Exciting news if you're a fan of Finnish symphonic metallers Amberian Dawn: their next album will be released February 29, and it's called Circus Black. It will have a couple of special guests, too: Jens Johansson of Stratovarius and Timo Kotipelto, also of Stratovarius.
The album artwork has also been revealed.
Call me crazy, but does this not remind you of some other Finnish band's recent album art?
Whatever the case, I'm looking forward to the album because I love this band!
The track listing is as follows:
01. Circus Black (3:49) 02. Cold Kiss (feat. Timo Kotipelto) (3:31) 03. Crimson Flower (feat. Jens Johansson) (4:25) 04. Charnel's Ball (4:27) 05. Fight (3:21) 06. Letter (4:31) 07. I Share With You This Dream (3:37) 08. Rivalry Between Good and Evil (instrumental) (4:00) 09. Guardian (5:09) 10. Lily of the Moon (4:12)
The music was written by mainman Tuomas Seppälä and the lyrics were written by lead singer, Heidi Parviainen.
I just hope I don't have to wait for it forever to become available in North America. End of Eden is still not readily available here, but I did order a copy of it from AD's Facebook offer, which included a T-shirt. I hope that arrives in a timely manner!
Finnish symphonic metal outfit Amberian Dawn - one of my fave bands! - is in the studio recording their fourth album, and today they released this trailer, which includes a bit of a teaser for one of the tracks. It sounds excellent! The album is slated to come out in "early 2012" - whatever that means. I hope it means as early as possible in 2012, like January.
An email arrived from the staff at the Amberian Dawn forum this morning announcing that the band is now in the process of making a new album!
The email said,
Tuomas states that the next album will be a little different from its predecessors and a bit different than what we are used to. According to him there have been changes in the creation method and there will be the integration of backing vocals (previously these were never used). We can expect some 80s sounding songs like Kokko- Eagle of Fire and Valkyries. As we’ve come to expect from Amberian Dawn though, there will also be some very fast songs on the album.
A quote from Tuomas says, “Technically there's great challenges for the band and all the skills possessed by the new line-up will be essential. We're going to break some new limits again and lift the level of our quality even higher than before. With some guesting vocalists or musicians on this album, just like on all our previous albums, this new album is going to be more solid than our latest album.”
Heidi did have thing on her Facebook asking for ideas about a myth or legend fans would like to have her write about. I suggested Boudicca - one of my favourite stories.
All in all, very exciting news! End of Eden was so excellent and I can't wait to hear the new stuff!
Being a huge Amberian Dawn fan, I was highly anticipating the release of their third CD, End of Eden. I have no idea when the North American release is coming out and it isn't as yet available on Canada's iTunes store. I hope we get it sooner or later! I hate it when we get stuff so much later than the rest of the planet!
Around the time End of Eden came out and the first video from the new album was available for viewing, Amberian Dawn announced some significant changes in their line-up. Gone are bassist Tommi Kuri, who has been replaced by Jukka Koskinen; Emil Tobias Pohjalainen, who played guitar, has been replaced by Kimmo Korhonen; and drummer Joonas Pykälä-aho has been replaced by Heikki Saari.
The other big news around this album is the guest appearance by Stratovarius keyboardist Jens Johansson for a much-touted keyboard "battle" between Jens and AD keyboardist and main man Tuomas Seppälä. Additionally, Finnish male opera singer Markus Nieminen also makes an appearance.
My first impression of this CD was that I didn't think it lived up to it's hype. However, after listening to it several more times, I have amended that opinion. While I think there are some songs on here that seem like the same old AD we've been used to for a while now, there are some impressive aspsects going on that took a much more concerted listen to fully appreciate.
This is a faster album with a more complex sound to it than River of Tuoni and Clouds of Northland Thunder. Heidi's voice remains perfect, but it also seems to have grown in range, too. There are more symphonic elements present in End of Eden, including some nice choir arrangements that add atmosphere. There is a much darker, Gothic kind of feel to this CD than I perceived were on the previous two albums, yet this is still symphonic power metal through and through. I think the compositions are also more complex, showing some growth on the part of the songwriters.
Definitely the highlights on this release are the entirely classical piece, where Markus Nieminen guests, "Virvatulen Laulu", and the Jens Johanssen track, "War in Heaven." "Virvatulen Laulu" is pure beauty & classical bliss; Heidi sounds her best here for sure and the composition is amazing even though I don't understand what is going on in the song because of the language barrier. "War in Heaven" is AD's longest and most epic song to date, and the keyboard battle is certainly nice to listen to. I'm very glad to see an epicly long song from AD at last; I've always thought they were epic-sounding but I have yearned for them to produce a long, epic song to show off their epicness. They do it here.
Another highlight is the song that was released as the CD's first single, and the first video to come from the album, "Arctica." Fast, intricate, and a treat to the ears.
My only real criticism gets back to song length. Again, apart from "War in Heaven", the songs are all comparatively short, and though well-composed, there is a touch of "Amberian Dawn formula" here. They seem to have a safety zone for themselves, and I found myself wishing they'd break out of that a bit with End of Eden. While I certainly do hear growth, I'm not sure I'm preceiving any big risks being taken, or any move towards more of an evolution of the band's overall sound.
Still, definitely a horns up from me, because this is a great album to listen to, and shit, I'd listen to Heidi sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and other annoying nursery songs over and over again because she is just so delightful to my ears!
Amberian Dawn is another of my fave Finnish metal bands and their upcoming album is on my list of albums I'm really looking forward to in 2010. Well, the wait now has a definitive end!
The new album, End of Eden, is to be realeased in Europe on October 20th. The band is streaming it's first single from the album, "Arctica" on it's MySpace page, and you can listen to that here. You can read more about the CD, including a track listing, here at the band's site.
Totally loving this cover art!
I just hope I don't have to wait for freaking ever for this CD to become available in Canada!
Being a huge Amberian Dawn fan, I was highly anticipating the release of their third CD, End of Eden. I have no idea when the North American release is coming out and it isn't as yet available on Canada's iTunes store. I hope we get it sooner or later! I hate it when we get stuff so much later than the rest of the planet!
Amberian Dawn is another of my fave Finnish metal bands and their upcoming album is on my list of albums I'm really looking forward to in 2010. Well, the wait now has a definitive end!