AMG Review of Jaktens Tid

Andy Hinds
All Music Guide

The press release calls Jakens Tid "trollish hoedown metal," which is to say that Finntroll incorporates some of the folk- and polka-based musics indigenous to their native Finland into their Wagnerian death metal. The fusion of styles apparently began as a drunken experiment, and it's hard to tell whether the resulting humor was intended or not. Indeed, it is hard to listen to this Tolkein-esque death metal square dance without experiencing flashbacks to #Spinal Tap's Stonehenge scene. Although Finntroll's synthesis of traditional Finnish music and black metal is worth noting for its adventurousness, it falls short of its ambitions: to be an eerie and hostile new genre in the metal world. Rather, it sounds prankish and silly -- how could a polka influence but undermine the intended threat of a death metal band?