Charred Walls of the Damned : "Creatures Watching Over the Dead"

Knowing Ripper Owens is in this band certainly prepares me for power-metal. I like Ripper. Didn't like him in Priest, but he is my second choice for Iced Earth after Matt Barlow. This band also features former members of Control Denied and Death, so this meets at a place where melodic progressive death metal and power metal can find some common ground. I did expect Ripper to sing with a little more grit on heavier songs like "the Soulless". He does find that grit I was waiting for on "Afterlife". They are melodic in a manner more suited for Ripper's voice " As I Catch My Breath". When we get to "Lies" not only can you hear the influence singing in a Dio tribute band for the past few years has had on Ripper, but how the more melodic moments are coupled with the best song writing choices, where as the heavier moments sound like every other riff I hear every other day.

There is a balance of those polarities on "Reach Into the Light". The riff going into "Tearing Me Down" is pretty catchy and once again invokes Dio before accelerating into the bridge and back into a more hooky 80's metal influenced chorus. Midway into the song there is a flashy guitar break that doesn't do a lot for me. Rob from Death Angel comes in for the actual solo which is solid if you are into that sort of thing. By the time we get to "Living In the Shadow of Yesterday" they don't come across as really being all that heavy. I think if your band is called Charred Walls of the Damned then you need to be much heavier than this album gets.

We know they are all talented musicians in their own right, but this is really flaunted going into the last song. Normally I complain about songs being too long, but I think some of these songs might have made more sense if they were longer to make room for more of build up into the heavier sections or allow for a heavier to let the melodic parts bust out of . The guitar solo often takes up a good chunk when something more interesting might have developed. I don't really think Ripper was that inspired on the last song. The bass playing pretty much steals the show on that one. I'll give this one a 6.5. If you think Ripper Owens can do no wrong and also like ample amounts of cheese coating your metal then round this up to a 7.

Amorphis : "Under the Red Cloud"

These guys have been hit or miss with me. I liked "Silent Waters" as they took a darker turn. Now they are back on a cloud of double bass making something more like prog-powered power-metal, but with the growled vocals replacing the Helloween yodels. Not to say they don't have clean vocals as they do and they are often too happy for me much like some of these guitar harmonies. The effects slather vocal passage on the second  song works and there is a slight folk metal inflection in the synths. "Bad Blood" finds them frolicking in waters closer to their country men Night Wish. They lock onto a more commercial death metal groove think ... Dark Tranquility like stomp and then bring in the vocal hook that soars in more like prog metal of yesteryear. There are similar elements to "the Skull" , but they strike me a s being better executed and having a more dynamic range to their melodic sensibility. There is an increasing folk vibe in the intervals both the vocals and synths choose.

"The Death of A King" gets off to a good start with more exotic scales and  a tribal pound in the drums before going into the more nu-metal meets folk metal vibe bands like Equilibrium dabble in.The staccato stomp meets the hooky vocals as they singer really fine tuned his knack for putting his voice in the most epic places , thought riding the fine line towards the cheese that if unchecked this kind of metal lends itself to. "Sacrifice" is much closer to power-metal, it's not symphonic like Night Wish, but cut from the same cloth, though the fact a male vocal is featured it gives it less dramatics and more rock leanings. You gotta hand it Tomi, his vocals are on point for what he is trying to do. When they use a piano sound it brings them even deeper into the fairy land of Night Wish, until the growl off sets it. The guitar finds some harder punches as they band tries to regain their edge. The Myspace metal vocal come in on the chorus of "Dark Path' which just isn't as dark as the title would suggest.

There is a classic metal chug that puts Amorphis next other heavy weights of the metal game like Dream Theater and Queensyrche on "Enemy of the Gates". The singer really begins to soar here, but the music is a shade darker  finding the band tapping into what made "Silent Waters" work so well. "Tree of Ages" doesn't grow too much and instead finds it's self more of a sapling hindered by the folk metal cliches it stumbles over and comes across more like filler.I'll skip the bonus tracks and say that " White Night" is the last song on the album. This one opens with female vocals, to bring more comparisons that already have arisen. The song is alright, it is not as focused as some of their more fine edged moments the bands gave us earlier.

Overall the bands is taking a step in an even more polished direction. Some of their more progressive elements are toned down in order to serve the songs. I would not say this is a death metal album by any stretch of the imagination. I'll give it an 8 as it  is generally well crafted and certainly well produced and finds the bands stepping up a tier to join their more legendary peers of the metal world.It goes without saying they are head and shoulders over Opeths jam band wanking , despite the power metal moments.