Sorg Uten Tårer

Was searching for some good Folk Metal and found Sorg Uten Tårer, a Norwegian one-man project that would actually more of Folk Metal bordering on Melodic Black Metal. Regardless, the sound is very, very good and I’d like to see the artist, Retribution be very big one day.

Meanwhile, all of his songs are available at Last.fm!

Edit: Since downloading off of one server is rather unreliable and lame and 1990s, I’ve taken the liberty to set up a torrent for the entire Sorg Uten Tårer discography to download here at Demonoid, which also becomes my first ever torrent contribution to any site ever. Of course, since the songs are free anyways, the torrent is 100% legal.

Keep on Galloping!

Turns out the torrent was legit and all of the songs are present, in excellent quality. While I haven’t been through the entire album and taken notes, I can say that the album is as good as any Korpiklaani album, and that is also its biggest problem.

Korven Kuningas retains the usual, unique Korpiklaani sound, rich with violins, accordions and raspy vocals I’m still not very fond of. Still, the songs sort of grow on you with repeated hearings, thanks to their raw catchiness.

And by the way, Korven Kuningas means “King of the Woods”, which is what Korpiklaani claims is a nickname given to Finnish lumberjacks. Not a bad name, and Korpiklaani says that the album is a tribute to them, too!

I listened to Keep on Galloping first on Songza, and it’s an excellent song, perhaps one of the best on the album, maintaining a unique melody and a great riff. Most of the other songs, however, sound more or less similar, which is why I really hope Korpiklaani adds more variety in their next album, or adopts a new twist to their music.

I see that some of the songs have made their way to Songza, so here are their links:

• Tapporauta
• Metsamies
• Gods on Fire
• Paljon On Koskessa Kivia

Korven Kuningas

I see that Korpiklaani is coming out with a new album in 10 days, named “Korven Kuningas”, the meaning of which escapes me, but I have no doubt that somebody at DarkLyrics will help me solve out.

I’ve found a torrent of it here, and am downloading it now (at a shameful 1-digit speed, for some reason) – it’s in a RAR file, so I’m not too sure if its real or not. I can’t imagine a person so vile that he would release a fake of a comparatively non-famous Folk Metal band…

Wikipedia also lists that a video for Metsämies was/is to be released in 2008, but I didn’t find a link on YouTube, and if it isn’t there, it’s nowhere. Hope it comes out soon, though – I love Korpiklaani’s videos.

I also like the album art – while it has that annoying antler-horn-dude mascot, he seems at least bearable, perhaps a little cool. The album art has been hand-painted, which is perhaps why it looks so complete and well-done (all the others were done in Photoshop and looked terrible, except the first two – Voice of Wilderness looked great).

I see that a single for “Keep on Galloping” is out – I’ll go check it out now.

En mäktig här

One of Finntroll’s Finest!

En gåva av urbergets ande, En pakt som alla
glömt. Nu skyntas fjärran länder
Fram, fram, fram.

Empyrium is unique

Looking around for bands, i came across Empyrium, which I originally made out to be Folk/Doom Metal. Later, I learnt that they actually do folk in general, especially neofolk. The songs I listened to are very, very atmospheric, I’ll give them that.

They aren’t bland with some ambient sounds, but create an unusual envelope of immersion around you that transports you to lands of fantasy and emotion. And that is really cool.

I haven’t heard any of their metal songs, but I’m very impressed with their folk music. I won’t be adding it to my shuffle playlist, but it’s a band worth talking about. Really artistic, serene but meaningful and entirely unique.

Battle! Battle Metal!

I’ve been hooked to Turisas lately, and with good reason. They make some of the best damned music I’ve heard in quite a while. They take the four elements that I love in the right proportions – Black Metal, Symphonic Metal, Folk Metal and Power Metal. I really like the epic feel of their songs, which gives them a sense of battle. Their best known song is Battle Metal, and the term fits Turisas perfectly.

Long live Turisas!