Artist: Kivimetsan Druidi
Country: Finland
Label: Century Media
Formats: CD
Year: 2008
In every scene that gets more popular by the day the record labels tend to sign every fart recorded that might sell. We saw that happening over two decades ago with NWOBHM, speed/thrash metal and later with death metal and black metal too, and, most recently the hardcore metal combination that besides some great bands mostly brough us nothing but mediocre releases. To say the least. And, with the ever growing popularity of the folk metal movement comes shit as well…
After the great success of bands like Finntroll and later Ensiferum and lately Eluveitie it seems that every town has its own folk metal band. The times that people would call mid-era Bathory ‘folkish metal’ seems long gone. Talentless bands with a violin, chanting choirs and Viking symbols on their covers also go under the banner of ‘folk metal’ these days. One of the less fortunate bands is Kivimetsan Druidi which roughly translates to ‘Druid For The Stone Forest’, not quite an adventurous name either. Musically this comes rather close to the older Finntroll albums (“Jaktens Tid”-era). Spiced up with some female vocals this band do try to relive the days when Finntroll sounded fresh, original and inspiring – but, still, rather ridiculous. It might come around as an easy listening and rather entertaining album, this “Shadowheart”, but in the end it does sound as hollow as your usual McDonald ‘Happy Meal’ tastes.
For those who still can’t enough, this collection of old EP and demo tracks might be the a good pick. Others, who like their metal to have at least a bit more balls, this is a clear SKIP. But to most of you, the awful artwork would be enough to just ignore it.
