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Rating: Can a band with sixteen years of honorable career still amaze and surpass itself album after album? In the case of the Helsinki sextet, the answer is affirmative, and with this lead single "Silent Waters," all the premises for an absolute masterpiece are there.
Two songs loaded with emotion, delicacy, poetic lyrics bravely combined with the tectonic strength of guitars that are never tamed and capable of carving melodies like soberly romantic statues.
Sumptuous yet laden with fragility is the piano intro of "Silent Waters", accompanied by the acoustic lapping of a melancholic six-string that acts as a backdrop to an electric riff full of folk epicness. Joutsen's voice narrates lyrics filled with nostalgia between the mid-low tones of a velvety verse and the explosive chorus to sing at the top of one's lungs while the guitars paint relentless solos of crystalline class. An inevitable praise is deserved by the concluding leads from an inspired Holopainen that take us back a full 13 years to when the "lacustrine" melodies of the incomparable "Tales From The Thousand Lakes" dominated.
The b-side "Sign" further accentuates the epic-triumphal aspect in our sound, employing a bold and powerful chorus well supported by sharp yet always harmonious rhythmic tunes. The vocals alternate "open" growls and clear high notes at the edge of power-heavy, keeping the emotional pace always high and highlighting the band's clear intent to let us relive the charm of previous works (in this case, certainly "Elegy").
The conclusions lead us to imagine that the imminent new chapter of the Amorphis saga will take fans back a decade but will not overlook the innovative aspect present in the guitar sound and rhythmic structure that, having heard some tracks in preview, suggests a very intriguing rapprochement with the Swedish band Opeth.
The pinnacle of Finnish heavy that far surpasses dozens of useless and repetitive bands, A MUST HAVE!
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Weaving the Incantation (04:57)
A mind dejected, blood boiling with anger
the storm of the warpath, now sings in my heart
your pleadings, useless, I now shall disregard
I'll leave you to weep and to fear for me
I'm ready for my end
my hair I comb down
with resin into braids
I'm ready to ascend
my will burning high
summon strength from the night
I equip myself, to warfare I prepare
I put on my black cloak, enchanted adders skins
your prayers shall not reach into my heart
your despair shall not stop me now
This precious hairbrush, thrown at the wall
it came to me from my father
I give you this as a token of myself
for you to have and mourn over
And when my blood flows from it's bristles
when my sap is dripping from it's shaft
then you will know of my anguish
my destruction will be revealed
03 Silent Waters (04:50)
A day’s light told me of my son’s fate
The sun showed the way, grim and severe
Pulled under the raging waters, my child
Sank in the drowning currents, my son
My strength is not enough, my powers failed me
I need the heavens’ help, I ask for thunder’s force
I plead for you, oh lightning, forge an iron tool
A magic rake for dragging a river for my son
God of fire, bring your light
Forger of sun, help me now
Guardian of the shore will sleep in your warmth
Lull the folk of cold water
Banish the serpents of the dark
To the river let me go and fetch my son away
A rake made of iron from the Gods of skies
The spirit of bright days sent me the sun
Cold troops of Tuoni can not stand in my way
Untouched I shall walk by the river of the night
My child
My son
09 The White Swan (04:49)
I set out on the longest road
To seek the answers from Death
I set out to the black sacred stream
to seek out and shoot a white swan
On desolate and stony paths
From a mountain to a vale
I reached the shore and saw it come
Into my view, the swan
I took the arrow and raised my bow
I aimed below the graceful neck
Under the white of its breast
Inside the red of its heart
The surface of the river calm and black
Reflects the sky, the pale moon
And there a glimpse caught of myself
I’m shattered, the vision is ruined
An arrow from the water
A serpent rips my mind
Into the black river of Death
With a slash across my heart
My last sight a white swan
Behind the swan a starless sky
Under the sky a coal black river
Reflected a bone white moon
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By fjelltronen
It is the victory of originality in an increasingly inflated and monotonous market.
Amorphis deliver us a full-fledged emotional river, a musical sculpture to be appreciated in silence.
