FINNTROLL Begins Recording New Album

Finnish metal marauders FINNTROLL have entered Sonic Pump Studios in Helsinki to start recording their sixth album. The as-yet-untitled follow-up to 2010's "Nifelvind" will be released worldwide through Century Media Records in late March 2013.

In regards to this new album, the band comments on their studio blog: "Combining our trademark sound with even more influences from non- traditional genres in metal music, we have created 11 songs which show you everything we want to offer. And boy, wasn't that one of the hardest tasks for some time. After all, how do you keep your sound fresh, yet familiar, after 6 albums and 15 years?

"At some point, we were afraid that the songs are not melodic enough. Then we started to fear they became too melodic. Then we let the songs rest for a while and molded them more in a way that the non-melodic stuff got something to hum with, and the cheesy pop songs were arranged more stripped and aggressive. We were confident, yet sometimes scared what will people think of the stuff we've been doing so hard. What if they hate it? That would be fine, but if they would hate it because the material was uninspiring, boring and done-to-death, that would be a huge disappointment. So, we kept pushing and tried to keep it fresh all the time, while still having the 'this has to be FINNTROLL because no other band sounds this insane' — grinning going on."

If you haven't heard FINNTROLL before, let Trollhorn (the guy who rarely plays live with the rest of the band) explain: "FINNTROLL is a Finnish metal band, existing since 1997. We have released...ummm, six albums, I guess [it's actually only 5 albums and 2 EPs so far] and despite of dead members, internal quarrels and constant mischief, we still somehow manage to pull it off. Our musical style is a tint of black and death metal combined with Scandinavian and European folk music, spiced with a dose of ska, cartoon-esque-circus-music and whatnot. We also boast occasional Latin music, Psychobilly and Klezmer influences, so it's kinda hard to explain, really. We are pretty much labeled as 'folk metal' from the wider perspective, but we've never quite felt like belonging there per se. Basically, we don't even really care and nor should you."

Fan-filmed video footage of FINNTROLL performing a brand new song during their November 3 concert in Giessen, Germany as part of this year's Heidenfest tour can be seen below.

FINNTROLL last year released a special tour edition of their latest album, "Nifelvind". The digipak tour edition came with new artwork by the band's guitarist, Skrymer, and an extra CD including three brand-new cover versions: "Insects" (OINGO BOINGO),"Can You Forgive Her?" (PET SHOP BOYS) and "The God That Failed" (METALLICA). The cover versions were recorded and mixed at Sonic Pump Studios between June 27, 2011 and July 4, 2011 by FINNTROLL and Nino Laurenne.

"Nifelvind" was released in North America on March 9, 2010 via Century Media Records.