Listeners who found
Am Universum
too indulgent and jazzy will be happy to find that
Far from the Sun
is a streamlined rocker in comparison. At their best,
Amorphis
have carved great, twisting metallic riffs from the building blocks of Finnish
folk
melodies, and that continues here with standouts like
"Planetary Misfortune,"
"Far From the Sun,"
and
"Higher Ground."
Yet as
drift further from their frenzied
death metal
roots and closer to mainstream
hard rock
, a trajectory they fully succeeded with on
Elegy
and less so on
Tuonela
, they lose the searching momentum that made their albums, if not always satisfying, at least intriguing. Previous high watermarks -- the pitch-black death of
Karelian Isthmus
; the heavy, doom-laden classic
Tales From the Thousand Lakes
; and even the progressive, keyboard-driven polish of
-- were all signs of growth, expanding the definition of what
could tackle as a band.
, as well-executed and crafted as it may be, is another step toward a familiar middle. Any further from the sun and
are likely to wither and fade away. ~ Wade Kergan