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It will be a matter of time before this new album from Eternal Tears of Sorrow will be found in the Finish charts. This seventh album is bombastic, symphonic, has very melodic kind of contagious songs but with a very heavy and rough edge. The death-grunts of Altti Veteläinen are varied with the good clean singing of Jarmo Kylmänen and with new guitarist Mika Lammassaari the quality of the soli on the album have improved.

The first tracks are rather heavy, but very open and contagious. Most impressive are the keyboard parts, in every song they add something special, they see to the right atmosphere, but never sound too intrusive. The keys bring something majestic into the songs, like for example in "Dance of December". With "Sound of Silence" the band shows their softer side, a sensitive kind of gothic ballad with angelic female singing by Miriam Renvag (Ram-Zet). The very bombastic track "Beneath the Frozen Leaves" continues; an epic track with grunts, clean singing, again the nice keys and a crushing guitar solo near the end.

"Swan Saivo" is the ideal track to enter the charts, a perfect balance between a catchy melody, heavier parts and of course the keyboard lines. The last song is the most orchestral and epic; after a soft start, the almost mechanical kind of Rammstein sounding rhythm takes over and the choir singing and very atmospheric keys almost make it a creepy track. This is a very well balanced, orchestral symphonic melodic gothic death metal album.

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