Amorphis - Skyforger (2009)

Amorphis are back after 2 years of touring and promoting their highly successful album “Silent Waters”. This finish band is back with a perfect follow-up album with “Skyforger”. Capitalizing on the strengths of “Silent Waters” and using Tomi’s great vocals to the full extent they provide us with their highest quality release of to date.

Amorphis has been one of the premier bands in Metal hailing from Finland, and they have earned their place by releasing very diverse and high quality albums through out the years. They have evolved from their earlier Death Metal days to a more refined and amazing Progressive/Gothic Metal sound that is truly unique of the band.

As you would have guessed the growls are not used to much in this release, however when they are used they are top notch. The clean vocals of Tomi are what revived this since their album “Eclipse”. I still prefer the old growls, but the newer growls are pretty good, especially live, where they deliver their songs with great authority.
The music of “Skyforger” is simply put: brilliant. While the song structures are similar than in “Silent Waters” they have singularities that makes them shine. Musically I can compared this album to “Eclipse” more than to “Silent Waters”, since it features very memorable songs that will definitely be added to the already impressive greatest hits list of the band.

The overall production quality and concept behind the album, round up this release to be a serious contender of album of the year in our point of view. This album features great songwriting, excellent musicianship and extraordinary vocals. Even trying we can’t find anything wrong with this release.

“Skyforger” is probably the best album from Amorphis up to this date. If you are a fan of the band you should definitely pick this one up, since it will be considered a classic for years to come. When I thought that the band was not going to be able to top “Eclipse” I was totally wrong, this release is by far more mature and appealing.

Release Date: May 29, 2009

Country: Finland