Album Review: Finsterforst – Still

Album Review: Finsterforst – Still

Reviewed by Rich Oliver

Metal music is seen as purely angry music by those with little to no knowledge of the genre whilst in reality, heavy music carries many different moods and emotions. It can be violent and aggressive but it can also be joyous, morose and in the case of Finsterforst it is absolutely rousing. The German band have been unleashing their epic brand of folk driven extreme metal for twenty two years and “Still” is the sixth album from the band and sees the band continue to evolve. Three years have elapsed since their last release – 2023’s ambitious “Jenseits” EP – and the band have fine tuned their sound for an epic 78 minute album that will very much satisfy fans of the band but also with a few surprises sprinkled throughout.

Folk metal is a niche genre in metal with a lot of the more popular acts going the gimmicky route of fun drinking songs but Finsterforst take the epic approach with a sound that mixes in elements of black metal, doom metal and post-metal with a dark epic atmosphere and music which is meant to stir your soul. These are many elements throughout the album such as accordion pieces, acoustic sections, orchestral parts and choral vocals all playing their part to build songs which rely on mood and atmosphere but pay off with beautiful melodies and stirring vocals taking the listener on one hell of an epic journey.

The album starts in vast style with the cinematic ‘Obduktion’ and the scale of the music rarely drops off. ‘Im Wind’ is a perfect example of all of the above and is one of the clear highlights of the album. The heavier aspects of the band’s sound come out in ‘Stille Nacht’ whilst the band strip it back on the acoustic led ‘Fels’. The most colossal song on the album is the 24 minute ‘Leere’ and is certainly the most epic with vast orchestration and the epic Black Forest choir in full effect. If you have the bonus tracks edition then you will be treated to two cover songs that get the Finsterforst treatment – ‘Beyond The North Waves’ by Immortal and ‘Another Brick In The Wall Part 2’.

When it comes to this cinematic and atmospheric style of folk metal, Finsterforst are one of the bands at the absolute top of their game and ‘Still’ is another incredible piece of work from the band. A colossal epic piece of metal that is vast in scale and sound. This is an album that will appeal to fans of bands such as Moonsorrow, Falkenbach, Primordial and Borknagar.

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