The true spirit of folk metal is to run around like a mad man, drink a flagon of ale and have the time of your life while headbanging like a deranged Viking. Unfortunately, German band Rabenwolf hasn’t quite achieved the sound which makes people want to party like a drunken dwarf. With songs which basically sound the same as the previous, a voice which can barely be heard over the instruments and song titles which would bewilder and confuse even the most talented of degree level German students. Rabenwolf’s album Aus Alten Zeiten was the reason the word average was invented, and unfortunately for an album with lots of promise, nothing really jumps out of the music at you.

With each song on Aus Alten Zeiten starting with a similar classic folk instrumental, it is clear that Rabenwolf can’t show any diversity or change to their songs, and are trying to keep it as generic as possible. It’s a real shame because when the ferocious guitar riffs and charging bass lines come in the tempo really does pick up, and you have present a really powerful melody line which in songs like ‘Allvater’, ‘Der Ewige Kampf’ and ‘Siegesfest’ really does smash through your speakers with full force ferocity!

The vocals on this album are to say bluntly…. Are weak! So weak in fact at points on this album it is hard to hear the vocals and distinguish them between black metal pig squeals and the heavily distorted guitar lines. If the production had been much tighter on Aus Alten Zeiten, and singer Stormmson’s (as he likes to call himself) vocals had been turned up, then tracks like ‘Aufbruch’, ‘Feld Der Steine’ and ‘Sumpfhexe’ would be miles better, and would quite easily hook fans on Ensiferum, Fintroll, and even Korpiklaani if Rabenwolf could experiment with clean vocals.

The best thing about Aus Alten Zeiten is the atmospheric opening and closing tracks on the album. From the very start of the first track ‘Aus Alten Zeiten’, you can feel the tension rising, as the fanfare builds up and builds up, till finally you have a think textured instrumental which smoothly glides through into the next song. The last track on the album ‘Die Ewigen Wälder’ shows folk music at its best, getting rid of the metal element and solely concentrating on the beauty and serenity of medieval sounding melody line.

With a few tweaks here and there, Rabenwolf’s new album Aus Alten Zeiten could be great, but unfortunately what let’s this album down is the band trying to stay in their comfort zone, which in doing so, makes a lot of the tracks on this record sound repetitive and quite frankly dull. [5/10]