Trollmann Av Ildtoppberg

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Trollmann Av Ildtoppberg is a band from the UK. They are most often classified as a drone doom metal band, however they are also influenced by dark ambient music artists such as Burzum and Mortiis, and funeral doom metal bands such as Thergothon and Skepticism. Their music mainly consists of bass, both clean and distorted, keyboards and sparse vocals, usually spoken or growled.

[edit] Biography

The band started in 2001. Their name is Norwegian for Warlock Of Firetop Mountain, which is the first book in the Fighting Fantasy series by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. As fans of these books, the band made their music a tribute to them, and took some lyrical inspiration from them. The band state that their sporadic use of Norwegian was revenge on black metal bands from Norway for their poor use of the English language.

The two permanent members of the band are David Terry and James Baker. David Terry goes by the pseudonym of Thundarr, inspired by the Thundarr The Barbarian cartoon. James Baker originally went by the pseudonym of Belegur, an obscure name for Morgoth from the Lord of the Rings series by Tolkien. Later, he changed to the pseudonym Mordraaneth, a variant upon Mordraneth from the Fighting Fantasy book, Stealer Of Souls. From here onwards, I will refer to them as Mordraaneth and Thundarr.

Mordraaneth is the keyboard player of the band. His main influences are the ambient tracks by Burzum, particularly the latter two albums, and the early albums by Mortiis, prior to The Smell Of Rain. His earlier style is very improvised, with a circular compositional tendency, often returning to a previous theme later on in the track, yet never reaching a conclusion or resolution. Later, he progressed towards a more repetitive style, using an identical chord progression throughout each track, with minor variations within each chord, and towards more "synthetic" sounds rather than the earlier use of woodwind effects. On the earlier tracks, released on the Dark Clouds Blacken The Skies On The Eve Of The Thousandth Sacrifice, he used a primitive Yamaha keyboard, but most of the tracks were recorded from a Roland EM-50 keyboard. He also progressed towards a more reverbed sound in the later albums, using an effects processor.

Thundarr is the bass player. His main influences are drone doom bands such as Sunn O))), Earth and Boris, and funeral doom bands such as Thergothon and Skepticism. He originally started out with variations between clean and distorted bass sounds, but in the later albums, uses predominantly distorted bass. As with the keyboards, he gradually moved towards a more reverbed sound. The earlier tracks, particularly those on the Dark Clouds Blacken The Skies On The Eve Of The Thousandth Sacrifice album, he used the chromatic scale, but gradually moved towards the natural minor scale. He also moved from a purely improvised style to a more repetitive one, often playing only one riff throughout an entire song.

Thundarr also provided all the vocals with the exception of the title track from Dark Clouds Blacken The Skies On The Eve Of The Thousandth Sacrifice, which were by Mordraaneth. The vocals progressed from spoken word towards a growling style, typical of black metal and doom metal bands, also with increased use of reverb. The lyrical themes will be discussed more fully in the "mythology" section to follow.

[edit] Discography

It should be noted that the band do not include any release dates on their albums, so the following dates are approximate, but generally agreed upon by most reviewers. Also, the names of the albums and songs may vary in some reviews, and the unofficial titles are most often working titles used by the band prior to release, and not, strictly speaking, incorrect.

[edit] Official Releases

The Forest Of Doom (2001)
Arcane Runes Adorn The Ice-Wrought Monoliths In The Ancient Cavern Of Stars (2003)
Tolling Beyond The Tombs Of Ancient Grimnity (2003)
Dark Clouds Blacken The Skies On The Eve Of The Thousandth Sacrifices (2004)

[edit] Live Albums

Live In The Tut 'N Shive (2001)
Live 2002 (unconfirmed)
Live 2003 (unconfirmed)

[edit] Live Videos

Live At The Tyne (2004)

[edit] Album Descriptions

[edit] The Forest Of Doom

Their first album took its title from the Fighting Fantasy book with the same name. With the exception of the first track, which was a solo track by Thundarr, these are improvisations for keyboard and bass in a neo-classical style. The orchestration is very simple, a single line of melody on keyboard and bass guitar varying between clean and slightly distorted. The vocals are minimal and in a spoken-word style.

[edit] Tolling Beyond The Tombs Of Ancient Grimnity

The second album moves towards a more repetitive style. The first track, Aether, is a development of the theme from Voyage Through The Aether II from the previous album, but the bass guitar only plays two riffs throughout the track and the production is arguably the cleanest the band have done. The keyboard playing is also significantly more repetitive than anything on the previous album. The second track, Children Of Doom, is based on a line from the script of the Conan The Barbarian film, and is an earlier track that the band originally considered not to be good enough for an album, but later changed their mind about. The final track, also the title track, is an extremely depressive track, featuring heavily reverbed keyboards, using a chime effect, and a very repetitive bassline.

[edit] Arcane Runes Adorn The Ice-Wrought Monoliths In The Ancient Cavern Of Stars

The third album consists of the tracks which those who have seen them live may recognise, with the excpetion of the intro, which is also the title track. This is the culmination of their progression towards a repetitive style. Each riff is almost identical to the last, a technique inspired by Burzum, both in his ambient and black metal albums. Originally a rehearsal for a live concert, recorded on a dictaphone, the band decided to use this recording as a proper album, as they considered them to be the best performances, despite the poor production. The vocals are unintentionally very quiet, often hard to distinguish from the distortion of the recording.

[edit] Dark Clouds Blacken The Skies On The Eve Of The Thousandth Sacrifice

This was a collection of previously unreleased material. It includes the original mix of "Descent From The Mountains Of Madness", which is slightly slower and includes vocals. The vocals had been left off the Forest Of Doom album as they were inspired by H.P. Lovecraft, and did not fit in with the mythology behind the band. The second track features Joe "Satan" from death metal band "Mutant". The next few tracks are those which were originally considered unworthy of being on an album, featuring a primitive Yamaha keyboard. The final track is a rehearsal for Aether which was so different from the final version that they decided to release it as a separate track altogether.

[edit] Mythology

The band state that there is a story behind each of the tracks, expressed in the lyrics. The main inspirations for the lyrics are the Fighting Fantasy adventures, horror novels by H.P. Lovecraft, Nordic mythology, and Conan The Barbarian. Perhaps only the band themselves know the whole story, though the themes appear to be forests, trolls, tombs, doom, dreams and caverns, typical subject-matter of black metal and doom metal bands.

[edit] Distribution

The band originally stated that they did not wish to be a commercial product, sending out albums for free and actively encouraging file-sharing. Since then, they have had several distributors, but the music is not copyrighted and is widely available for download on the internet.

Their first distributor, Parka Distro, was removed as a link from their site. I quote their webiste with their permission:
"Due to numerous complaints about Parka distro, I have removed the link to their site. We are no longer endorsing this site."
Parka Distro's website is still on the internet, but has not been updated since July 2005, so its status is uncertain.

The albums are currently being distributed by Skulls Of Heaven. Albums have also been sold to various other online shops in small quantities, so copies available elsewhere may or may not be authorised by the band.

Copies of their albums are available in slip-cases, with or without CD labels, DVD cases and traditional jewel-cases, but all the sleeves feature the Monolith Records label. Monolith Records consists is the label of Thundarr and Mordraaneth and consists of all music produced my these two, and the band Methuselah, whose mainman, Matt Barker, runs the official Monolith Records website.

[edit] Side Projects

The band have many side projects. I include here those which the band consider "serious", those which have albums released, and those which have done live concerts.

[edit] Ungl'Unl'Rrlh'Chchch

Main article: Ungl'Unl'Rrlh'Chchch

The title of this band is taken from the Lovecraft story, Rats In The Walls. The band consists of the same two members as Trollmann Av Ildtoppberg, but the music is far more abstract, noisy, distorted and difficult to listen to. The themes are all inspired by Lovecraft as opposed to their own mythology.

[edit] Diseased Maggotectomy

This is a side-project by Thundarr in collaboration with "Bizarre Nicholas". It is a grindcore band which uses programmed drums, heavily distorted guitars and samples, often of bees, and growled vocals. This band have done several live performances.

[edit] Bong

A recent stoner doom metal act, a side project of Thundarr. Tracks are avaliable at http://bong.no-ip.org

[edit] The Warlocks Of Firetop Mountain

The predecessor to Trollmann Av Ildtoppberg, using the same title but in English, featuring Thundarr. This band only released a few rehearsals, possible to find on the internet, and are not thought to have done any live concerts.

[edit] Colony

A death metal band which has included Mordraaneth, Thundarr and various other members. Its current status is unconfirmed.

[edit] The Future

Trollmann Av Ildtoppberg are currently disbanded, though they do not entirely rule out doing future albums or live performances. Mordraaneth is not thought to be currently involved in any side-projects. Some of Thundarr's side-projects are still active, notably Bong and Diseased Maggotectomy.

[edit] External links

[edit] Sources

All information here has either been provided by the band directly or researched on the internet and confirmed by the band members. All content here is given with the band's permission.

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Categories: British heavy metal musical groups | Doom metal musical groups