Editorials
Records From the Dark: Six Under-the-Radar Albums to Check Out Immediately! [Haunted Riffs]
Sub-columns in columns are a thing, right? Well whether they are or aren’t, I’m introducing Haunted Riffs‘ Records From the Dark.
From time to time, I’m going to highlight six records from bands you may not be aware of. For these six records featured on Records From the Dark, it’s my goal to help raise awareness of smaller bands who deserve recognition.
Links for all Bandcamp pages within audio players are below.
FULCI – Exhumed Information (Time To Kill Records)
Paying homage to the late Italian film director Lucio Fulci – FULCI captivates with a chilling death metal rush. Their records stand as creative interpretations of the director’s cult films, like Tropical Sun which is a nod to Zombi 2. On the band’s latest release, Exhumed Information (a tribute to Voice from Beyond), FULCI delivers ten cuts of theatrical devastation. Opener “Autopsy” kicks off a creepy audio segment from the film, all before “Voices” drops a sledgehammer of blast beats and vicious sounding riffs. The thick pounce of “Nightmare” meets a riveting guitar rhythm that feels like a descent into madness. The menace rides at a consistent high throughout the record, subsiding briefly for eerie moments of atmospheric lingering. Cuts like “Glass” and “Child” lay down haunting, yet mesmerizing synthesizer-fueled rhythms. FULCI live up to their name with this record, delivering a body of work that will haunt your soul (it’s a good kind of haunting, trust me).
Craven Idol – Forked Tongues (Dark Descent Records)
Take a tinge of black metal, a tinge of thrash, and a whole lot of death metal, and you have Craven Idol. On their third LP, Forked Tongues, the band take their metal craft to a new level of annihilation. With the briefest of build-ups in opener “Venomous Rites,” the instrumentation rips forth – bloodthirsty in its speed, a dirty lo-fi tone coming off the strings and drums. When I say this music sounds violent, I mean to say it sonically aims to shred your eardrums. “The Wrath of Typhon” carries forth wicked energy through bashing drums and bass, the guitar swirling about to establish an air of hysteria. The blast beats amplify to eleven, the vocals howling and screeching over the storm of instrumentation. Forked Tongues exudes a phenomenal air of brutality, the band never letting up in their death metal onslaught.
Hexorcist – Evil Reaping Death (Memento Mori)
The mayhem is far from over, for Hexorcist offers brutality hellbent on delivering instrumental devastation. The consistent beat of drums in “Exulting the Adversary” play underneath a spiraling guitar rhythm, demonic sounding vocals howling over everything. “Sentry at the Seven Gates” carries over the band’s savagery, the music giving off this sense that evil is descending upon the listener. “Proverbs of Pestilence” looms over with its ever-building drum clashing and maddening guitar rhythm. As if drawing from the vileness of hell itself, the band crafts songs that thrive off speed and aggression. Much like the old school death metal crowd of the ‘80s, Hexorcist plays to a thrilling presentation – Evil Reaping Death making for an experience that is relentless in its harrowing riffs and foul auras.
Froglord – The Mystic Toad (The Swamp Records)
Let’s slow things down just a tad (but keep all the heaviness intact). Blending that of doom, sludge, and stoner metal, Froglord is here to take over the mind of the human race. Well in the case of The Mystic Toad, the frogs have already taken over humankind, but now must deal with the threat of aliens from Saturn. In this psychedelic, frog-laden epic, Froglord offers a record built on rockin’ rhythms, thick with distortion, drone, and the slight chance of out-of-body experiences. The guitar tone on opener “They Came From Saturn” sets the stage for the record’s vibe – the distortion booming over all the other instrumentation. The vocals give off a surreal presence, as multiple vocals are played over each other. “Green Inferno” goes even deeper with the doom and stoner energy, the instrumentation not so much drawling, but bringing a greater heft to the song. Will the frogs win in the battle against the aliens? You’ll have to find out yourself by listening to The Mystic Toad.
FELLED – The Intimate Earth (Transcending Obscurity Records)
Taking elements of doom and folk music, FELLED presents a record that is brimming with haunting emotion. The Intimate Earth is both extreme in heavy instrumentation, while also providing a greater sense of somber energy throughout each song. Alongside the beating of drums and electric guitar, the use of violin and viola make for enchanting components. “The Rite of Passage” displays the drum work beating on as the guitar performance plays to a low, distortion roaming rhythm. During all of this, the other string work comes with a stark, yet effective impact – the strings and traditional metal instrumentation forming together to create a great dark atmosphere. From the gentle strum of strings to the electrifying riffs of guitar, to the tense moments of minimal instrumentation, “The Salt Binding” is a brilliant work of sonic variety. On The Intimate Earth, FELLED has crafted music that hits with rawness, extending a means for the listener to find a meditative quality within.
Overtoun – This Darkness Feels Alive (Independent)
I came across this band super recently, and wow what an awesome surprise. On This Darkness Feels Alive, Overtoun goes for the eardrums (and heartstrings) as they use their death-thrash to explore the darkness of life. With growling vocals roaring out, the guitar lets loose a vibrant, playful aggression – musical tones that are overwhelming with anger, but also catchy enough to mosh to. Cuts like “Humanity” offer exhilarating tempos, the guitar and drums speeding off like lighting. “White Wolf” throws in a little groove into its death metal madness, further establishing the band’s charm in crushing eardrums and instilling listeners with all-out rage. This Darkness Feels Alive is very much a banger, the technicality of each song promising nonstop action.
In this day and age, the word “troll” is often used to describe various online nuisances. Yet as abundant and irksome as the modern troll can be, they aren’t usually as fearsome as their mythological counterparts. I’m not talking about the small and gentler versions that have become more common to see in media. No, there are much bigger and scarier trolls out there—and André Øvredal’s movie Troll Hunter is one of the best places to find them.
It doesn’t take long for Troll Hunter (or Trolljegeren) to dump the Blair Witch Project-esque setup and aim for something a lot fresher. The trajectory of the story is augmented by Otto Jespersen’s character Hans, the titular Troll Hunter. The second he comes barreling out of the deep, dark woods and shouts “troll” at the camera, this movie takes a turn into what feels like uncharted territory. Not only subject-wise, but also conceptually.
For fantastical and made-up subject matter in cinema, found footage is a fast way to add a guise of believability. After all, what we accept to be the most crucial aspect of documentaries—the truth—rubs off on pseudo-documentaries, despite our understanding of the pretense involved. That is what Øvredal delivered with Troll Hunter: a movie so convincing that some viewers wondered if trolls really do exist. So, had this been straightforwardly made, it likely wouldn’t have been as effective. Conventional narratives would be more inclined to treat something like trolls as flat out unreal, and never try to convince the audience to think otherwise.
Hans petrifies the three-headed Tusseladd troll.
The viewers, like the characters trailing Hans, are quickly thrown into the deeper end of that extraordinary story. They have to process all this new information while staying on the go. So, although there is no significant amount of meandering, narratively or physically, there is still a good amount of atmosphere, not to mention tension building. It’s never anything frightful, but then again, Troll Hunter isn’t your standard offering of horror; it’s more on the low end of the dark fantasy spectrum. We aren’t ever spirited away to a faraway world—we stay in rather familiar surroundings, as well as dip into those less so. The outcome is a movie where you’re constantly more in awe than in terror.
As fantasy fiction might do, Troll Hunter prefers not to deal with incredulity. There is no time to waste on doubt, as interviewer Thomas (Glenn Erland Tosterud), soundperson Johanna (Johanna Mørck), and cameraman Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen) all follow Hans around, recording whatever this character is willing to reveal about his bizarre job. Of course, the Troll Hunter himself is not an open book; in that respect, the diegetic documentary fails to fully capture and unpack the more interesting of its two subjects. Yes, all those giant, monstrous trolls are indeed incredible, but understandably, your mind wanders to their pursuer. What kind of person signs up for this gig and then chooses to stick with it for so long?
Reviews have called out Troll Hunter for its lack of character development. In regard to Thomas and his fellow documentarians, that criticism is valid, but bear in mind, they aren’t the focus of the story, either. Meanwhile, Hans is a well-crafted character. At least better than first realized. Before he was introduced, Hans had already grown tired of the troll grind. Fed up with that low compensation for his services, resentful of the bureaucracy, and wanting to expose his employer on a large scale, Hans’ discontent is glaring.
Then there are those finer details about the Troll Hunter, such as that indifference to both the natural splendor of his everyday surroundings and the affections of an obviously smitten colleague, that also suggest some level of despondency. So it is fair to say this movie doesn’t feature any sizable growth for its characters; however, the namesake isn’t underwritten. No doubt, putting a real-life character like Otto Jespersen in that role is partly why Hans is so fascinating—maybe even relatable.
Otto Jespersen as Hans the Troll Hunter.
There is always a small risk whenever using the term “mockumentary” to describe a found-footage movie, as the word could imply humor where there is none. In the case of Troll Hunter, the term’s usage is appropriate. Some folks have claimed the English-dubbed version has the more comedic tone, however, the Norwegian cut isn’t exactly humorless. Apart from the trolls’ absurd appearances, this is a movie where the characters nearly choke on the monsters’ farts, and Christians are like walking targets. Hans’ complete apathy towards everything is another cause of laughter. Overall, the comedy is intentionally dry and inconsistent. Unfunny, though? Absolutely not.
In a movie where endemic creatures are maltreated, as well as disavowed from living freely and peacefully, it’s hard not to notice the ecological message buried beneath the story. In addition to that is the unmistakable political satire. There is this whole business about intrusive and unsightly power lines—like trolls, they’re big blemishes on the land—that leads to what is perhaps the movie’s funniest moment. The scene in question is that one where certain electric lines, the ones secretly being used to keep the trolls at bay, go in a loop and don’t actually send power to any residents. Yet the monitors of said lines don’t find this at all weird. So it stands to reason that Øvredal was having a go at those who accept the government’s doings without question.
Looking past the fact that trolls aren’t actually real, this movie is an enlightening source of information. And not just for international audiences; Norwegians, too, get schooled about their homeland’s own mythology. It’s also evident from everything on screen that Øvredal and his crew were enthusiastic about the topic. The creature designs are the most indicative of that zeal; those imaginative yet myth-accurate manifestations are equally amusing and grotesque. One second you’re laughing at their phallic noses, the next you’re white-knuckling during a hairy sequence. Most surprisingly is how well the trolls’ visual effects hold up after fifteen years. It’s not all spotless, but on the whole, they remain impressive.
Vouching for a mockumentary about trolls isn’t easy, but those who do come around and give it a shot will more than likely be grateful for the recommendation. For Troll Hunter is a real find in that vast and varied genre we call “found footage“.
A bridge troll reaches up for food and finds Hans decked out in armor.
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