AMORPHIS — Skyforger (review)

Album · 2009 · Progressive Metal

3.5/5 · 2014-05-29
Gallifrey

Melodic Metal, Part 3

Since Tomi Joutsen joined Amorphis in 2005, the band have more or less created the same album every 2 or so years. From 2006’s Eclipse to 2013’s Circle (and most likely beyond), Amorphis have been consistently cracking out albums of hyper-melodic metal music, smothered in insanely good melodies, piano, folk instruments, synth solos and even occasional death growls. But the strangest thing about this music is that despite its obvious simplicity, it is technically the most genre-defying thing in metal music right now. Because despite having hints of progressive metal and folk metal and melodic death metal, they are none of those. They are just “metal”.

The description of this band that I just gave is nearly a recipe of how to impress me. I love melodies. I love metal. I love piano. I love piano in metal more than anything. Folk instruments, synth solos. Jesus, I should love this band. And in a way, I do. Amorphis are one of the most talented bands on the planet at creating deliciously good melodies, and they’re also one of the best bands in the world at perfectly mixing two guitars and piano into metal. The way the rhythm and backing parts of these songs intertwine the sounds is just masterful, using wonderful counterpoint to create an illusion that there are dozens of instruments playing at once. But Amorphis’ problem has never been that, at least not since 2005. This band has a near-perfect sound, and they create stunningly good songs, but that’s really it. Skyforger is regularly considered to be the best of modern Amorphis (although I am slightly more partial to The Beginning of Times), but it’s really just the most consistent of a string of near-identical albums.

And the most frustrating thing about this is that this record still is far from perfection. Amorphis have written five full albums worth of this style of metal, so logically, if they were to pick the best from each, they’d have one of the best metal albums ever. But the truth is that every one of these albums have standouts and duds. There are no true duds on this album, once you give it enough listens, but there are certainly weaker tracks, and the fact that they sound identical to the stronger ones mean they feel like duds. And the worst part about Skyforger is that the band decided to throw them all at you straight up.

The first four songs on this record are amongst the best Amorphis have done. Melodic, memorable, epic, intricate, and just generally fantastic. Funny though, when I saw the track ratings here on RYM during my first listen, I didn’t really get why they were considered much higher, but after several listens, the drop in consistency becomes completely clear. “Sampo” is the longest and best of the four, designing the entire track around an absolutely wonderful little lick that comes on the piano at the start, and guitar later. There are obvious parallels to “Battle For Light” (my favourite Amorphis song) from the following album, showing that Amorphis are definitely one of the most formulaic bands there are, but the combination of that wonderful piano with the majestic chorus with the strings and flute in the bridge with the synth solo that closes it is just too much for me to bother thinking about how formulaic it is.

The song transitions very smoothly into “Silver Bride”, so that the energy of the opener doesn’t truly die, and the song breaks into a great riff with even better counterpoint being played by the piano. This song is definitely not as strong, I’m not too keen on the first part of the chorus, but the second part (“...from the northern summer night from the winter moon”) is gorgeous, especially with the song’s opening riff playing in true melodeath style underneath it. The song also features a wonderful key change near the end, which again is one of Amorphis’ copying-themselves characteristics, but I love it nonetheless.

“From The Heaven of My Heart” is a softer track for the most part, bringing forward Amorphis’ influences in progressive rock. The song features some more great counterpoint, with the piano and the acoustic guitar in the intro, then again with the acoustic and electric guitars in the verse. But what I love the most about this song is the use of more subdued, low-register vocals, giving the song a different texture to the first two (although don’t go thinking Amorphis aren’t being formulaic). The chorus is one again admirably fantastic, but less over-the-top like in the first two.

“Sky Is Mine” is the last truly fantastic track here, containing some excellent use of delay-soaked electric leads, that remind me a whole lot of Dead Letter Circus (although this album is before their time). This song has an unparalleled energy running through it, with the song building up wonderfully to the two marvellous melodies that make up the chorus. And actually, I don’t mind the solos here, although I’ve been known to not be a big fan of soloing in metal - both the synth and guitar solos are melodic and strong, keeping the energy without dissolving into wanky madness.

And then it’s gone. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with the rest of the album, and in fact pretty much every track has at least one part I quite enjoy, but they just aren’t as good. The title track and the album closer “From Earth I Rose” are the best of the remainder, and both could be great songs if they were a bit more focused. The title track has some excellent melodies in the verses, but has a comparatively weak chorus that results in the song feeling half-baked and empty. And the closer is the opposite - its chorus is relatively strong, but not much else surrounding it is. I enjoy the use of flute in the track, but on the whole, it could be so much greater with a bit more oomph.

Skyforger is a great album, I won’t deny that, but it could have been so much better. For one, Amorphis could have done a better job with diversity - if the first four songs nailed the “Amorphis sound”, the rest of the album could have developed some other stuff. And I really don’t get the reasoning behind chucking them all at the front, surely this album would flow better if the standouts were more spread out. And then there’s the matter of the songs sounding the same - why on earth does every damn track (including the good ones) end with that bloody slow-it-down-for-the-finish finale. I mean come on, it’s as weak as fading the songs out. But on the whole, Skyforger is a rather fantastic record, above all the flaws that it has. If you’re a fan of the musical elements I listed at the start, but most specifically great melodies, 21st century Amorphis will be one of your favourite bands, and Skyforger is definitely one of their best efforts.

7.6

Originally written for my facebook page/blog: facebook.com/neoprogisbestprog