Battle Metal

Lately I've been enjoying the work of Finnish folk metal band Turisas. Their music has a very cinematic feel, underlined by the fact that there don't appear to be any traditional guitar solos at all; rather, solos are played on electric violin. Hey, I'm all for originality, and metal, like any genre, needs to evolve or risk descending into retro cliché. Vocalist Mathias Nygård has a bit of trouble hiding his thick Finnish accent, but that's not a huge issue given that their whole area of expertise is cheesy Euro-metal. "The Land of Hope and Glory", from debut album Battle Metal, is a nice example of the band pushing musical boundaries. The song starts off with an almost industrial-sounding beat, but the chanted vocals immediately place the listener in a timeless, mythical setting of ancient warriors and golden kingdoms. It's all a little over-the-top, but Turisas is far less guilty of overdoing the fromage than, say, Scottish pirate metal band Alestorm.