Review: "Eclipse" by Finnish Heavy Metal Band Amorphis

Finnish heavy metal band Amorphis released their 2006 studio album called "Eclipse" and for this album they have a new vocalist. His name is Tomi Joutsen. Joutsen replaces Pasi Koskinen who departed from the band after 2003’s Far from the Sun. Now since this is Amorphis we are talking about, they have no sub-par studio albums and this one is no exception. The first song called Two Moons has some very upbeat and fast drumming similar to late 1990’s Yngwie Malmsteen. The song is about the arrival of spring after the winter and the rains start to fall. There are two versions of the song that I have heard. There is the very fast version and then there is the slower to mid-paced version of it.

House of Sleep is a song about a man that is constructing a house for the one that he loves. He calls it a sleeping house for lovers. The song is correct that our words have so much power depending upon what is said. Good sleep is also very important for our health.

Leaves Scar is about a person that has seen their life change as they suffered scars and somehow healed themselves. The album sees the use of growling vocals once again. The person described in this song drives out to a lake to meet a woman that has grown into a mature adult.

Perkele (The God of Fire) sees Tomi trying to do a death metal style growl that Tomi Koivusaari did years earlier on the band’s first two albums and this may provide some kind of nostalgia for some of the band’s fans that are craving that old school death metal style. The song is a tale about someone being woken up by the God of fire and he now has to put out that fire. The Smoke is a song that continues lyrically based on the previous song. He has a dream in which the world is engulfed by fire and he opens up the door to a house as he walks up the front step.

Musically, Eclipse is similar to 1999’s Tuonela however, none of the songs that I have heard from this album are as good as Nightfall. The song Same Flesh is a basically a description of what human nature is like. When we are born and come into this “hard” world, we make so many mistakes. It is then up to us to learn from those mistakes and grow up from them. The song called Empty Opening describes a very beautiful world where even the trees and sky are admired. However, there is a war going on in the middle of this beautiful world and survival is in doubt. So far in the thoughts of this writer, Eclipse is a decent release but it may be the weakest album in the history of Amorphis and it may be the only down moment for a band that can do great death metal and their progressive rock songs are good as well.