ALBUM REVIEW: Flamingo Overlord – Trollfest
If you’ve not experienced TROLLFEST before, they’re a hard act to describe. Something between Elton John and ABBA blended with TWELVE FOOT NINJA and RUSSKAJA – or a polka ESKIMO CALLBOY might be a popular comparison. Whatever you call it, it’s weird. Off-kilter metal is more and more in the zeitgeist of popular listening, and who can blame us after the start to the decade we’ve had. People want to have some fun, and if you’re into shanty shouting choruses, country mashed up with yodelling and metal, it seems that TROLLFEST have every base covered in Flamingo Overlord.
It’s no shock there’s a fixation on the tropical bird through this record, for better or worse. Flamongous has a pretty good groove, with some bizarre screeched vocals, saxophone and chiptune blips for good measure. It’s not the only song with a reference to flamingos, as the central theme of everyone’s favourite wading bird is the namesake of at least four songs on this record, including The Flamingorilla, which comes equipped with blast beats and more symphonic sounds, Flamingo Libre, which would fit somewhere between Leo P and a ska song, and record opener Dance Like A Pink Flamingo.
If there’s one thing we can tell you about Flamingo Overlord it’s that it can’t be put in a box. Twenty Miles An Hour has an air of FRANKLIN MINT coupled with a little rap verse, while Piña Colada is a mix of power metal and AKON. From blast beats to uncommon progressions and strange instrumental pairings, there really is something for everyone, but not exactly how’d you’d expect it.
A good chunk of the album has some fairly political lyrics, like the RICHARD CHEESE style Rule The Country, (which has some of the best playing on the record in all fairness). Given the light hearted front of the album, it seem almost at odds with the music to have something more important to say than ‘lets party’, but when taken into account that songs themselves are against the grain, it makes perfect sense that the core of the record is not what it seems either.
While TROLLFEST’s gimmick of being a comedy band and the overall obsession with flamingos on this album might be a little too flippant and silly for many, Flamingo Overlord does have some merit to its overcrammed genre-mashing. Returning fans will know and love what is on offer, and while this certainly isn’t music for the masses, there’s something to bop along to for anyone who enjoys the no-fucks-given approach and general punk ethos of this record.
Rating: 6/10
Flamingo Overlord is set for release on May 27th via Napalm Records.
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