Svartby - Elemental Tales.

I've been waiting for this album from St. Petersburgian 'Svartcore' metallers for a few months now.  Svartby ('Black Village', more or less) do two things:

1. They play what can best be described as "folk death", and
2. They have a sense of humour.

Now I know a lot of your trve kvlt metal heads are doing one of two things right now:

1. They are shaking their heads bemusedly, or
2. They stopped reading at 'Svartcore'.

To these people I say one or both of two things:

1. I appreciate that not everyone likes the same things because taste is, after all, subjective, and diversity in musical preference is one of the key factors in producing a varied, eclectic, and artistically stimulating venue for the growth of any genre, and/or
2. Suck flaming balls.

Behold the Trollfinger!

So in case you've been a) living under a rock or b) failing to visit this, the greatest folk metal blog in all of forever on a regular (hourly) basis, I'm sure you've already become familiar with Svartby.  I've even mentioned this album before.  'Elemental Tales' is...wait for it...a concept album.

Wait, come back!

If I've learned anything from this blog, it's that concept albums can be done without sucking hard.  And I'm going to go ahead and say that 'Elemental Tales' is more proof for that theory.

Svartby - "Boulder Massacration"

Briefly, 'Elemental Tales' is a concept album about elemental imps; each has an 'element' associated with it, from the more obvious ones (Earth, Water, Fire) to some less obvious ones (Mushrooms).  The songs all deal with the mischief and mayhem such imps can wreak on hapless humans.

Okay, I just want to point something out here: this is a folk metal album that is not about trolls.  I'll let that sink in for a bit.

The imps in question were drawn by a Russian artist named Tatyana 'Siriliya' Stasenkova, some of whose artwork can be seen on her deviantArt page here.  They're clever, cute, and ripe for merchandising possibilities (hint hint).  The album itself is not so cute, however: brutal death growls and hammering riffs belch forth in inimitable Svartby style, along with enough of a folky element to keep them from becoming mediocre death metal.  This is Svartby doing what they do best: folk death with a sense of humour.  Or, as they say, 'Svartcore'.

Svartby - "Mushroom Rings"

Let the haters hate; this is a fun, heavy, catchy album and unless your ass-crack is frozen shut by grim and frostbitten panties, it's definitely worth a spin.  Get your Svartcore on with 'Elemental Tales'. I give it 5 out of 5 drinking horns raised.

You can order the CD from the webstore of their label TrollZorn here, though Svartby themselves seem to have a certain tongue-in-cheek acceptance of the internet's rather loose moral code and have pointed out that it is available for free in various places (i.e. file sharing archives).  I'll let you figure that part out for yourselves, since I'd like this 'wild black village crew' to make some money off their shit and put out some more albums.

Also, folk metal that's NOT ABOUT TROLLS.