TROST

Highly-texturized and mood-setting music from a group of Danes who claim to be rooted/oriented in metal traditions. If their band name offers any hints, I think of them more as the ambiguously-intentioned mischief makers who inhabit the hidden recesses of the woodland and swampland areas less likely to be populated by humans (because of their remoteness and/or tentative prospects for safe, sustainable living): the creepier, not-always-friendly faeries of Danmark.

1. "Fuglekongen" (5:23) some moody music whose wisp 'o wil female vocals belie the metal assertion. Though the hints of metal certainly arise as the song travels along (mostly in the bass and heavy toms and kick drums), it's not until the 3:55 mark that the music definitely falls into "threatening" territories of metal music--and even here the vocals (both lead and background) remain steadfastly grounded in more Mediæval Bæbes-like fairy-folk conventions. And I love the fact that the band chooses to have their stories sung in their native tongue. It certainly lends even more folk-faerie frost and shiver to the songs. (9/10)

2. "Vaetter" (5:04) butterfly-like electric piano arpeggi open this before drums and voice join in. Again, Anne Olesen's vocal performance sounds so creepy: beautiful like a mythological Siren, but we all know the ultimate design of those bloodthirsty beauties. Again the music beneath serves to convey the same creepy underlying garment of deceitful beauty, with passages ascending into full-on doom metal (despite the lilting vocals in and around it). The peak crescendo at 4:00 to 4:52 is amazing! It feels so rare that keyboard-sounding guitars deliver that kind of JEM GODFREY- like twisted threat! (9/10)

3. "Natsvaermer" (5:45) for 1:18 gentle piano and voice lull one into submission before the metal monsters explode into the soundscape to tell us otherwise. The melodies and vocal sounds don't grab me as much with this one, and the metal monsters are a little too aggressive and in-my-face on this one for me to really get into it. Another reviewer has commented how the volume/loudness of the "brickwalled sound in the louder parts" caused them some disturbance and I can see why: the volume of what I'm calling "the monsters" is a bit too much: too affronting, almost driving me back or away. (8.75/10)

4. "Vandskabt" (5:33) decibel levels of the monsters are again quite overwhelming on this one. It really does affect how much I can get into and enjoy the gorgeous vocals and melodies of the singers. The engineering is good enough that I can still distinguish each and every voice and instrument but the volume of the guitar/bass combination simply murks up the forefront too much, making me turn the volume down on my headphones, thus diminishing my immersion into the totality of the music. (8.875/10)

5. "P.S. Far er død" (12:40) two arpeggiated guitar chords open this one before Anne's delicate, vulnerable voice enters with spacious bass notes beneath. At 1:15 strummed acoustic guitar replaces the guitar and bass that were beneath as Anne reaches waif-like degrees of delicacy by reaching for the higher, breathier notes of her register. Enter gentle arpeggi from an electric piano and then we switch to a more folk rock palette of acoustic and gentle electric guitars, gentle bass and drums, and female-backed vocals. This carries forward until 3:30 when the band as a whole jumps into a heavier sound palette while Anne's vocal becomes more pleading and insistent (but still Prog Folk-ish). In the fifth minute a predominantly low-end drum and bass motif moves on as everybody else become incidental-only contributors while a mature male voice recites some lines in a spoken voice. The music slowly, gradually begins to thicken again as Anne returns again. (I'm very surprised how far into the mix her voice is buried. There are actually background and "side-" vocalists who are given louder presence in the mix than the lead!) This is still a very cool Prog Folk passage--until 7:07 when a heavier, more metal-threatening passage takes over--complete with heavily distorted vocals from Anne and "monster" background vocalists. But, 45 seconds later we are returned to the temporary safety of some alcove for a brief breather before venturing back out into the malevolent chaos and confusion of the hunt (where we're the prey). While I'm not exactly bowled over by this epic, I recognize and applaud the creative theatric storytelling aspect of this. Truly an epic in the traditions of the old Viking sagas. An electric guitar solo in the eleventh minute makes me realize how few (if any) other instrumental solos are present on this album! Interesting. The final 1:15 (after the guitar solo ends) plays out like a cacophonous mélange of all of the themes and melodies used in the course of the song piled and compiled one on top of the other for a bombastic finale. (22.75/25)

6. "Trøst" (2:17) gently-picked heavily-treated electric guitar works its solo way into a kind of variation on some famous jazz or classical music melodic chord progression. Nice. (4.5/5)

7. "Blind" (4:43) drums and chugging guitar and bass metal chords turn full-on metal at 0:30 for a brief repetition of a three-strum djent motif before backing out to allow a more atmospheric motif to take over for lead singer Anne Olesen to perform a vocal that is very much in the tradition of some of the great Prog Metal sirens of the Naughties and Teens (Simone Simons and Sharon den Andel come to mind first). I like the diversity and multiplicity of unexpected turns on this one. (9.125/10)

8. "Sang om Håb" (3:51) syncopated group clapping opens this one before Anne and some deep-background siren present the pagan folk-like melody and lyric. At 0:43 violin-like arpeggi and chugging metal bass 'n' guitar enter to give this a much more demonic palette. Anne continues singing, gaining force and power from her companions yet her voice never quite reaches the thickness and force of the above-mentioned queens of Prog Metal: her pipes only deliver a thinner, more folk-like lilt instead of the unquestioned power of regal malevolence. Still, a pretty good song despite Anne's shortcomings. (8.875/10)

Total Time 45:16

I love the duplicity of this band's music: very much like the Sirens reference, there is alluring beauty in every song-- often all the way through a song--while there are also the threats of monsters and malevolence lurking beneath, often jumping out from under the bridge or out of the dark woods.

89.86 on the Fishscales = B+/4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of very interesting music from a band of young musicians whom I will look forward to following over their next few albums with high expectations for progress and improvement.

Social review comments

Review related links

• Send comments to BrufordFreak
• Report this review (#3177537)
• Buy DANEFAE music online with PA partners
• Show all DANEFAE MP3/Stream
• Go to DANEFAE page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Trost page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for DANEFAE related discussions