Kivimetsan Druidi
Shadowheart ()
Wydane przez Century Media RecordsRok wydania Kraj FinlandNapisał Wouter6
Hailed as the new sensation in pagan/folk metal Finland's latest genre export doesn't quite live up to the promise that its label makes it out to be. This six-piece – five men and a top-heavy blonde – bring an atypically violent mix of bombastic symphonic black metal (similar to "Battle Magic" era Bal-Sagoth) and folk metal (in the vein of Finntroll, Korpiklaani and the like) that is executed with all the expected finesse and technical expertise, but can hardly be called revolutionary or genre-defying. Half the record is sung in Finnish, the other in English recounting the story of Shadowheart. The tale itself is the usual mix of warriors, magic, battles and dragons. The interplay between the male and female vocals is rather trite and approached safe, going for the so-called beauty and the beast approach which was done before plenty of times and often better than what is presented here. The guitar work is melodic, rife with the known Finnish folk melodies, while the metallic riffs are ranging in influences from Children Of Bodom, (early) Amorphis to Iron Maiden and Nightwish. The keyboards are bombastic, pompous and cinematic, even bordering on Bal-Sagoth territory in cases, as is proven with the opening salvo and slower sections of 'Pendon Loitsu' could have been lifted from Bal-Sagoth's acclaimed opus "Battle Magic". The production is uniformly fantastic with a guitar tone that is crunchy and crisp, the bass guitar is thick and thundering while the drums sound massive and clear. The artwork, design and lay-out are centered around Kivimetsan Druidi's chesty singer, surrounding her with the rest of the band, clad in warrior's robe and painted for war. Kivimetsan Druidi (which in Finnish means "druid from the stone forest") has certainly some promise to write an interesting piece of symphonic metal, but their combination of genres that are currently experiencing global popularity make their sincerity and passion questionable at best. Solid but hardly necessary. Seek it out if you must, but don't expect it to change your view of the genre.
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