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Adorned Brood are a long running folk metal band from Germany. Formed in 1993 the band has, with the release of Hammerfeste, released seven albums all of which have been quite well received. As a band that has been around since before the 'folk metal boom' of the last few years you would expect them to have their own style different to the majority of sound alike bands today. On Erdenkraft, the only other album from this band I have heard in its entirety, your assumption would have been correct. Does Hammerfeste continue this tradition?
The answer is, unfortunately, no. Adorned Brood have decided sound like every other wannabe folk metal band that has arisen over the past few years. Quite honestly if I had never heard Adorned Brood before I would have guessed that this was a new band of young hopefuls! Of course, a change to a more contemporary sound does not necessarily mean a bad album. So what does Hammerfeste actually offer?
Again I have to say unfortunately not a lot! This is an album which you can dance to, in true folk metal style, however its just nothing special at all. Even with the amount of new folk metal bands that are forming today there are a multitude that have released better albums than this. Even a lot of the debuts I've heard are better than this! Its not exceptionally bad, its just supremely average.
Flutes have always been a part of Adorned Broods sound and have always been part of the band's success. However, on this album they seem superfluous, unnecessary and completely out of place. There are very few parts during this album where the flutes add anything to music – the middle of Lead My Ship for example. In other parts the only thing it adds is a cringing look to my face. Contrast this with their earlier works where the flutes sound beautiful and add such depth to the music.
Additionally the vocals on Hammerfeste are primarily Markus Frost's poorly executed death metal growls. The old Adorned Brood had beautiful interplays of clean male and female vocals with occasional growls. Sorry Mr Frost, Johan Hegg you are not.
This album is choc full of standard, cliché battle metal songs and lyrics to match. Everything that was good about Adorned Brood has been stripped away and replaced by something nowhere as good. I really hope Adorned Brood realize their mistake and go back to what they did best. This new, more aggressive style does not suit them at all.
I feel quite sorry for Black Bards record label as every band I have reviewed recently I have criticized heavily. However, I stand by what I say. This album sounds like Adorned Brood have just listened to whatever is the latest 'flavor of the month' folk metal band and failed at writing a copycat album. If you absolutely have to hear every folk metal album released then you may find something to enjoy in this album. However, I can't honestly recommend this even to die-hard Adorned Brood fans.
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