Kivimetsän Druidi were the opening act at the first annual, Heathenfest. Unfortunately, I could not make it to the venue on time to witness their performance. Friends have told me and I've heard, 'they're quite good...', 'they can deliver...', 'entertaining' etc. And of course Century Media bands spread quickly and easily captures the attention of individuals. Being human, I wanted to hear it for myself and see what all the fuss was about. Thus, deciding to review their second Full-length album, ‘Betrayal, Justice, Revenge’.

Since 2002, Kivimetsän Druidi has released 3 demos, 2 EP's and their previous and first debut album, 'Shadowheart'. In their newest;‘Betrayal, Justice, Revenge, they shape their lyrics from themes of fantasy and from the fantasy novel Joni Koskinen (Vocals/Guitar) is writing. Founders, Koskinen brothers (Antti and Joni) has brought most of the music. Other members took part in the writing process as well, but most lyrics were written by their Soprano singer Leeni-Maria. They are classified as Fantasy/Folk/Symphonic in the Metal genre, though seemingly this new album also draw-in some Thrash, Death and then a few shreds of Black Metal. Such great combination and influences indeed but with ability so vast, that is sadly, barricaded.

The operatic female vocals are great, powerful in fact. The harsh vocals are immense, amazing array of talent. The mixture of two different vocals resulted in a good contrast of balance (if that makes any sense). The instruments are well played and yes they are very capable musicians. Then, just what is this terrible plight I speak of...? The music arrangement. The arrangement, deliverance, representation and transitioning. Evidently, there is a lot of potential in this band that needs be unleashed. It's just lacking something or two which could highly improve their sound and perhaps even make them more memorable.