What can I say? Child of the Dark Waters is a very well done album. But like all the albums it had its ups it downs. It had fast instruments and blistering solos, amazing effects, and great use with the vocals. Its no wonder why these guys are one of the most well known Melodic Death metal bands today!
Angelheart, Ravenheart
It starts out slow creeping beats and then the choir kicks in and the violins starts and the guitars begin to play while the Egyptian like music begins. Keyboard begins to play and then a pinch harmonic and a growl. The guitar begins to play matching the choir. It goes on and then a a breakdown with a mix of organs and then the guitar solo kicks in with sweeps and double picking.
Its a good way to start off the album to know whats to be expected.
5/5
Baptized by the Blood of Angels
Slow piano begins and then guitar begins unexpectedly and the orchestra music begins to play along with the guitars. It goes quiet as the guitars begin to play and the and orchestra softly playing. The drummer begins to do a blast beat with the guitar following up. The solo then starts of slow then to fast and then insane. It carries on just keeping the rhythm and the breakdown starts off with the two guitars dueling by tapping.
All this just wants to make your hand move with the solo and feet go with the double bass.
5/5
Tears of Autumn Rain
Piano begins and then the guitar follows up and with a fast double bass. Then the guitar stops and the drums and bass play as the singing starts. The band then begins to sing together making it unexpected. Then the a note from the solo sounds off and then begins to play at lightening fast speed and then goes back to slow and lightening fast once again keeping you in anticipation. Then it goes quiet as the snare plays with the orchestra and then the band starts singing together for the remaining part of the song.
Great song on the most part, I like the fact that they used everyone in the band to sing. It sounded amazing!
5/5
Summon the Wild
Immediately the song starts with heavy guitar and keyboard playing in the background. The song goes on as the vocals then come into play. As they play the chorus I really liked the splash they used, it fitted in perfectly. After, the guitars play and then hit a note and sustain it as it goes quiet and then soft guitar begins to play. The singer then begins to sing softly which I did not see coming at all. The drums go and then the heavy fast riff starts up again with the choir being heard in the background. Then a past bridge with drums plays and the riff gets heavier and continues on till the end of the song.
I was surprised there was no solo in this song, that was a negative, but they redeemed themselves with the great use of drums.
4.5/5
Sea of Whispers
The song starts with really quick piano, then the vocals begin singing as the drums starts off the instruments. Back up vocals in the background then sing along as the vocals get rough. The orchestra plays as a choir sings in the background. Then the solo starts with sweeping and adds in amazing pinch harmonics. A break with keyboard starts and then the guitar begins sweep picking and then they go back to the singing as the back up vocals begin singing in the background again. The guitars sustain a note as the piano begins to play again as the back up singing carries out as the piano ends slow and a violin takes the last note.
This song was different from all the rest, it was meant to be kind of a soft song in a sense, but kicked your ass at the solo.
5/5
Midnight Bird
Synchronized starts suddenly and then a heavy riff from the guitar starts as the singer growls. The drums begin playing fast with the guitar along with the orchestra. They keep the rhythm changing up the guitar. Then the it goes slow and the guitars begin picking slowly as the keyboard can be heard again. It then begins to pick up and then a keyboard solo starts followed up by a guitar solo. It started back into the song with fast double bass which kept your feet moving. It continues on as the music slowly fades out.
At first, I was really interested in this song, but when I heard the Keyboard solo it was awake call for me. I didn't see it coming.
4/5
Diary of Demonic Dreams
The song starts out with with fast keyboard, guitar, and drums, and then the power metal vocals come in and then go back to the rough melodic death metal vocals. It was a weird change up but I like it! Then a fast guitar solo kicks in as the drums play at fast speeds. It then tones down as the guitar still solos and then goes to a soft breakdown with the orchestra with a soft choir singing. Then a mini keyboard plays again going back into the chorus and the song continues out as the guitar hits the last note and the song fades out.
This song had many mix ups in it. The singer did power metal vocals, then he went back to his normal vocals, and the drums were amazing in this song. Other than that I wasn't really focused on anything else.
4/5
When the Darkest Night falls
Very soft orchestra opens up the song as a flute can be heard and the guitars kick him with the drums playing between every timing. The guitars then hold a note as a blast beat from the drums play along with the orchestra and the vocals set in. The choir begins to sing and the song ends.
If I could make a guess, they must of got bored of this song. It only lasted a good two and a half minutes and there was nothing really special about this song except for the drums. Its really disappointing.
2.5/5
Nocturne Thule
The song starts off with heavy guitar and heavy bass and then starts with the rough vocals. They continue on playing with the choir being heard in the background along with the keyboard. It goes into the chorus with singing and a female vocalist singing along. A fast riff begins playing and then the solo starts with s fast sweep and begins picking with the rhythm and then begins sweeping repeatedly until the vocalist is heard again. It goes back into chorus and continues on. The singing stops as the instruments lead on as the orchestra takes over for the end of the song.
In this song, they seemed to do the reverse. They had the orchestra play at the end which made it a bit better because I just expected they would just continue out the chorus until the end of the song. But, they came to surprise me at the end. Decent song.
4/5
Sea of Whispers (Acoustic)
The piano starts off the song and the singing begins with the piano as the drums softly play. The singer begins to sing along with the choir as soft acoustic guitar picks in the background and the orchestra begins to play. Then the solo comes in once again and with a fast motion and then slows down as the piano takes over with the drums. The choir and the singing continue on and the drums stop as the piano continues the play and the choir still sings and a distinctive violin can be heard in the background and the piano ends the song.
Honestly, I do not think that was a great way to end the album. I take it that they ran out of songs so just redid one with a acoustic guitar? It got my hopes up. The original is a great song, but you just can't do that.
3/5
Over all, it was a very decent album, it had great guitar solos and heavy riffs, and the drum beats just amazed me, and I loved what they did with the choir and the orchestra. It really made the songs that more interesting. I did encounter a few problems with this album. I realized they over used the piano a tad to much. I would of liked to heard more variety of instruments like a cello or more violin. It also seemed like they got lazy towards the end of the album. The songs were getting shorter and there was nothing really special about them. It was a big disappointment, but with the stuff they did do, I thoroughly enjoyed this album.
Over all I would give it 3.5. It was indeed a great album. Now I leave it up too you guys to decide what you think, I'll you too share your wisdom. This album is a great one to have. Its interesting and has a lot of great surprises to it.
Eternal Tears of Sorrow
# Altti Veteläinen – vocals, bass guitar
# Jarmo Kylmänen – clean vocals
# Jarmo Puolakanaho – guitar
# Mika Lammassaari – guitar
# Janne Tolsa – keyboards
# Juho Raappana – drums
