Sleep Now, Quiet Forest, as you can probably gather from the title, isn't the most extreme CD you'll hear. It's a combination of folk metal, celtic, neo-classical and acoustic music. Some of the songs are more aggressive, with metal guitars and bombastic drums. Others are mid-tempo, catchy Celtic flavored folk songs. Todesbonden also gets very mellow in spots with quiet, acoustic tracks that have prominent violins and strings.
Haus is a skilled and versatile vocalist and adapts well to the various tempos and intensities. She has the ability to sing with a soft, clear alto croon when things are quiet, then amps up the power to an operatic soprano on the more intense songs. She has a great vocal tone as well.
While Haus' vocals are good, and there's a nice mix of fast and slow songs, I would have liked to hear a few more hooks. Sleep Now, Quiet Forest is a good album, but making the songs more memorable would have made it even better.
(released June 24, 2008 on Prophecy North America)
