Sahg - III (2010)

Back sometime in mid-2008 I was introduced to Norwegian stoner/doom metal group, Sahg, though their second album, 'II.' By the albums conclusion I can recall just sitting here with a huge grin on my face and thinking, "Damn... this is massive! This kicks ass!" Not long after I got my hands on their first album, 'I' and by that albums conclusion I'd already considered Sahg a new personal favorite of mine. 'III' came out about a year ago but as usual the album was not released in America and I didn't get my hands on the album until my recent over seas voyage.

III carries on in Sahg's distinctive style, which in my eyes shows influences from some of the best, such as; Ozzy-era Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Trouble, St. Vitus, Spiritual Beggars and Cathedral. Although Sahg does fall into the doom genre they generally avoid ultra slow heaviness in favor of catchy verses, superb song writing, stunning guitar solos and just plain simply rocking out as hard as possible. Olav Iversen and Thomas Tofthagen have a heavy crunchy tone to their guitars that I absolutely love, while Tom Cato Visnes' bass is vibrant and alive throughout the whole recording, the drum work of new member Thomas Lønnheim is spot on and Olav's lead vocal work is quite simply immaculate. Also not forget that there are also a few points where prog styled keyboards makes their appearance and although they are brief they are well placed and a perfect addition to Sahg's music.

'In through the fire' kicks the recording off as a simple and short acoustic piece, which then dives headlong into the thumping head banging rockin' anthem known as, 'Baptism of Fire.' It just gets better though as, 'Mortify' starts out with something of a sinister vibe, but then just explodes with beefy energetic stoner bliss. Other super songs are, 'Hollow Mountain' or 'Downward Spiral' with one of the coolest solos I've heard in ages and, 'Denier' has already become a modern favorite of mine, just simply incredible! The guys are also capable of throwing in some slower doomy atmospheric songs like, 'Mother's Revenge,' 'Shadow Mountain' and the albums bleak closer, 'Spiritual Void,' though I still prefer the heavy energetic rockin' numbers over these three. I also have to mention that the lyrics are another quality of perfection within this album, especially, 'Denier,' but damn it all Olav writes some good words to these songs.

Ten songs strong and I find very little fault within this recording. At 42 minutes strong all guitars, leads, musical shifts and vocals are a point of dynamic excellence not easily out bested. Years from now fans of the genre will include Sahg among their all-time favorites, they'll tour the world and become giants, kids will want to grow up to be them and within the sky the bands name will luminously shine infinitely while they rock harder than hell and bring heaven to its knees!

Yes, what I'm trying to say is, "SAHG III is just fucking colossal!"

Moonsorrow - Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa (2011)

I guess there really isn’t much you can count on in life - things can just get fucked up and ruined so easily. On the plus side at least you can always count on Moonsorrow delivering an extraordinary album and with their latest, 'Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa' they've done just that and then some.

Continuing along the same aesthetic road as their recent musical monuments, 'Verisäkeet' & 'V: Hävitetty' the new Moonsorrow is an absolute strike of brilliance within the epic heathen metal sub-genre and quite possibly the bands best album yet.

With a title that translates to, 'As Shadows We Walk in the Land of the Dead' this is one of Moonsorrow's darkest and most melancholy records to date and for the first time I think they really live up to their name, Moonsorrow - This album is like walking in utter darkness with only the moon as your guide and a heavy burden of sorrow upon your conscience.

The opening song, 'Tähdetön' bares a strong resemblance to, 'Jäästä syntynyt / Varjojen virta' with its epic structure and occasional flashes of folk music, while the following song, 'Muinaiset' is a majestic anthem that's so strong that it brought my senses to place they've never been to while watching it live at Tuska festival last month and it continues to do the same sitting here in my apartment. The monumental sorrow of, 'Huuto' is almost overwhelming and every time I hear it I just instantly think of the good times of being in Finland - the things said and done, the moments spent gazing off into the watery landscapes and just the thoughts of wishing that I could call this place home. 'Kuolleiden maa' clocks in at over sixteen minutes and although it takes time to reveal itself it becomes obvious soon enough that its another perfect heroic hymn from these guys... it's just... I can't even put this one into words... Additionally three other short interludes appear on the album and while they don't add much musically they seem to continue the story that's being told.

Sure to please all fans of epic music with folk and and black metal tinges, 'Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa' is quite simply massive. As a whole they've created a perfect balance between epicness, melancholy and blackend heavy metal that is by far one of the best Moonsorrow records to date.

Impaled Nazarene - Road to the Octagon (2010)

For twenty years now the Oulu, Finland Sadogoatcult known as Impaled Nazarene has been releasing albums of unparalleled anger, aggression and unmatched musical bloodshed. Some people seem to be still expecting them to one day do something different (who the fucks knows what or why) though they've pretty much stuck to their guns for quite a while now and as such I sort of think of them as the Motorhead of Finland since their relentless and always deliver a decent album. 'Road to the Octagon' is a different story entirely though as its not just decent, but fantastic and at least in my opinion some of the best material the bands released since the, 'Rapture' & 'Nihil' days.

Full-length number eleven blasts through thirteen songs in just thirty three minutes in a ferocious enraged manner that never really relents to any catchy parts or even really slows down at all until the last song, 'Rhetoric Infernal.' This one goes a bit like this; unrelenting bludgeoning guitar rhythms conveying black, death, thrash and punk influences alongside rapid blastbeat drumming and the hellacious screams of front man, Mika Luttinen. Fuck, they've done it before and they are doing it again, but this time it feels like there is more conviction, better song writing and even more anger, which just proves that age brings bitterness. Plus the band also got one of the best production jobs of their careers with this one, which allows all levels of chaos within Imp Naz's music to be heard.

In the end its classic Impaled Nazarene tearing down the road on this one and really either you get it or you don't because I'm quite sure Imp Naz isn't about to compromise their sound for anyone anytime soon. I wouldn't hesitate to say that this is the bands best record in at least a decade now and its simply a must for old fans and new alike. So, put back a few beers, strap on the gas mask and follow the Sadogoatcult down the, 'Road to the Octagon!'

Lunar Hypnosis Interview Archive

I'd been thinking of doing some sort of interview archive for a long time now and after recently finishing the, 'Metalion: Slayer Mag Diaries' book, which has tons upon tons of old interviews as well as a request for an old interview from a friend I decided it was finally time.

As you may know Lunar Hypnosis originally existed from May of 2001 until mid 2008 and then in late 2009 I hopped on over here to blogspot. During that earlier period quite a few interviews were conducted and while not all of them are great I think we definitely did do some really good ones during the later years. Collectively I believe it was just a few shy of a 100, which I suppose other 'zine had no problem competing with, but just like now interviews were never a major priority for me or my comrades.

Its interesting going back and reading these interviews though. In some cases these were conducted when a band was brand new and just releasing their early recordings and while some went onto bigger and better things some of these artists have disappeared into utter oblivion today. Its also just interesting hearing what some bands had to say, for example in my interview with Abigor Peter discussed the then upcoming album, but just a few months after this interview he dissolved the band.

So, there you have it. The file I have here has all the interviews in there original format although the images will have broken links when you open the files, but at least you still get all the Q&A.

The file is tiny (about 600 KB) and can be downloaded, HERE

Bands included: Aardia, Abigor, Acheron, Adhur, Adventcraft, Amestigon, Ancient Rites, Antimatter, Apoptose, Arsis, Astarte, Astriaal, Atomtrakt, Azure, Babyflesh, Behemoth, Black Funeral, Blood Stained Dusk, Cadaveria, Caina, Casket Casey, Changes, Compos Mentis, Convalescent, Cremation, Crom, Craft, Attila Csihar, Damnation Army, Dark Fortress, Dark Tranquillity, Demon Realm, Detonation, E-Force, Emancer, Endless Dismal Moan, Folkearth, Frozen Shadows, Ganzmord, Gehenna, Goddakk, :Golgatha:, Hagen, Hirax, Impaled, Impaled Nazarene, Impiety, Ingurgitating Oblivion, It Will Come, Kobi, Kult Ov Azazel, Lord, Lycia, Magog, MarAmon, MindGrinder, Morbid Upheaval, Mourning Beloveth, Mourning the Ancient, Nest, Non Immemor Mei, Nostalgia, Obtest, Of the Wand & the Moon, Omnia, Ordo Tyrannis, Peccatum, Promisqes, Rain Fell Within, Rain Paint, Rotting Christ, Sear Bliss, Sentinel Records, The Shadowsphere, Sigh, Sin Origin, Temple of Azoth, To Scale the Throne, Twilight Ophera, Usurper, V:28, Valkyrja, Vehemencem Velonnic Sin, Vendlus Records, Vinterriket, Virgin Black, VLE, Jason William Walton, Weeping Birth, Weh, Werkraum, Winds, Woods of Ypres, Yggdrasil and Zavorash.

If anything is a miss or if you just have some comments then feel free to share. Thanks for your interest in LH's past. Let's get back to the future now.

Pentagram - Last Rites (2011)

By all accounts, Pentagram lead singer, original member and all around mastermind, Bobby Liebling probably should have been permanently in jail or even dead years if not decades ago. Having spent nearly forty years smoking and shooting a variety of narcotics, he finally got sober a few years ago, got married to a girl young enough to be his own daughter, had a son and in the past year reunited with long time Pentagram guitarist, Victor Griffin and released, 'Last Rites' the first Pentagram album since 2004's, 'Show 'em How.'

Musically this one is vintage Pentagram all the way and since nine of these twelves songs were apparently wrote in the early to mid 70's you can bet its got quite the classic feel to the material even if they were only just recently refined and completed. Apparently many Pentagram rehearsals began with Bobby pulling out a box of old tapes and they just go from there. It would seem those boxes had a bit of magic in them since Last Rites is just fantastic.

I can say with much ease that Bobby Liebling has one of the most distinctive voices out there and to sound unique today is really something. Also considering he's a 57 year old recovered drug addict its a bit strange how actually youthful yet powerful sounding his vocal delivery is. Frankly though Bobby has never sounded better, I mean seriously just check out songs like, 'Everything's Turning to Night' or 'Call the man' for proof of that.

His right hand man, guitarist Victor Griffin also sounds remarkable and although I've regrettably not heard his primary band for the past decade, Place of Skulls, I'll still say that his guitars glowing heavy fuzzy tone is one of the mightiest ones out there and just works perfectly with this sort of vintage metal music. His comrades from PoS, Tim Tomaselli & Greg Turley also do a fine job, Tim sounding great behind the kit while Greg's heavy thick bass guitar adds even more life to these powerful songs.

In the end the bulk of the album is quite stunning and I have to say I also much enjoy songs like, 'Walk in Blue Light' and 'Nothing Left,' but really this one is a must for Pentagram fans as well as stoner/doom fans in general. Now lets just hope Bobby can remain sober, tour the world and release another great album in a few years time from 2011.

Forbidden - Omega Wave (2010)

My relationship with Forbidden is a bit weird and I can't honestly say I cared much about them until about ten months ago when I saw them with Bonded by Blood, Gama Bomb and Evile. Fact is however that I knew the bands name when I was a kid, friends probably played me their songs at some point and I may very well have had one of their albums in my hands while music hunting, but the fact is I never bought any Forbidden albums until recently. Now ten months since that first gig I've seen Forbidden three friggin' times and think I'm starting to get sick of them. So, let's take a look at their comeback album, 'Omega Wave' before that happens.

In case you didn't know Forbidden's roots date back to the mid 80's and in '88 and '90 they released semi-thrash classics, 'Forbidden Evil' & 'Twisted into Form,' but with thrash metal disappearing after '91 the band was forced to continue onwards in a different path. As such, 'Distortion' & 'Green' were a bit different, more modern or something in style and after Green the band was finished. Ten years later the guys decided to give it a go once more and in late 2010 Omega Wave finally hit.

Omega Wave features a good mixture of the speedy thrash metal Forbidden was known for in their early days with also plenty of mid-paced or even slower metal songs, which may be similar to the bands last two albums. The bands melodic touches also remain intact and I'd have to say that's a good a thing since it keeps things interesting between the speedier and mid-paced/slow songs.

Original member Craig Locicero as well as his new rhythm guitarist partner Steve Smyth sound fantastic throughout this record with tons of catchy and hard driven riffs as well as some fine solos here and there. New drummer Mark Hernandez also does a fine job behind the kit and vocalist Russ Anderson sounds superb throughout most of this record, especially the songs, 'Dragging my Casket' & Hopenosis.'

There is however one unforgivable aspect of this record, which just tends to kill it for me and that happens to be the length. Being twelve songs deep and just a little bit over an hour it seems like too much of the same thing for too long of time. I really think a lot of the songs could have been shorter or perhaps two of these songs should have been cut entirely, as well, pointless instrumentals like, 'Chatter' were hardly needed either.

Despite some issues, 'Omega Wave' is a decent come back album and old fans will most likely appreciate it and I'm sure for the members its a fun little thrill for the guys now that they are all in their early to mid 40's.

Havok - Time is up (2011)

My introduction to Denver, Colorado based band, Havok, came in early July when they were on the opening slot for Forbidden. While the guys in the re-formed Forbidden and even the other two bands that played were fairly good that evening, it was Havok that absolutely smoked all of us.

Formed back in 2004, Havok spent their first couple of years releasing demos, EPs and singles before unleashing, 'Burn' on the world in 2009 and earlier this year their sophomore effort, 'Time is up' arrived via Candlelight Records.

Musically Havok delivers full throttle hair whipping 80's influenced thrash metal in a style comparable to Destruction and Exodus as well quite a bit of similarities exist between other new school thrash bands, such as; Bonded by Blood, Mantic Ritual and Warbringer.

It's obvious right from the first notes that, David, Jesse, Reece and Pete mean business, because I can say without much hesitation that this is surely one the best new school thrash albums released so far. Each song is filled with tons of energy and excitement from start to finish, killer infectious riffs and an absolute bad assery assault of superb solos. The vocals I'll again make a comparison to Destruction since David shares a angry snarly style similar to Schmier while plenty of backing gang vocals also make appearances on each song (the only way to thrash).

Sure, as always there's nothing new here, but I grew up with thrash in the early 90's and I guess no matter what I'll never get sick of those old records and I always welcome new ones too. Music like this is meant to charge you up, get that long hair flying and just make you have fun and feel good and that's absolutely what Havok does on this one. Songs like, 'Prepare for Attack' or 'D.O.A.' could have been wrote twenty five years ago and if it wasn't for the modern production they probably could be confused for something that old.

What I'm trying to say is that thrash then and now is timeless and music like this has been a blast for the first thirty years of my life and assuming I don't drink myself stupid one day I'll hopefully be jammin' to this stuff for another thirty years to come.

As Destruction says, 'Thrash 'till Death!'

RoutaSielu - Pimeys (2011)

RoutaSielu is the most recent project from Tuomas Saukkonen who is actively also playing in Before the Dawn, Black Sun Aeon, Dawn of Solace and The Final Harvest.

If you remember my review of Tuska and my time in Finland you'll know that I saw these guys at one of the Tuska after parties and was totally blown away by their set even though I'd never heard a single song or even the bands name before. 'Pimeys' (Darkness in English) is the debut album from RoutaSielu (FrostSoul in English) and musically its some sort of atmospheric melodic metal with both clean and harsh vocals that are performed entirely in the Finnish language. I have to say its always interesting hearing music with non-English lyrics and especially since I'm finding myself missing Finland more and more each day I find comfort in hearing a band that sings in this strange language I've come to love.

Language aside, I think the thing that most folks will notice first is the overly melodic nature of this album. Lead guitarist Eero Silvonen and his rhythm partner Mikko Heikkilä are absolutely stunning throughout this record with tons of catchy folky influenced sounding riffs and impressive solos as well some hard hitting head banging parts too. There's also some softer acoustic parts, which are put to good use, especially the intro to, 'Soturi,' which is just beautiful.

The keyboard work of Saku Moilanen is mostly used as just backing ambiance and although, 'Kehtolaulu' and 'Alkusoitto' are opening and ending solo keyboard pieces to the album his presence only rarely takes the lead role on other songs.

I'd say the vocals are split about 50/50 on this album with Mikko's vocals appearing in the form of both whispers and cleanly sung lines while Tuomas' growled voice is used on all of the heavy parts of the album. Of course there's nothing negative I can say about them since Mikko's voice sounds great and Tuomas' growls are certainly not very harsh and seem perfectly suited to this sort of music.

As for favorites I can honestly say I enjoy the album as a whole greatly, but songs like, 'Enkeli,' 'M.E.V,' 'Kaipaus' and 'Soturi' make my day a little bit better after hearing them.

In the end, 'Pimeys' is quite an exciting debut album and I do hope the band has plans for more since they are definitely on the right path with this one.

Deprived of Light - Colored Death (2011)

'Colored Death' is the debut EP from Deprived of Light, a two piece band from the south of France which features Lord Trowe (The Foetal Mind) and Psychotic (Psychocalypse). Musically these two create what to me sounds not entirely too distant from The Foetal Mind's recent venture into the post metal/rock world with his, 'The Grand Contraction' album, although the major difference being that four of the seven songs here have melodic death-ish styled vocals as well as some obvious metal influences in general.

I think what I really enjoy about this EP is just the whole atmosphere around it. At times it sounds a little melancholic at others its totally epic, here and there its a bit aggressive and quite often I sense this sort of inner longing from the music, almost like a lost soul trying to find his place in this world. There's also a bit of genre hopping since the intro & interlude are acoustic pieces, while the outro shows some electronic influences. Psychotic handles the vocals and they come in the form of a raspy squeal but on a few of the songs there are some cleanly sung parts which sound just fantastic, especially during, 'Cast into the Shade,' which I'd say is the EP's highlight.

All in all quite good, technical and melodic and generally just excellent material from these two guys. The only negative thing I could say is that I wish the production could have been stronger and I'm inclined to think that the extreme vocals might bother some people, but I guess it just depends on the listeners personal tastes. In any case I'm curious to hear more from this partnership soon.

As bonus tracks this release also contains three songs from Lord Trowe's own The Foetal Mind as well as two songs from Psychocalypse. The Foetal Mind tracks were originally downloadable only tracks which were only available to those that bought the last album, but I guess they were to good to use in that manner alone. This is definitely the case since these three songs are right in line with the, 'The Grand Contraction' and just for the sake of saying it, 'My Metal Ways I' is absolutely breathtaking!

Psychocalypse on the other hand is fairly standard melodic death metal. You know the drill; hard growled vocals, catchy riffs and melodic solos and as you might have guessed its pretty good too.

The album itself has not been released in any physical form and as far as I know there's probably no plans to do so, but for the curious you can download this entire release from Hypnotic Dirge Records FOR ABSOLUTELY FREE.

Before the Dawn - Soundscape of Silence (2008)

Although I had watched a video of Before the Dawn on youtube before, my first real experience with the band was during my recent visit to Helsinki, Finland where they were playing in front of me at a club named Dom Helsinki. I have to say they made such a strong impression on me that evening that I made it my life's work to hunt down one of their albums before leaving Finland and fortunately on the following day I did come across this album at a place called, 'Music Hunter' and I'm quite glad because, 'Soundscape of Silence' is fantastic.

Before the Dawn is essentially the solo project of Finnish multi musician Tuomas Saukkonen (w/ session members) who brought the band into existence back in 2000. Since the bands formation he's released five albums with his most recent being this years, 'Deathstar Rising,' but let's hop back to the fourth album first.

On Soundscape of Silence, Saukkonen essentially blends highly melodic death metal in the typical Gothenburg Sweden style (think older In Flames & Soilwork) with Gothic metal leanings quite a bit similar to Sentenced. So, in a way not necessarily the most original thing but what really sets this band apart from others and makes it excellent is Tuomas' guitar work which is quite melodic and full of character. His riffs and solos are filled with emotion which I honestly found to be interesting since at one moment I was full of energy and headbanging and then later on he was hitting my ears with these melancholic atmospheric riffs that were just immense. Also to be fair I'd say he's far more skilled and diverse with his playing than most Swedish melo death guitarists, but I needed to make a comparison to something earlier.

Besides the great riff work there's also some airy sounding keyboards and acoustic guitars present on this record, which obviously just make it all the better and also Norwegian session member, Lars Eikind's (Winds, Age of Silence, Khold) cleanly sung vocals work perfectly alongside Tuomas' growled voice.

In the end if tremendously melodic and catchy atmospheric death/Gothic metal is your thing then I absolutely implore you to investigate this fantastic Finnish band. As for myself, I'll keep rockin' this one for weeks to come and before long I assure you I'll be purchasing the rest of their discography.

Cholera - Prophecies of Annihilation (2011)

The Ottawa, Canada duo of Raphael Weinroth-Brown and Matthew Buller impressed me greatly last year with their debut EP, 'Enslaved Humanity' and here in 2011 they return with their full-length album, 'Prophecies of Annihilation.'

Although consisting of the two songs from Enslaved Humanity, Prophecies also adds three additional songs, which brings the total time to about an hours worth of music. In case you didn't read my previous review what you can expect from these guys is progressive death metal with heavily technical riff and solo guitar work, a crushing drum performance, progressive-ish and (somewhat sounding) black metal style symphonic synths, both middle eastern and classical music leanings and both massively growled and cleanly sung vocals. Oh, and did I mention that they are still teenagers? Yep, both Raphael and Matthew were between the ages of 18-19 when this beast was recorded in 2009/10 and considering the technical ability and the diversity I'd say these guys have quite a bright future ahead of them.

The album opens with the two songs from Enslaved Humanity and although they are killer will move onto the third song, 'The Lost Traveler,' which clocks in for eighteen and a half minutes worth of awesomeness. Its really something how the mood of this song progresses throughout its duration since at various moments the listener is treated to pummeling head banging progressive death metal while a few other times there's lone piano solos and at other times some catchy middle eastern flourishes or cleanly sung progressive rock-ish parts pop up. It's all very interesting and it works, whereas so many other bands try to be progressive and different and generally just come up with a bunch of nonsense that makes no sense and doesn't work at all.

'Reminiscence' opens with a classically inspired cello solo when before long piano enters the song and soon enough some cleanly sung vocals over both the cello and piano appear. This continues until almost the nine minute mark when the band begins blasting away once again. The final song and title track is largely the same as the previous compositions without anything new being added, but goddamn what a great song to close out this colossal album!

In addition to this album being excellent it also has a superb production job, which allows all the instruments plenty of room to breath and come through in the mix. Also I'd have to say the artwork for the album is quite good too!

As you may have guessed though Cholera is unsigned and I'd have to say that's quite a mistake considering the talent on display here, but perhaps if the guys put together a live band and start touring around their home town and the rest of Canada word might start spreading.

In the mean time I'd highly suggest checking out this album if you're into bands like Opeth, Dream Theater, Behemoth or Nile you'll definitely find yourself enjoying this stunning release from Cholera.

Amorphis - The Beginning of Times (2011)

As odd as it sounds sometimes when a band releases a truly monumental album it can effect ones judgement of their future work. In the case of Amorphis, their 2009 effort, 'Skyforger' was indeed that monumental album, which now two years later still remains catchy, relevant and absolutely phenomenal to my ears. Therefore topping such an album would no doubt be a challenge and although I had my expectations set high and even as I do enjoy, 'The Beginning of Times' I'm still finding it hard to accept as an adequate follow-up to such a tremendous release.

The album opens with, 'Battle for Light,' which I'd have to say is the albums finest moment as its incredibly catchy and majestic in its musical delivery as well Tomi's vocals are amazingly powerful and well performed throughout the song. 'Mermaid' much like its predecessor has all the same qualities with something of a melancholic underlining vibe as well as the addition of some brief backing female vocals. I'd have to say the album continues onwards quite nicely with the thunderous, 'My Enemy' and into the catchy singly, 'You I Need,' which has probably one of the most memorable keyboard melodies ever as well a great video to go with it. 'Song of the Sage' is decent but the way the song flows as well as the usage of the flute just seem odd to me while, 'Three Words' & 'Reformation' are entirely cleanly sung and quite catchy little numbers that probably could have been used as singles too.

'Soothsayer' I find to be generally kind of boring overall, but Netta Dahlberg's backing vocals are paired up well with Tomi's and the duet sort of thing in the middle of the song is neat. 'On a Stranded Shore' I feel kind of the same about and although I recognize the fact that its suppose to sound romantic and melancholic a lot of it just comes off as sounding corny to me. 'Escape' on the other hand I enjoy quite a bit and honestly think its one of the best songs on the album with plenty of fetching parts, where as, 'Crack in a Stone' has a good chorus but the keyboards just sound wacky during the rest of it. The last two songs, 'Beginning of Time' & 'Heart's Song' are also decent, especially Heart's Song since it sounds like something that could have been wrote during the Tuonela days.

Interestingly, 'The Beginning of Times' is a very heavily keyboard driven album and I'd have to say most of the time Santeri Kallio's performance is spot on and sounds great, but its entirely possible that because of the thick keyboard sound not as much attention was put on the guitars and therefore those trademark epic Amorphis guitar solos are just simply not there. Of course some great riffs and solos do turn up, but surely Esa and Tomi K. have done better in the past.

Otherwise though I'm somewhat at a loss as to why I've found this album to be a hard one to get into. Perhaps it is just because of my appreciation for the last album or maybe this new one is just a grower. I don't know. What I can say for now is that there are definitely some fantastic songs on this release but as a whole something is missing and I'm not entirely sure what it is since everything that makes Amorphis great is there and in pretty good condition. If you only dig the old Amorphis you'll have no reason to pick this record up but if you've appreciated all the newer records with Tomi Joutsen singing I think you'll definitely find something appealing about it, but don't expect something as grand as the mighty Skyforger.

The Liquidation

In an effort to pay my current bills as well as start saving for another Finnish vacation (no kidding) I've decided to sell various used items on eBay, which may (not) interest the readers of this blog. Although I don't expect any of you to actually buy anything I thought I'd still shamelessly give my sales a plug, anyway. So, check out my eBay Sales!! since I might have a used book, album or video game you've just been dying to get your hands on! :D