FINNTROLL Guitarist: 'We're Pretty Much Ignored In Mainstream Media'

The Washington Post's Express reports: The Finnish heavy metal folk band FINNTROLL'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," guitarist 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.

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