Crimfall – As the Path Unfolds…
Crimfall – As the Path Unfolds…
Rating: 3.5/5.0 – Very good (Not groundbreaking, but seriously enjoyable)
Label: Napalm Records
Band Websites: crimfall.com | myspace.com/crimfall
“For fans of Turisas, Finntroll and Nightwish,” the advertisement read. How could I possibly pass that up? I’m definitely a fan of Turisas and Finntroll, though, Nightwish I can pretty much do without–sans diva or not. But for me it was more a matter of how one could actually blend and compare these three bands into one cohesive whole. “No,” I thought, “it’s really not possible to do in a convincing manner.”
Apparently, to my great dissatisfaction, I was wrong.
Crimfall was not convincing at first. I listened to it up close and I laughed a lot, it felt like a charicature of all modern Finnish metal–extraordinarily produced with tons of big orchestrations, operatic vocals and chuggy guitars like Nightwish and Turisas mixed together with the folky feeling of Finntroll records, particularly in the vein of Nattfödd, with the misty feelings and interludes/segues from Visor om Slutet. These things are blended together into powerful songs that burst out of your speakers like an angry Finnish viking1, the strong, addictive melodies worming their way into your brain and setting root.
The song writing on this album is both interesting and fun. The classic folk metal instrumentations are, of course, ubiquitous 
throughout every song. The big orchestrations as well as the accordian, the mouth harp and other things of that nature punctuate the songs with their unique (but now familiar) sounds. Helena Haaparanta, the female vocalist who does operatic vocals for the project is stellar. Her voice ranges between (sorry) Tarja from Nightwish to a smoother, poppy vocal style which shows that she has some variability and, frankly, talent. She even hits some very ethereal sounding vocals in the track “Hundred Shores Different,” and is all around impressive and talented. In addition to that, the black metal vocals are also quite good–roughly peppering the tracks with their power and intertwining with the clean vocals in a fluid way (sort of like a modern incarnation of Theatre of Tragedy, but way more black metal). Really, what the advertisement claims is true: if you’re a fan of any three of those aforementioned bands, particularly Nightwish or Turisas this record will probably totally float your boat. It has all of the good things about Nightwish without the cheese or glam aspects, for example. And it has the sheer, immense power that makes Turisas such a convincing and excellent band.
In the finest tradition of power metal, which is in essence “feel good” heavy metal these days, Crimfall have crafted a record that is a pleasure to listen to. It doesn’t really offer anything particularly new and/or innovative, despite having a sound that is recognizable as their own. But in spite of that fact, it continuously draws the listener back for one more listen over and over again.
- Despite the fact that Finns were not actually involved in the viking era in Scandinavia, they still manage to regularly make viking/folk metal of the highest quality–really producing way more excellent Viking metal than the Scandinavian countries in a lot of way. So while I realize that there really were no Finnish vikings, I think they deserve the title anyway. ↩
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