Amorphis, 2 years after the release of the very successful "Silent Waters" return with a new album. "Skyforger" is the 9th studio album of the Finnish band and the 3rd in a row with Tomi Joutsen on vocals.

In general, "Skyforger" does not offer anything new compared to the 2 previous albums and continues in about the same musical style and lyrical subject. For sure, the album is a very good successor to the previous 2 but it is slightly inferior to them. This is because the album does not have songs that excite or stand out from the first listening. During the first hearings, "Skyforger" does not seem as strong and good as its predecessors, but the more someone listens to it the more enjoyable it becomes and it shows its true potential. It just needs its time.

Particularly, like Amorphis's two previous albums, “Eclipse” and “Silent Waters”, “Skyforger” is a concept album. The lyrics to Skyforger are actually English translations of Finnish poems based on the Kalevala (Finnish epic poem of the 19th century). Unlike the two previous albums, it is based on different parts of several episodes, but all told from a single character's point of view. Generally it is a thorough and fine-crafted record. Contrary to the recent past, we have the use of several progressive elements removing a bit of the darkness and, once again, the use of the death vocals is unfortunately very limited. The exception is the majestic "Majestic Beast" in which the death vocals dominate tying perfectly with the clean parts. The heaviest song on the whole album!  The songs that in my opinion also stand out are "Sampo", the lead single "Silver Bride” and the title track “Skyforger”.

"Skyforger" is a balanced album, well written with excellent riffs, beautiful melodies and choruses and with clean vocals to the forefront. It will definitely satisfy largely friends of Amorphis.