FINSTERFORST — Mach Dich Frei (review)

FINSTERFORST — Mach Dich Frei album cover Album · 2015 · Viking Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
adg211288
Mach Dich Frei (2015) is the fourth full-length album by German folk metal act Finsterforst. I first heard these guys with their previous album Rastlos (2012) and was left with mixed feelings: here was an album made up of mostly long epic length tracks but rarely felt as if the band were justifying such durations even though they had plenty of good ideas scattered throughout the album and the end result was that it dragged on for me. You can understand therefore why I approached Mach Dich Frei with a bit of caution, as here was another album from Finsterforst made up of mostly long tracks, including the near twenty-four minute band titled track closing the album.

Fortunately whatever went wrong on Rastlos has been ironed out of the Finsterforst formula and I've found myself treated not only to an album which doesn't drag in the slightest but one which improves on everything its predecessor did on every level. Idealistically this is much the same as last time but the execution is very much improved. This music instantly shows itself to be really quite powerful stuff, conveying blackened intensity mixed with both atmospheric and epic moods. The symphonic metal elements that the band use in some songs are loud and dramatic while the folk elements sound much more tastefully done than they did on Rastlos. Like with that album you won't be hearing folk sounds all of the time, Finsterforst aren't going to be letting you forget they're a metal band anytime soon (though they do serve up the pure folk instrumental Reise zum.. on here), but I'd still call this a folk metal release overall. Some may prefer to say it has a so called viking metal sound but I never liked that term all that much, though this does certainly fit the description of it I have to grudgingly admit. Fans of either should be lapping Mach Dich Frei up though.

One thing that Mach Dich Frei really does have in common with Rastlos though is that Finsterforst save the best track for last which again is a twenty plus minute epic. Sharing it's name with the band, Finsterforst conveys even more varied ideas within the album's already quite varied style to the point that one could even call it a more progressive take on what the band does. The album is excellent up until this point but the band really pulled out all the stops here. It's quite fitting that the track and band share a name, as I can't name any better song from Mach Dich Frei that really puts across everything good about Finsterforst.

To cut a long story short Finsterforst may have frustrated me with their last album but they've more than made up for it with the release of Mach Dich Frei. Consider this reviewer 100% won over. 4.5 stars.
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