Crimfall from the barren wastelands of Finland have recently released their debut album called As The Path Unfolds. The founder Jakke Viitala started the band in 2007 as a one man project. Soon enough he asked Helena Haaparante and Mikko Häkkinnen for the vocals and the band Crimfall was born.

 

As the artwork shows a medieval soldier with a spear and a sword it's pretty easy to expect some folk metal. But there’s much more to this than meets the eye. Crimfall isn’t a regular folk metal band. The promo speaks of epic folk metal but I still believe that doesn’t cover the entire sound. During the first couple of songs I hear influences from black metal and gothic metal as well. The greatest thing is that all these styles are entwined in a way that it all sounds very natural.

 

The interaction between the two vocalists is great and contributes to the variety of styles on this album. But not only the vocals are great, the music itself changes from style to style without any hesitation. Add to this several non metal instruments that contribute to this feeling and you’ll know that this album shows some great potential.

 

I think it’s fair enough to say that this album is one that all the folk metal fans should check out. The Turisas like sound combined with influences of Dimmu Borgir and even some Nightwish is one of the revelations of this year to me.