AMORPHIS

Much water has flowed since Pasi Koskinen left AMORPHIS -- what can one say, the 2003 album was arguably the weakest in their discography, and many had stopped expecting any worthwhile work from this renowned Finnish act. And they were wrong. The public had barely recovered from "Eclipse," released in February 2006, with which the band proved to even the last skeptic that it was too early to write them off, when just a year and a half later, on the last day of summer 2007, the Finns presented their eighth album to listeners. Brilliance, pure and simple -- that's all one wants to say about this wonderful disc. More aggressive than its predecessor yet no less melodic, beautiful, and atmospheric, "Silent Waters" seems to have absorbed everything AMORPHIS are capable of at their best. Stylistically, it can be compared to the 1994 and 1996 albums -- "Tales from the Thousand Lakes" and "Elegy." Growling is once again used quite actively, and let's be objective: growling and harsh vocals come much more naturally to Tomi Joutsen than singing completely clean. However, the excellent recording quality compensates for this. The keyboards fulfill their usual role; as on the band's other albums, we hear excellent atmospheric passages. One could criticize the album for a certain derivativeness of ideas, and indeed Tomi Koivusaari didn't invent anything new, preferring to use tried-and-true approaches and solutions. But you don't argue with a winner -- the album listens in one breath, and after the final track ends, you want to play the whole thing again from the start. And this is no accident, as the album is conceptual and based on the famous Finnish epic "Kalevala." The design of the disc itself brings a smile -- namely the use of bright pink alongside black. The booklet is designed without extravagance but with taste. The digipak includes a bonus track.