001 album called The Age of the Hunt or “Jaktens Tid” in Swedish. As usual in these situations, I will be listing all of the song titles in English whenever possible to make it easier for readers to follow along with the review article itself. However, the vocalist for this album is Jan “Katla” Jamsen. Joining him as the other guitarist is Teemu Raimoranta who would unfortunately die in 2003. Even at this time, Finntroll had two guitarists, the other one being Samuli “Skrymer” Ponsimaa who has been with the band since 1998.

Checking the songs in this album in 2020, my favorite song has been the 4^th song which in English translates to Revenge of the Forest. You will see later on the review why this is the case.

1. War (instrumental)
2. The Feeding Tale
3. Battle At Bloodriver
4. Revenge of the Forest
5. The Age of the Hunt
6. Behind Every Pine
7. Kettle time
8. Warmead
9. The Hour of the Wolf (cover of the song by Hedningarna)
10. The Church Song
11. The Horn-Crowned King (Throne of Rivfader)
12. Aldhissla
13. Silence and Emptiness Reign

The first track of the album is an intro song called War. It has lots of drumming and it is an atmospheric kind of song that we would typically hear in very suspenseful kind of movies. The Feeding Tale starts off with a grunt by Katla. The song is about a brave journey man who is on a quest to climb a black mountain that has a summit full of snow. A very magnificent view is awaiting him. When he climbs up all the way to the peak of that mountain, he will be blessed with true honor and an ancient life force that will grant him super strength! You could say that this man will become like a very powerful warrior who cannot be stopped by other men. Finntroll is an example of a band that metal fans can enjoy even without understanding the vocals. The next song called Battle at Bloodriver is about the march of trolls through a moving forest. These trolls are so brave that they fight and one by one, many humans fall to their deaths. Revenge of the Forest is another one of my favorite songs from Finntroll because of a very catchy guitar part from 1:25 until about 1:38. That’s 13 very catchy seconds right there! The Age of the Hunt is a song about an army of trolls traveling through with wolves on their quest to rid the world of humans.

After that catchy part, the riffing slows down and there is a growl as the riffing continues in this pattern for a little while.

Behind Every Pine is a brilliant two-minute plus instrumental that is classically influenced and will leave any listeners in complete awe. They will be very impressed by the awesomeness of the song! Finntroll has this sort of obsession with trolls and there is no surprise behind the band’s name. The troll is an evil character also in a board game called Talisman that I would play as a teenager. And then Finntroll came into existence in 1997. The song Warmead (sometimes spelled War Mead) has a beautiful orchestrated type of part as the guitar is playing and the speed comes in to being a factor for the song. The Church Song is a short track in which there is spoken narration in Latin along with an organ playing in the background. The song finishes up with a faster part and Katla’s voice. This song is about a group of priests that had started their own church to spread the word of GOD. But what they could not foresee is the coming of the trolls. The trolls then arrive, creating a feeling of apprehension and fear. The song Aldhissla features some low voice chanting and the guitar sound and playing reminds me of the folk metal band Ensiferum. The last song Silence and Emptiness Reign is an instrumental with more interesting sounds in it. Overall, "Jaktens Tid" is an enjoyable listen but it is not as good as 2004’s Nightborn. But The Age of the Hunt would be the last full-length album performance from Teemu Raimoranta who is said to have died by falling off of a bridge in Helsinki, Finland because he had been intoxicated. Even so, this album was a great enough work that I'm sure he was proud of it as well. For fans of Finntroll, check out bands such as the mentioned Ensiferum, Stam1na, Mokoma, or Impaled Nazarene.