Korpiklaani
Spirit of the Forest

Folk metal: perhaps no other subgenre of heavy metal can prove to be so scattershot. If Cruachan play folk, where does folk end and black begin? Did early Satyricon play black? How does medieval black relate to folk? And celtic, what does that term even mean? Where do we distinguish German beer hall folk from the more singer-songwriter style of Folkstone? And what about when Folkstone themselves seem to have veered into folk punk? Do Bathory play folk? Burzum? How do we define viking between Amon Amarth and Ensiferum? That's a whole other story compared to Enslaved. And pagan?

And yet, folk metal in its closest meaning as a combination of heavy metal + folk music/themes definitely exists, and here we have a prime example: Korpiklaani.

It's the early 2000s and folk influences in heavy music have been around for some time; folk punk and folk metal already exist, let's say. But while folk punk, which is almost exclusively of Irish origin, doesn't concern itself much with mythology, nature, or legends and embraces more standard punk topics, folk metal talks about exactly what you'd expect a six foot two Finnish man to talk about: colossal drinking, various legends, and tales of his land and its nature.

And basically, that's where we meet Korpiklaani, with their mangled English and immense sense of Nordic folk.

Opening the show is "Wooden Pints", a track where the drunken and rowdy spirit of the band is plain to see, with one of the catchiest choruses you can remember. People often hear an extremely cheerful tone here, but to be honest — maybe because of the timbre of the folk instruments or the booming voice that sounds menacing — I hear a very combative and primal sound. From here on, there are no real dips: from the beautiful "Shaman Drum" to the energetic, punk-tinged "You Looked Into My Eyes", from the moving "With Trees", one of the highlights of the album, to "Crows Bring the Spring", which reveals the band's pagan metal soul with some sort — so it would seem — of homage to Bathory; they're all excellent tracks, with good interplay and excellent folk elements. The lyrics revolve around drinking and the natural/shamanic mysticism typical of those northern lands.

In terms of sound, the most obvious element is the frontman's voice, very distinctive and typically folk; but it's worth noting how clear and pure the folk instruments come through, often taking precedence over the electric ones. They eschew black influences (except perhaps the marching "Crows Bring the Spring" which could be fit into the mid-tempo pagan line) and melodic death elements, actually carving out large and well-deserved space for instrumental sections.

The band handles the instrumental aspect with great skill, and the way they're able to alternate tavern-ready tracks with long explorations of Nordic nature is breathtaking; at times Jonne sounds like a storyteller or a minstrel, at other times it feels as if there's no trace of humanity and you're in the presence of woodland deities: the emotional charge of this record is high.

I couldn't tell you which is the best or most iconic folk metal album, nor which one is for Korpiklaani. But here we have an excellent candidate. Score: 87/100.