Its old news. Finland is the empire of folk metal, actually the envy of the folk metal world. Even other Scandinavian countries look at Finland in awe. The Finnish people gave us Korpiklaani, Turisas, Ensiferum and Finntroll. Outside the folk metal stage they gave us – among other and better things – Nightwish. Enough about Finland in general.
The Finnish band with the impressive name Kivimetsän Druidi (KD) is what you get, when you take the best elements of all the aforementioned five bands, and throw in some serious blast beats. Its not plagiarism, its grand theft, but it works. KD has stolen the crown jewels, the unique trademarks, of other bands. The adventurous “tadaaa’ism” of Turisas for instance, AND the operatic female lead singer concept (not surprisingly accompanied by a male growler). They even stole the visual image from Ensiferum! The ideas aren’t new, but mixing them is, so its completely acceptable, in my opinion. Especially the extensive use of oldschool black metal vocals and drums. The occult aggression of Immortal and Satyricon has lied dormant in folk metal until this point. Now it has come out of hiding with a vengeance. Sometimes its almost too much, and there is a good chance that many a pure-hearted folk metal fan will think it clashes with the sweetly feminine voice of Leeni-Maria ??. On the other hand, any black metal purist will find this music “plastic, lame and weak” (to quote Darkthrone). If you feel like me, and like both genres, you should probably go out and buy this album, right now.
The problem with KD’s level of inspirational shoplifting throughout the Finnish folk metal mall, is of course the lack of originality. It helps that they use those extreme metal magic tricks to conjure up a more sinister blackish sound, but it’s not enough. Given that the band is fairly new, I guess they have the time and the energy to make something really original in the future.
The rating reflects the use of everybody else’s musical trademarks. The music is technically great – although Leeni-Maria should learn her limits – and well-produced.
