adg211288 Circus Black is the fourth full-length album from Finnish symphonic metal/neo-classical power metal act Amberian Dawn. The release features guest appearances from Stratovarius members Timo Kotipelto (on Cold Kiss) and Jens Johansson (on Crimson Flower). The album was released in 2012, making this the band’s longest break between studio albums, their last being 2010’s End of Eden, which I saw as their weakest album so far, something I personally put down to following an album-per-year cycle that ultimately resulted in a patchy release that contained both some of their best but also some of their weakest tracks. They’ve left it a bit longer between albums this time and thankfully Circus Black sees the band returning to the form of their first two albums River of Tuoni (2008) and The Clouds of Northland Thunder (2009).

In terms of style, nothing has really changed for Amberian Dawn. They still mix symphonic metal with neo-classical power metal, though perhaps not to the exact same extents as their earliest material. All that sets Circus Black above End of Eden is that the writing is more consistent throughout. There are no dud tracks as in the previous album. That’s satisfying for a fan of their past material, but with four releases under their belt I’d have liked the band to develop their sound a lot more than they have been doing by this point. I love Amberian Dawn’s sound, I really do, but even though it overall wasn’t as good, I can’t help feeling that End of Eden was actually a braver album than this one. Circus Black is as playing it safe as playing it safe gets. The lack of surprises is a double-edged sword, on one hand there’s nothing that will backfire on them as with End of Eden’s classical track Virvatulen Laulu, but there’s also nothing that breaks the band any new ground.

To elaborate further, I can’t really fault the songs on offer here for what they are. Circus Black is in all fairness a great album, and I’ll still grade it as such, but I can’t help feeling that the band could be so much more. Symphonic metal can be a very epic form of metal, but Amberian Dawn doesn’t seem prepared to exploit this to the best of their very apparent ability, instead favouring use of pretty standard song structures, most of which clock in with short durations (the longest here is 5:09). The band may flirt with some progressive ideas from time to time, as in The Rivalry Between Good And Evil, but imagine what they would be like if they went the whole hog and combined that and their strong symphonic sound with some longer tracks. They’d create something really special. It’s not that it isn’t epic at all, but it’s all mini-epics. The potential is all there but the tracks are over before it has much chance to get going. Even one or two compositions that pushed the boat out would have helped the album a lot.

This leaves me with concerns for Amberian Dawn’s continued viability within the symphonic metal genre. I remember when they first released their debut River of Tuoni in 2008, and thinking of them as a real contender to be among the genre’s finniest acts but since then they’ve done little to nothing to evolve their sound beyond just being a cut above most acts in the genre, and as much as I still like them, I can’t help feeling that they’re in danger of getting stale. Their next album could really make or break them.

But credit where credit is due it’s also clear after four albums that Amberian Dawn has decided on their sound and it looks like at this stage everything they deliver in the future will just be Amberian Dawn being Amberian Dawn, kind of like a new Motörhead album is Motörhead being Motörhead. That’s fine to a point, if you’re good at what you do and Amberian Dawn definitely are then there’s no shame in that, but at the same time I can’t really justify a score any higher than what I’m giving Circus Black in this review, and in some ways I feel over generous with this.

8.0/10

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven (http://metaltube.freeforums.org))