One of the best feelings you can get from an album is when you can tell that the musicians had a ton of fun making it. This is a core part of what makes LOMBOLO so enjoyable to listen to. The Stockholm-based folk metal group has no qualms quickly switching between different styles, themes, and time periods, the payoff of which is obvious on their latest album, “Här och Där.” Released independently on August 16th, 2023, “Här och Där” might be one of the most diverse metal albums you will listen to this year, and it serves as a creative upgrade from their 2020 debut album, “Vandringsmannen.”
“Skuggan Från Präirien” (The Shadow From the Prairie), one of the many historically themed songs on the album, serves as an epic revenge tale about an outlaw on the American plains. The intro exudes a spaghetti-western-gone-metal vibe with its neighing horses, twangy guitar melody, and galloping drums, feeling straight out of an Ennio Morricone soundtrack. The main riff that follows the intro rocks, and just when you think the song has transitioned fully into metal, the flute comes in to drive the cowboy theme home.
In the next tune, “Raccoon Platoon,” they stick with the American South setting but move on to a bluegrass hoedown-type approach to folk metal. With ANCHORSMASHED collaborating to lay down some banjo, LOMBOLO tells a comedic story about being swarmed by an army of raccoons, and it’s as ridiculous and fantastic as it sounds. The banjo and the bluegrass mandolin licks aren’t the only musical ties the song has to American music; the singer also incorporates the “talking blues” style of vocalization made popular in American folk music by artists like Woody Guthrie in the 1940s. This is a great nod to the music of the era they’re drawing inspiration from, and it works surprisingly well in a folk metal setting. Fans of AETHER REALM’s “Redneck Vikings from Hell” will feel right at home with this one.
One of the more chaotic tracks on the album is “Slap Thyne Enemy (Nazis Must Die).” This groovy, fast-paced track uses elements like saxophone and accordion to give a funky wall-of-sound feel to the production. There is a lot of variety in the vocals as well, with different band members bringing their own styles into the mix. It culminates in a chant-along section about slapping Nazis to the rhythm of the ’70s hip-hop hit “Oops Upside Your Head.” It’s very fun, even though it can sometimes struggle to maintain a consistent musical theme. But of course, if a consistent musical style is what you’re after, LOMBOLO is probably not the folk metal band for you. Their unapologetically eclectic arrangements are one of their main selling points.
Another standout song on the album is the closing track, “Det Fjärde Korståget” (The Fourth Crusade). This melodic and heavy riffing song tells of Enrico Dandolo, a 12th-century Italian political leader who played a prevalent role in the sacking of Constantinople. Like many of their previous historical or internationally themed tracks, LOMBOLO goes the extra mile to incorporate fitting musical styles into the production. The song’s booming chorus borrows its melody from the famous Italian folk song “Tarantella Napoletana,” which is as good for headbanging as it is for folk dancing. There are also some other riffs in there that would fit perfectly in a melodic death metal song, but they’re blended nicely with the more jaunty-sounding folk instruments like the mandolin, accordion, and flute.
If there’s one point of consistency between tracks on “Här och Där,” it’s LOMBOLO’s inclination to sing about whatever they feel like singing about that day. Fortunately, it doesn’t come across as throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks. It feels more like a versatile group of musicians not feeling fully content with just one style, and opting instead for a little bit of everything. It does make you wonder how far they could go if they picked a lane and stuck to it, but that would undoubtedly dull some of the magic that these last two albums have had. LOMBOLO takes the old saying “variety is the spice of life” and just runs with it. It can cause some pacing issues at certain parts of the album – or even within a single song – but the payoff is well worth it. LOMBOLO started as a two-man project in 2017 and has quickly grown into five full-time members as of 2024, along with collaborations with bands like Edinburgh’s ANCHORSMASHED and Lapland’s RIETAS. If there is one thing to take away from this fact, it’s that whatever LOMBOLO is doing is making others want to join in. It’s hard to blame them too, because LOMBOLO makes folk metal look like an absolute blast.
Written by Ken Kirwin
Tracklist
- Väringagardet
- Kung Agne
- Slap Thyne Enemy (Nazis Must Die)
- Utan Härd (Matkamies Part II)
- Skuggan Från Prärien
- Raccoon Platoon
- Irminsûl
- Ofärd
- Det Fjärde Korståget
Lineup
Lennart Lanström – clean vocals, flute, accordion
Leonard Walerius – harsh vocals, guitar, mandolin, kantele
Johan Maxén – bass, clean vocals, harsh vocals
Label
Independent
