Welcome to the ninth full length album of Trollfest – “Flamingo Overlord.”

Fasten your seatbelts folks, because this is going to be a bumpy ride!

The first track of this album is “Dance Like a Pink Flamingo” and gives a very up-tempo glam rock feel from the eighties. It is melodic, groovy and stays in your head for the rest of the day. They actually performed this song at the Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix, the qualifying show for the Eurovision Song Contest. 

“Flaming Overlord – All Drinks on Me” is a very interesting mixture of Balkan music with a bit of a pirate and aloha feel and with Jonne Järvelä (Korpiklaani) on guest vocals.

“Flamingo Overlord – Flamongous” is more easy going with nice tension here and there and dynamic guitars. The samples used in this one actually reminds me of the tunes from the Super Mario Brothers videogame.

“Twenty Miles an Hour” contains some post punk rhythm with cross over metal, rap and troll vocals while “The Flamingorilla” is a somewhat short story with a bit of folk and Balkan feel. A completely different song is “Flamingo Libre.” It is, comparing to the other songs, more approachable and has a bit of a pop music feel. The samples used in this song reminds me of some videogames I used to play on the Commodore 64. If you weren’t thirsty enough there is “Pina Colada” and this one comes up with a nice up tempo metal Latin feel and has a great melodic turn. 

“Rule the Country” has a somewhat jazzy feel combined with Balkan metal and tunes that reminds me of Inspector Gadget. “The Way You Earn Your Drinks” brings you back with troll craziness and almost choir vocals. But after all these jolly jumpers it gets really serious and with “Overlords Have Feelings” a more threatening flow creeps into your ears. And when “Bob Venke” sneaks upon you, you get the feeling you witnessed a very dark tale.

So, whether you like your drinks shaken or stirred, rather seeing yourself in a jungle or at the beach, this album has it all. It is one big journey through all kinds of musical influences from jazz, Latin, Balkan and crossover metal. It contains a lot of energy, craziness and humor. Besides that Trollfest has managed to find a very good mixture of all these musical influences combined with a very creative way of telling the story of cruelty in this world. They call it K.A.O.S. I call it a fine piece of art. 

 

Talking about the art – Jonas Darnell made the fantastic drawings for the cover. To Andy Wartroll go the credits for the design. You must be warned though. It is pink. And I mean…really pink! But in this case I think pink is the new black. The artbook looks like a scrapbook from a very curious detective with all kinds of information and pictures in it. In fact, if you want to join the secret agents to look for the flamingos, I mean they are everywhere, check out the Trollfest Facebook page. 

I would say, go with the flow with this “Flamingo Overlord” and dance like there is no tomorrow. If you want to know where these Flamingos will land in your country or area, check their website: www.trollfest.com

Rating: 9/10

Release date: 27th May 2022

Label: Napalm Records

Writer: Nathalie

Tracklist:

1. Dance Like a Pink Flamingo
2. Flamingo Overlord – All Drinks on me
3. Flamingo Overlord – Flamongous
4. Twenty Miles an Hour
5. The Flamingorilla
6. Flamingo Libre
7. Pina Colada
8. Rule The Country
9. The Way You Earn your Drinks
10. Overlords Have Feelings
11. Bob Venke