They hail from Finland, they pretend to be trolls: name accuracy achieved! Weirdly, though, they growl in Swedish. These raucous raiders helped bring pagan metal to our shores, but don’t blame them for that. By combining melodic black metal with humppa – a.k.a. Finnish polka – they created one of the most ridiculously infectious sounds to ever stomp eardrums. It’s perfect drinking music! As long as the listener’s idea of a fun night out consists of getting hammered and then hammering somebody’s face with a literal warhammer to “Trollhammeren.” Oh, those lovable murderous trolls.

– Jeff Treppel