Shadows of our Time 2011

"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.

(review originally posted on metalmusicarchives.com)"