Year : 2013
Style : Epic Folk Melodic Death Metal
Country : Canada
Audio : 320 kbps + all scans
Size : 128 mb
Bio:
Hailing from Alma Québec, Trollwar combine the best elements of folk, melodic death and black metal into something vital, potent and uniquely their own. Building on the foundations created by the likes of Finntroll and Amon Amarth they forge fiery folky metal that is unique and complex.A fierce war party of long term friends with a passion for LARP events and festivals, TROLLWAR consists of Steeve Jobin-Fortin (guitar), Yanick Tremblay (drums), Mathieu Chauvette (guitars), Keven Villeneuve (bass), Simon-Pierre Fortin-Leclerc (vocals) and Jonathan Mathieu (accordion) along with Mathieu Pageau ( Keyboard ).Since starting their quest in 2011, they have leveled past their folk roots and have taken a darker, more powerful path becoming more versatile and utilizing more inspiration from bands such as Wintersun and Luca Turilli. The symphonic and power metal elements continue to shine amongst the harshness of the folk and black metal with themes pulled from the works of Tolkien and Lovecraft.Eager to etch their mark on the metal scene, their live shows are full of the brutality and energy that each one of them brings to the stage, albeit often times, in close quarters:“Live, the listener can expect something epic! 6 metalheads banging their head offs and playing the instrument they like the most. Epic breakdowns and melodies, pretty good entertainment in general. It’s harder to move on the stage when you are 6 and you play in small venues, but don’t fool yourself. It won’t keep the energy from being thrown in your face from the stage.”Playing with a myriad of heavy hitters such as Kalmah, Alestorm and Arkona and with an inventory of well-received releases: ‘Bloodshed Forges’ EP (2011); ‘Earthdawn Groves’ LP (2013); and ‘The Traveler’s Path’ EP (2017); Trollwar are working mightily to forge a new LP ‘Oath of the Storm’ for 2018, that will feature their trademark ‘symphony, brutality, darkness, ambiance, and power!’.
Album:
Trollwar, formed in 2011, releases with Earthdawn Groves their first full-length album. Two years after their first EP, these French trolls present us a very strong debut album.Earthdawn Groves starts of with a nice orchestral prologue, which is followed by the first track: A Tale of Greed. Despite the blast-beat intro of this song, it takes over the melody of the prologue perfectly. Immediately you notice the quality of this band’s music. The accordion is a nice touch and gives Trollwar’s music a nice extra dimension. The advantage of the accordion is that the keys can focus on the symphonic side of their music. Trollwar mentions bands as Finntroll, Amon Amarth, Equilibrium and Ensiferum as influences and you can hear that throughout the entire album. After A Tale of Greed comes the song Trollheimen. This song picks up where the previous song ended and keeps the happy spirit. After that it’s time for the first ballad of this album, Book of the Damned. The intro is very nicely done and reminds of balfolk music. This 7 minute song has a few rhythm changes throughout the song which can make it harder to listen for the untrained ear, but for me personally it kept the song interesting. The song Trollka opens with some bar sounds. It sets the mood for a nice party song and opens with some spoken lyrics. It’s a nice mid tempo song but later on that will change and the double-bass rythms will kick in again. Which is a shame in this particular case, a song like Trollka doesn’t need that to stay interesting. The next song, Set Sail to the North, has a nice Alestorm touch to it. It’s a nice piraty trollsong with a (for my taste little long) break in the middle. After the break they build up nicely where the left and end the song as is started. Now it is time for the title track of the album, Earthdawn Groves. It is a song That deserves to be the title track, I think it’s one of the best tracks of this album. Eartdawn Groves has a nice folky sound throughout the song. You can hear that even better in the acoustic version at the end of the album, shame they didn’t do vocals there. An Hymn for the Vanquished is your typical Trollmetal song. This is a song that could also have been written by Fintroll for example. The final “real” song of this album is titled The Fallen and is also the longest song. Despite its length, over 9 minutes, it is a song that won’t get boring. It has an intro that reminds me of Rammstein, with only keys followed by guitar solo’s. The acoustic break is very good and gives some well deserved solo time to the accordion followed up by 2 guitar solo’s. These 2 solo’s are performed very well and don’t have any notes too much or too short. The epilogue is the only “bummer” of the album. It starts all exiting and ready to burst into one more bit of Trollmetal violence, but is doesn’t. It leaves you hanging and that’s a shame.The production of Earthdawn Groves is good. Only minus is the guitar sound. It’s a little thin, which causes it to blur away in blast-beat parts where every band member is involved.All with all, Eartdawn Groves is a good album which has to be present in the CD collection of all the Trollmetal fans.
Line Up:
Exodiüs the Blacksmith - Drums
Holrägh the Young Berseker - Guitars
Wöx the Rogue Assassin - Guitars
Pâj'hō The Shaman - Keyboards
Trolläthan the Old Bard - Accordion
Benjamin Beaupré - Bass
Simon-Pierre Fortin Leclerc - Vocals
Tracklist:
01. Prologue 01:48
02. A Tale of Greed 05:46
03. Trollheimen 04:35
04. Book of the Damned 07:03
05. Trollka 04:59
06. Set Sail to the North 08:02
07. Earthdawn Groves 05:31
08. A Hymn for the Vanquished 04:50
09. The Fallen 09:30
10. Epilogue (Frozen Lands) 03:26
11. Earthdawn Groves (Acoustic) 06:08
Download links for all albums only on our blog here: http://goodmetalandhar.do.am/
