Review Summary: This album will certainly appeal to fans of "suomi" metal. The music is similar in a way to Charon, Poisonblack, Sentenced, For My Pain, Paradise Lost, Nevermore and Iced Earth.
The album is full of atmosphere, often moody and ethereal, and it contains plenty of soft and slower passages to give the listener plenty of time to absorb the tragic story being told and suffer along with the main character. At times somber, melancholic and as you listen through, you’ll notice a good amount of gothic metal influenced moments. Not to fear, there are perhaps more folk influenced passages with plenty of thrash spread around the album. Acoustic guitars, keyboards, flute, electric guitars, bass and drums all used to perfection in order to enhance one’s musical experience.
Newly acquired front man Tomi Joutsen has a clean tenor voice and he sings with occasional harshness when the music requires him to. I was amazed at Joutsen's ability to find some superb melodies with the lyrics at hand. Just check out the last minute of "Two Moons" when Joutsen sings: "They've taken off in the rivers of heaven, they've taken off." Awesome work!
I've been spinning this album on and off since I got it, taking it out for a spin every now and then. I'll play it two or three times and put it away only to take it out again the following day or the following week. And, I repeat this scenario week after week, month after month. Album highlights for me, the fast paced opening track "Two Moons" with it's layers of heavy guitars and wonderful solo with a most energetic and melodic climactic ending. "House of Sleep" was the first single off the album and deservedly so with it's big catchy chorus. I simply love the slow and mournful "Under A Soil And Black Stone" and the most melodically beautiful track on the album: "Shame Flesh." Every metal album I bought in 2006, this was the album that I ended up comparing it too...just an awesome release!
