KIVIMETSÄN DRUIDI

Shadowheart

Century Media

Century Media announces KIVIMETSÄN DRUIDI as a young and determined metal band from Finland destined to become the next sensation in symphonic metal. Personally I'm not sure whether these five young men wearing strange clothes, painting his faces with quite weird patterns and holding plastic swords in their hands plus their blonde female co-vocalist take themselves seriously or not. One is for sure, their new album entitled "Shadowheart" won't change the world. If you have good taste in music, this is something you don't want to listen to.

KIVIMETSÄN DRUIDI's music bases on a crazy combination of elements known from various popular subgenres. You can find everything on this CD, or even more than you expect. Let's try to imagine violent blastbeats blended with rapid guitar riffs, orchestral background, monotonous female sopranos and harsh growlings. There's a lot of catchy melodies coming directly from Finish folk tradition, hundreds of interesting neoclassical harmonies and chords. BAL SAGOTH, KORPIKLAANI, DRAGONFORCE, NIGHTWISH, DIMMU BORGIR and some more. OK, the strongest point of KIVIMETSÄN DRUIDI is their complete unpredictability. Listen to the opening track "Blacksmith" where so many things hit you at the same time and try to guess, what's coming next. It's almost impossible. The same goes for the other tracks. I remember when I listened to this CD for the first time, it was kind of surprising or even shocking to find out, how many things can work together for good. The guys are well skilled, both when it comes to playing the instruments and making songs. A broad range of arrangements is another thing that the band can be proud of. Additionally, most of them are smart enough to make the songs enjoyable to the listener. Unfortunately, KIVIMETSÄN DRUIDI music works that way in the short run. After several listening although it was a new experience in the end I felt quite overloaded. I know I dug this album but I can’t remember anything about it right now.

I think this band is in the right place in the right moment. A trend for that kind of all-in-one, sympho-folk oriented bands is becoming very popular these days and bands like KORPIKLAANI, TURISAS or EVELUETIE sell more albums and pack bigger venues than their renowned brothers in metal. Of course, I don't see anything bad in it. Trends come and go. Consistent with an invariable principles of nature Finish KIVIMETSÄN DRUIDI is destined to disappear without trace in the next 10 years.

5/12