Rankarumpu

Rankarumpu is the twelfth album by Korpiklaani. Jonne Järvelä, still the face of the band, started the unit Shamaani Duo back in 1993, and its 1996 debut Hunka Lunka was folk music with no metal in it at all, built on acoustic guitar, keyboards, percussion and joik singing. That became Shaman a year later, the metal crept in after Järvelä guested on a Finntroll record, and in 2003 — violin, accordion and flute added, the singing switched over — the band we know now took shape. Napalm Records signed them that same year for Spirit Of The Forest; Nuclear Blast followed. Olli Vänskä, the violinist from Turisas, joins for this one. Järvelä has said the recent albums, the 2018 one especially, had come out slower than he wanted and that he set out to make a fast record like the old Korpiklaani, and the first songs deliver exactly that. Nuclear Blast and Ward Records in Japan released it on the same day, 5 April 2024, the Japanese edition as GQCS-91451. Twelve tracks, about forty-three minutes.