Time Signature Aftermath...

Genre: Folk/Celtic melodeath

The three-track EP "Kronos' Heritage" is the second release from folk metallers Krampus this year - and I must say that their productivity is admirable, especially considering that, as far as I understand, their releases are self-released and not backed by any label.

The three tracks are solidly grounded in melodic death metal, although Krampus have not adopted the Gothenburg sound, which is always refreshing (I like the Gothenburg sound, to be sure, but it is nice to know that there are artists who do not follow the trends) and you can expect uptempo drumming, melodic but aggressive riffs as well as harsh vocals combined with clean ones. The vocals are mostly a sort of metalcore scream with the vocalist delivering some guttural growls and some clean choruses every now and then.

Krampus make extensive use of folk instrumentation and on top of the melodic death metal, there are folk instruments playing folk melodies (some times the guitars join in, too), and there are also whole passages that are more fundamentally folk-driven.

I think that the three tunes on this EP are just right in terms of metal elements and folk elements, and - although I am not a big fan of the vocals - I think that "Kronos' Heritage" is an all round solid and enjoyable release.

Time Signature Tears of metal...

Genre: Celtic/folk metal

This release, I think, is one of the more convincing folk metal releases I have heard. I must admit that a lot of folk metal strikes me as being silly and cheesy, but this release is totally free of silliness and only slightly cheesy.

The folk part of Krampus' music appears to be primarily rooted in Celtic folk music (with folk instrumentation and folk melodies performed on folk instruments), while the metal part combined melodeath, power metal, and traditional metal. In this particular case, the combination of folk and metal works very well, I think, and captures a lot of moods ranging from melancholy to uplifting fun and metal aggression.

All the tracks on this release are good, but "Tears of Stone" and "Witches' Lullaby" are outstanding.

As much as I like the musical aspect, I do not appreciate the metalcorish vocals. I would prefer clean vocals as in some sections in "Tears of Stone", I must admit. And there are also elements of the use of keyboards to achieve epic effects in some intros that strike me as being somewhat cheesy.

At the end of the day, "Shadows of our Time" is a solid folk metal release, which captures the best of both worlds and successfully combines it.