Midnattens widunder is a folk metal

Folk metal

Folk metal is a sub-genre of heavy metal music that developed in Europe during the 1990s. As the name suggests, the genre is a fusion of heavy metal with traditional folk music...

 album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

 by the Finnish

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 band Finntroll

Finntroll

Finntroll is a folk metal band from Helsinki, Finland. They combine elements of black metal and folk metal. Finntroll's lyrics are mostly in Swedish, the only exception being the song "Madon Laulu" on Visor Om Slutet...

. It was released in Finland in 1999 by Spinefarm.

Concept

The lyrical content of the album follows the story of the legenday Rivfader ("Rip-father"), "king-shaman" of the trollish race, and his war against Christian encroachment of the trollish "North Lands

Scandinavia

Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...

". The trolls gather under the Svartberg ("Black Mountain") around the ancient throne of Rivfader, who then leads them on a war against the "Tribe of Christ".
The story acts as an analogy of the conflict between Christians and Pagans

Germanic paganism

Germanic paganism refers to the theology and religious practices of the Germanic peoples of north-western Europe from the Iron Age until their Christianization during the Medieval period...

 in Early Medieval

Early Middle Ages

The Early Middle Ages was the period of European history lasting from the 5th century to approximately 1000. The Early Middle Ages followed the decline of the Western Roman Empire and preceded the High Middle Ages...

 Scandinavia, and many of the concepts appearing in the album are returned to in the bands later work. The character of the Troll-King Rivfader, in particular, is a recurring figure, again taking centre-stage for the bands fourth album, Ur Jordens Djup

Ur Jordens Djup

-Personnel:* Mathias "Vreth" Lillmåns – vocals* Samuli "Skrymer" Ponsimaa – guitar, backing vocals* Mikael "Routa" Karlbom – guitar* Sami "Tundra" Uusitalo – bass, backing vocals...

.

Track listing

1. "Intro" – 1:57
2. "Svartberg" (Black Mountain) – 4:06
3. "Rivfader" (Ripfather) – 4:09
4. "Vätteanda" (Goblin Spirit) – 4:35
5. "Bastuvisan" (Sauna Song) – 1:19
6. "Blodnatt" (Blood Night) – 5:12
7. "Midnattens widunder" (Monsters of The Midnight) – 4:40
8. "Segersång" (Victory Song) – 1:59
9. "Svampfest" (Mushroom Feast) – 2:03

Personnel

• Jan "Katla" Jämsen – vocals
• Samuli "Skrymer" Ponsimaa
  Samuli Ponsimaa
  Samuli Ponsimaa is the guitarist in Folk Metal band Finntroll. He joined the band in 1998 following the demo Rivfader and has stayed with the band ever since. He is also an artist and has designed all of the artwork for Finntroll, such as Cover and Booklets, Stage Scenery and Outfits, Merchandise...
  
   (credited as "Örmy") – guitar
  Electric guitar
  An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
  
  
• Teemu "Somnium" Raimoranta – guitar
• Sami "Tundra" Uusitalo
  Sami Uusitalo
  Sami "Tundra" Uusitalo is a bass guitarist best known from the folk metal band Finntroll and the funeral doom band Shape of Despair. He also plays in the folk/doom metal group The Mist and the Morning Dew. Despite sharing the same name with a member of Funebre, he is not the same person.-...
  
   – bass
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  
• Samu "Beast Dominator" Ruotsalainen – drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
  
  
• Henri "Trollhorn" Sorvali
  Henri Sorvali
  Henri "Trollhorn" Sorvali, born October 19, 1978, in Finland, is the guitarist and keyboardist of the pagan metal band Moonsorrow, and keyboardist for Finntroll, and also plays for The Wicked....
  
   – keyboards
  Keyboard instrument
  A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
  
  

Additional personnel

• Tapio Wilska
  Tapio Wilska
  Tapio Wilska is the main vocalist of the heavy metal band Sethian. He is also the ex-lead vocalist for the band Finntroll...
  
   – clean vocals on "Vätteanda" and "Midnattens widunder"
• Mistress Helga – accordion
  Accordion
  The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
  
  on "Midnattens widunder"