Kivimetsaen Druidi - Taival (Demo) 2004 Symphonic Folk Metal

Kivimetsän Druidi - Taival (Demo)

Tracklisting:

01. Kristallivuoren Maa
02. Veljet
03. Viimeinen Peikkokuningas

Demo, Self Released 2004

"Everybody knows J.R.R. Tolkien and The Lord Of The Rings trilogy. But where is &piratecom8216;Kristallivuoren Maa' &piratecom8211; &piratecom8216;The Land Of The Crystal Mountain'? And where is &piratecom8216;Kivimetsä' &piratecom8211; &piratecom8216;The Stone Woods'? And where does &piratecom8216;Kivimetsän Druidi' &piratecom8211; 'The Druid Of The Stone Woods' live? The answer: This all can be found in the songs of the Finnish fantasy folk metal band called Kivimetsän Druidi...&piratecom8221; that's the beginning of the biography I found in my package I got from this young group from Kouvola. And this is already a good description of Kivimetsän Druidi's sound. The band was founded in 2002, and in December 2004 they recorded their first studio demo &piratecom8216;Taival' which now finally found its way to my letter box

It all starts with some keyboard sounds in &piratecom8220;Kristallivuoren Maa&piratecom8221;, until a female voice sets in, later joined by a male voice. In the middle of the song there is a keyboard part again which reminds pretty much of bands like Finntroll or Equilibrium but the track comes back to its previous form with some drum and guitar sounds and of course Annika Laaksonen's clean vocals and Joni Koskinen's black metal-like &piratecom8216;singing'.
The second song - and in my ears the best - on this demo is called &piratecom8220;Veljet&piratecom8221;. It has really a catchy tune and also belonged to my personal current playlist for some time There is a pretty atmospheric and quiet part in the middle of the song where Annika's voice and the Finnish lyrics stand out again. At all, her vocals are something like a &piratecom8216;central theme' on this demo, and I think they fit quite well to the sound of this band. The only weak point of this track is Joni's voice which does not really fit in here in my opinion.
The third and last song on &piratecom8216;Taival', &piratecom8220;Viimeinen Peikkokuningas&piratecom8221;, was the very first song Kivimetsän Druidi ever recorded and for me it is also the weakest one on the 'Taival' demo. It isn't really bad but everything seems quite one-sided. It all begins with keyboards again until one of Joni's growls sets in and this time it is his voice that's prevailing here, though sometimes joined by Annika's voice. There is also a keyboard part in the middle of the song which this time even shows some humppa influences! Another thing that's surprising here are Joni's clean vocals at this part of the track. However, as I said before the song is nothing special somehow.

To sum it all up, I consider this demo as very interesting, not only as I like this direction in metal, but because I think Kivimetsän Druidi have the potential to do a really good album if they get the chance to get signed by a label. I definitely wish them luck with that as I would like to hear more of the druids!

MP3@VBR/17.8mb