Korven Kuningas - Korpiklaani

Korpiklaani have themselves described themselves as "music for old people with heavy metal guitars" and that's a pretty good description as the Finnish folk metal band who were originally a traditional folk band playing in a restaurant and singing in Sami (language of the Sami (aka laplanders)). The album cover features Vaari, an old man who is regularly present on the band's covers. Korven Kuningas was released in March 2008 and whilst I am not familiar with every song on all their albums, the work on this one is substantially less heavy than on Tervaskanto, their 2007 album, which I was a bit disappointed with. The songs have great melodies and ...  Read the complete review

The difficult-to-pronounce-and-spell Korpiklaani are one of the most prominent folk metal bands, and along with their darker counterparts Finntroll favour traditional folk instruments over heavy metal elements in a largely unsatisfying fusion that loses its novelty quite early on. This isn't folk-tinged power metal in the style of Elvenking, or folky heavy metal in the style of Ensiferum, but rather a fully-fledged folk band supplementing its songs with guitar backing. This means the album won't necessarily appeal to metal fans, even though about half of the songs work towards some sort of balance. There are songs here to dance a merry jig to ...  Read the complete review