Calling all metalheads with a love of myth, legend and folklore. Ever feel like there should be music that tells a tale as epic as the stories you see in film and read in books? If your niche in the realm of fantasy is that of trolls and monumental battles, then FAANEFJELL is for you. The Norwegian quintet from Kristiansand released their sophomore album, "Dovrefall" on November 9^th of 2018.

FAANEFJELL, in both their first album and "Dovrefall", is the musical expression of a time when two countries were one kingdom in the universe of "Trollmarsj". Humans developed electrical lightning and dynamite in order to once and for all conquer the Scandinavian forests and mountains and push the Trolls into oblivion. Their first album followed two angry trolls who set out on a journey to assemble allies and drive humanity out of their ancient homeland. "Dovrefall" tells the tale of full-scale war between the trolls and the humans. As the tale gets darker, the music follows suit, becoming more brutal.

The first track, "Styggedommen Vaakner" begins with high-speed drumming and melodic riffs from the guitars. The riffing structure, drumming pattern and especially the vocals stand out. Mid-register death metal growls can be heard, and the instruments have overall good note progressions. The second track, "Hat", continues the note progression trend along with an onslaught of riffing and drumming that transitions into alternating arpeggios and high-speed guitar playing with heavy drum beats.

"Frostbitt", the third track, is chillingly evil and opens again with brilliant death growls alongside a fast-paced guitar frenzy. The music takes on an ominous feel when certain licks of the guitar are accompanied by resonating bass. The next track, "Svineslaktervisa" features the most extreme black metal found on the album. The opening features a terrifying interplay of muted guitar and down-tuned bass. The vocals sound like they were created by an enraged demon. The bass and drums are what make this song sound so sinister. It seems that the idea was to down-tune everything and play the lowest register possible. The bass and drums on this track appear to have been made to sound significantly lower than the guitars to achieve an evil feel.

Skip to the seventh track, "Heks og Djevel" where the impressive vocals of the album are highlighted the most. There is also a segment in this track where the guitars play a riff of proficient sweep picking arpeggio. They vary every so often as the vocals match the change in pitch between notes played on the guitars making for an interesting listen.

Overall, the greatest aspect of the music on this album was the domination of the bass, the use of innovative songwriting techniques, and the crushing extreme metal vocals. There is evidently a broad range of musical influences that will result in a broad appeal. FAANEFJELL uses both myth and Scandinavian folklore to create symphonic black metal music in an unusual and interesting way.