I have to hand it to Germany’s Finsterforst, purveyors of epic, rangy Bathory/Monnsorrow sounding viking/pagan metal. They have taken quite a gamble here with this EP and while it is hopefully a one off effort, it is certainly going to upset a lot of fans.

What we have here is a release of 4 new, original songs, 5 cover songs and an acoustic interlude. And its not just the fact that the covers songs are right the fuck out of left field, the original songs also seem to be the band really cutting loose and having some fun.

A departure from the band’s sprawling 20 minute epics, we get short, catchy songs in “Bottle Gods”, “Auf Die Zwolf”, “#yolo” and “Hangover” about drinking, partying and hangovers. And the inclusion of an almost mariachi  sounding, banjo/trombone/saxophone section adds, another level of more upbeat outrageous-ness, more akin to Trollfest. “Auf Die Zwolf” is of note cause the fun little romp has a cool video which sees the band brawling in a pub with fellow pagan metallers Equilibrium.

For the album’s second half, we have covers of Micheal Jackson’s “Beat it”, “Wrecking Ball” from Miley Cyrus, and those two alone are sure to get some folks loin clothes in a bunch. But I’ll be damned if I caught myself singing along to the growled chorus of ‘Wrecking Ball”. And while  the early stages of “Beat It” are no different than Alien Ant Farm‘s take many years ago,  about 2 and a half minutes in, the aforementioned brass section kicks in rendering the track into a giant epic viking number akin to the band’s regular output. Then there is some more obscure covers of some German bands; “Der durch die Scheibeboxxxer” from a German hip hop  band and  the catchy  “Das Schlimmste ist, wenn das Bier alle ist”, from punk rockers, Die Kassierer, which when combined with the brass, sounds a little like The Mighty Mighty Boss Tones.

The release ends with a cover of the traditional and oft covered drinking anthem “The Wild Rover”, arguably the ultimate sing along song, and Finsterforst nail it, though it would be hard to mess this song up.

Certainly a brave release that will rile up some fans, but it’s clear this is a one off effort the band wanted to do, had fun doing and now they can focus on their more typical brand of epic viking metal for the next release, now this is off their chest. Right guys?

[Visit the band's website]

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