Shadowheart combines folk and symphonic metal. There are lush, orchestrated sections along with more sparse and acoustic parts utilizing folk instruments. The songs are surprisingly heavy for the genre, with plenty of intense guitars offsetting the more subdued piano, string and acoustic sections.
The vocals are the male growling/female singing style that's used so often in gothic metal. For me the harsh vocals are very effective, but aren't utilized enough. The female singing is a very formal and classical soprano, which doesn't work as well. With the folk metal influences Kivimentsan Druidi has, I think warmer and lower pitched singing would sound better.
The songs are well constructed with a lot of depth and complexity. There's also room for clever riffs and catchy melodies. For the most part I enjoyed the music on Shadowheart, but merely tolerated the vocals.
(released November 25, 2008 on Century Media Records)
