Review of the Album "Skyforger" by Finnish Heavy Metal Band Amorphis

By now, some of you may think that I really love to cover the band Amorphis and their career. You are correct because I got the urge to review and analyze their 2009 studio album called "Skyforger." As was the case with the band’s two previous albums Silent Waters and Eclipse, the lyrics are based on parts of the Kalevala, a huge volume of poetry and the lyrics are written by Pekka Kainulainen.

The album peaked at #1 on the Finnish albums chart which is not a surprise to me. Finns love their heavy metal and they take the time to really refine and perfect the art of guitar play with melodic and intricate melodies.

The one thing that is challenging when analyzing a musical work is when you try and interpret an album with lyrics based on a volume of poems because often times the lyrics symbolize something. One example of this is the song called Course of Fate. The song is about a man that experiences the war firsthand and then loses his wife and then he has to come to terms with that loss.

Sky is Mine is a song about a person that comes home to what is described as a house of solitude as he spends some time in grief. Once he is informed of what his destiny is, he is able to create what is called the master’s sword. Not all of us are fortunate enough to find out what our life’s mission or destiny is or we find it later in life. The song called My Sun sounds much like the kinds of songs that Finnish band End of You always work on creating. Highest Star is a song that tells the story of how a person’s spirit used the power of the gods to rise to the highest level spiritually.

Even though Skyforger ranked so well on the Finnish musical charts it is not one of their best albums in their career. The strongest songs in this album are From the Heaven of My Heart, Sky is Mine, and My Sun. The album has a good use of piano and keyboards in the third song and it is good to see the band use their death metal vocals again but the songs just are not strong enough for the album to be considered as good as Tales from the Thousand Lakes, Elegy, or Am Universum. The album is better than 2006’s Eclipse though.