From Canada comes a folk metal band who is highly influenced by medieval music. Or should I put it, how people think medieval music was. I'm not familiar with any musical recordings from the 5th to the 15th century... Think about someone who listens to music for many hours a day and their medieval equivalent: They probably needed to get to a tavern to hear some, and drink that tasty mead!!! Oh those where the days... Hey, can happen nowadays, but tell me where's good metal music playing non-stop?!

The band in question is Trobar. This sixsome have been around for about 5 years now and before this, their debut full-length album, released an EP in 2011. The album's beautiful, extremely inviting, and mounting non-metal intro assured me, that this would be something totally epic, but... 'Vÿs' EP already showed the band's eccentric take on folk metal, and 'Charivari' takes more steps forward and sideways, like a drunken, well... troubadour. However, I wasn't aware of the EP when I first dived into this.

'Troubadours' loses that grandeur of the intro, as it mixes medieval troubadour music with metal. It is rather sombre instead of making girls to show their pair and lift up their skirts, although it includes many headbangable and danceable rhythms, and is performed with power. The song consists of many parts, which is suited for a song that blasts for 6½ minutes. Sometimes it proceeds fluidly, and at times not so well. When looking at the lengths of the songs, and the whole 70 minutes that is the album's duration, it's not a surprise that this isn't water-proof. It's just too crammed!

Anyway, let's get back to the songs. The title track lifts spirit up with being epic and carrying some unforgettable melodies, but not dropping the robustness. The band sound pretty original, even though 'Le Sacrifice' remind of Týr's progressive essence, and feels like a story. There are more merry songs, such as baroque-tinged 'Le Bosquet', accordion-led Celtic-ish drinking song 'Ivresse...', and perhaps a bit surprisingly by looking its title, 'Pacté à Mort'. 'Tyran' on the other hand brings in darker gothic vibes. There's a short acoustic interlude to cut the flow of the album. The metal music portion of Trobar consists of heavy, thrash and death metal styles, the latter being rather scarce, though. So you can expect some heavy-handed riffing, bass guitar playing and drumming. The folk music part is inspired by Celtic and Quebecois folk music, so I think that's why Trobar sound this unique. For the most of the time, folk and metal are heard together, but that doesn't mean that metal parts are always folk-ish.

It's flute mainly, that brings in that medieval-sounding stuff. Additional violin player guests. Synthesizers were utilized for orchestrations, and sound cheap at times, but here and there they are great. Lead male vocals are snotty and raspy throat vocalisation, just think about Children Of Bodom's Alexi Laiho being under heavy sniffle. Personally I get annoyed by this voice, because it's so prominent. Gladly there is some guttural stuff and even some clean singing for variety, together with drunken choirs on many of the songs. Female vocals are dark-voiced. Everything is sung in French.

The production values are far better than on the EP. This was recorded at Silver Wings Studios, Canada, and it feels like the band was playing in your living room. And I do not have any kind of high-end audio, mind. This has both low and high spectrums well represented. Nice cover artwork and okay layout give the album a professional feel.

'Charivari' is a huge step forward from 'Vÿs' EP. The album feels too samey despite all the different elements the band have dragged into their songs. As mentioned before, both many of the songs and the album as a whole are far too long. It just starts to drag out at some point; it becomes heavy to listen to the whole album at one sitting. But if you are looking for some folk metal with a twist or two, then perhaps you should give Trobar a try, because they deserve it. It's just not for my liking so much, but it's definitely generally well done.

Rating: 6 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
12/03/2014 19:10