Heavy Mental: Finntroll

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THERE'S AN OLD FINNISH PROVERB that states, "Jos ei viina, terva ja sauna auta, niin tauti on kuolemaksi."

It pretty much means, "If tar, liquor and sauna won't cure your disease, start digging."

The heavy metal folk band Finntroll doesn't seem like a group that's filled with health nuts, but when guitarist Skrymer was asked what type of alcohol is best downed while listening to his band, he shot back, "Tar and vodka."

Pure medicine, man.

Skrymer also recommended the pleasures of the minced meat pie to wash down the tar and vodka. "It's a drunken delight at four in the morning after a rough night at bar," he said, before laughing off a question about serving suggestions: "At that point it doesn't really matter if it's hot or cold, does it?"

The sextet's insane and catchy oompah-oompah metal is accompanied by Swedish lyrics that cover the usual stuff in extreme Nordic music: mythology, religion, death, drinking, more death and trolls (natch). English speakers won't understand any of the lyrics, of course, but Finntroll's party-hearty ways are readily apparent in the band's manic music, which mixes death-metal grunts and guitars with the two-beats-to-a-bar humppa rhythm, a Finnish folk style that sounds like polka after a meth injection.

"Old folks' music, really," Skrymer said. "Nordic folk music is seen more in everyday life than in the [music] charts. I think it's a huge part of the whole culture here — bedtime stories and such."

That's not to say Finntroll is mainstream in Finland, even if the band's CDs chart there and its The-Pogues-as-head-bangers concerts are explosions of fun.

"Well, I've seen some 'not so metal' people at our shows. I guess there is some primitive need to scream and dance around in every person — and what could be better than traditional humppa-polka-sounding growling death metal?" Skrymer joked.

"But in general, we're pretty much ignored in mainstream media — in Finland, anyway. I think the reason is that, it's still kinda scary to common folks to see longhaired, tattooed young men yelling about destruction of the human race," he said with a laugh.

Korpiklaani and Turisas are two other recent Finnish bands who mix metal and humppa, so it could be considered a micro-trend, but Skrymer said his group's sound came naturally.

"Well, in our case it was that metal was so limited — I guess in every genre — about what you can and can't do within the genre. So the point was that, well, 'F*** you. We do what the hell we feel like doing.' And that's still the case: Either you like it or you don't — couldn't care less; we just do what we want to do. So it really wasn't a choice of doing 'folk metal'; that's just the way it came out."

Skrymer wasn't a founding member; he joined in 1998, the year after guitarist Somnium and vocalist Katla started Finntroll. Neither musician is in the band today, however, because of two tragedies: Somnium died due to an alcohol-related accident in 2003; Katla left Finntroll in 2001 after a tumor was discovered in his throat.

Then Katla's replacement, the pseudonym-free Tapio Wilska, departed the group under mysterious circumstances in 2006. "What happened with Tapio I prefer to keep between us and him," Skrymer said. "Let's just say that he didn't leave the band by his choice."

All said, that's a lot of turmoil for a band that's only been around for a decade.

"Of course, we did think about breaking up," Skrymer said. "I mean, losing a great friend; vocalist got a tumor — it seemed a few times that we were just doomed to have more bad luck than one can ever imagine. But then again, so much s*** has happened that it kinda drives you on more — never give up. And now that I look at it, I'm very happy that we didn't [break up] since now we have a great lineup and things are looking better than ever.

"When [guitarist] Routa joined the band [in 2003] he wasn't really a new guy since we've been friends with him from the second grade," Skrymer continued. "And when the new vocalist, Vreth, joined the band last year, it was kind of a wake up for rest of us — a new beginning, so to say — and I don't think we could've made such a new album without him."

That album, "Ur Jordens Djup" (Century Media), is Finntroll's fifth and one of its heaviest yet, even with Trollhorn's keyboards coating the songs like a Satanic Danny Elfman.

"Horn's synths give the music a kinda unique sound that is a mixture of sort of traditional death-black guitars and a movie soundtrack," Skrymer said, "although I agree that they are all over the album. You should've seen the poor guy mixing it: 'What the ...?'"

Vreth's vocal's are much gruffer than those of the previous vocalists, so he fits in perfectly during the metal bits. But he also has the melodic skills to handle the more traditional aspects of Finntroll's music.

"Actually, first it seemed very difficult to find such a guy: Swedish-speaking, death-growling cool guy, you know," Skrymer said. (Swedish is one of Finland's two official languages, though it's the native tongue of only 5.6 percent of the people there.)

"On tour you kinda have to get along with each other, so on top of language and death, he had to be a nice guy. But then Katla actually called one of us one day and said, 'I found a perfect guy for you,'" Skrymer said. "Apparently, as he was studying arts in north of Finland — west coast of Finland, actually, which is a more Swedish-speaking area — he met Vreth, as they both went to same school, and called us. So he came to Helsinki, we got drunk, played rehearsals and that was it — he fit into the band immediately."

Tar and vodka, bringing Finnish musicians together since time immemorial.

"Ur Jordens Djup" translates to "From the Depths of the Earth," and the opening track, the filmic and keyboard-heavy "Gryning," sounds like the introduction to a grand adventure with a unified theme.

"Yes, it is actually a concept album," Skrymer said, with former vocalist Katla providing the lyrics. "Unlike on the previous recordings, this one is not about war between religions; instead, it's a symbolic journey of King Shaman of the Trolls, death and rebirth, war against one's self."

Of course it is.

With all that troll talk, you'd think Finntroll would have been asked to contribute to "The Lord of the Rings" soundtrack — or, at least, to the recent theatrical stage production, which features music from the ambient-but-traditional Finnish group Varttina — but nope.

"It's more of a Varttina thing," Skrymer said. "I don't think our stuff would be very suitable for cute little hairy Hobbits to hurl around Middle-Earth. Some extremely bloody war scenes — maybe."

» Jaxx, 6355 Rolling Road, Springfield; with Warbringer, King of Heresy, Apothys and Dark Alliance, Fri., Aug. 22, 7 p.m., $28; 703-569-5940.

» Download 11 free MP3s from Finntroll's Web site.

Photos by Diana Nitschke

This piece was originally published Sept. 19, 2007.