Artist: Silentium
Label: Dynamic Arts Records
Release: 2008
Duration: 50.30
Rating: 4.5/5
“Amortean” is the fifth studio album from Finnish symphonic gothic power metallers Silentium. This is a band that popped up on the scene in the mid-nineties with the EP “Illacrimó” (1996) and set sail in their little boat with the debut “Infinita Plango Vulnera” in 1999. Going by style, the period both bands emerged, and the huge popularity of female-fronted acts at the time, Nightwish and Silentium could easily have swapped places when it comes to popularity today. Silentium really can’t be counted among the bands that followed the trend. They belong with the ones that inspired it just by showing up, and are in a way among the influential names in popularizing the injection of gothic symphonic elements into the power metal template.
The new album does bring a few novelties, though. The first noticeable one is that bassist Matti Aikio’s male vocal has crept into the background more than ever before. On “Seducia”, Matti’s, if I may say so, “cookie monster growl” showed up fairly regularly and stood on equal footing as a counterweight to the operatic female singer Riina Rinkinen. This time it’s firmly in second place. Even the bassist’s clean vocal approach plays second fiddle (the mournful semi-ballad My Broken Angel). The album’s new sound also boasts a more modern production, with a bit more emphasis on the atmospheric lower tuning of an avalanche-like curtain of riffs. The orchestral arrangements are definitely kept as an excellent and mandatory stimulant that builds up the drama of tragedy, but this time the riffing wall of sound grabs some of the attention, along with cunningly placed “sonic loops” and programmed patterns here and there. Silentium are definitely more mature on the new album, as shown by some shrewdly added (and effective) sonic loops that communicate brilliantly in Silentium’s basic, tried-and-tested language. One such interesting adventure is especially the motif-layered fold-out of a song, The Fallen Ones With You Tonight, which in its dynamics and sonic colorfulness doesn’t hide even the occasional detour of the melody toward a moment of psychedelia.
Silentium otherwise remain firmly in the saddle of the musical sermon that enthroned their name through their earlier output. Highly melodic pomp, polished sound production, a pinch of the necessary Scandinavian melancholy, and the pathos of hopeless mourning. On “Amortean”, too, everything is primarily aimed at showcasing Riina’s powerful, authoritative singing, which in some places literally floors you with angelic purity. The band ramps up the pomp further with Arabic melodic chants, one of the leading ones in the track The Cradle Of Nameless. The drama is lifted by the middle instrumental sections, strengthened above all by an all-out assault of the firm embrace of orchestral arrangements combined with choir vocals. The symphonic orchestral arrangements, in all their pretentiousness, outweigh all other factors in the fascinating, highly atmospheric ending of the album, or rather the opening part of the track La Fin Du Monde, which is topped in the middle by a brilliant anthemic chant with Riina at the absolute center, over almost neo-progressive guitar lines. A bombastic finale follows that masterfully ratchets up the mood of the song and at the same time carries the album into a big closing “crescendo”, the kind you fall in love with easily, on the very “first listen”.
So basically, nothing new, you could say. Silentium hold on to their tried-and-true approach on “Amortean” too. All fans of bands like Nightwish, Epica, or, on the other side, Kamelot, will find plenty of joy in “Amortean”, while those of you who really know this band will surely have this album on your collector’s shelves at home. It can boast a nod to a modern production with the riffs pushed a bit further forward, and the dropping of the male-female vocal dialogue in favor of the latter, which are the notable novelties, while at the same time still putting the pursuit of perfect melody in first place. So here’s another very pretty classic symphonic gothic power metal album from the baton of Silentium, proving that Silentium are a byword for quality that just can’t let you down.
Lineup
Riina Rinkinen – vocals
Juha Lehtioksa – guitar
Toni Lahtinen – guitar
Sami Boman – keyboards, backing vocals
Elias Kahila – cello
Matti Aikio – bass, vocals
Jari Ojala – drums
Production
Kärtsy Hatakka
Tracklist
01. Leave The Fallen Behind
02. The Messenger
03. A Knife In The Back
04. The Fallen Ones With You Tonight
05. My Broken Angel
06. The Cradle Of Nameless
07. Storm Sight Solicitude
08. Embrace The Storm
09. La Fin Du Monde
