After the release of the very good Far From The Sun in 2003, AMORPHIS faced the very difficult task of finding the proper replacement for Pasi Koskinen behind the microphone. Koskinen had already linked his voice with the band's second era after the prime Doom/Death Metal releases through the early 90s. This era was quite successful for the Finnish sextet and was characterized by albums like Elegy, Tuonela and Far From The Sun that had distinct Gothic Metal additions in the style of their fellow countrymen SENTENCED.
After many auditions the band chose Tomi Joutsen as the new singer who made his debut album appearance two years before, in Eclipse. Although the album was pretty good it raised some complaints saying that AMORPHIS have chosen a more commercial sound and drifted further from their past works.
Silent Waters is going to be released in August 31st and will clear away all the clouds of doubt that were gathered around Tomi Joutsen voice and performance in Eclipse. The band had to search inside and bring some sounds from the old days for the new album.Joutsen proves his worth with some deep death growls in Weaving The Incantation and the riff-driven A Servant that open the album. These two songs bear all the AMORPHIS musical elements with catchy guitar hooks, staccato rhythms and mixed vocals (clean and brutal).
The classic depressive atmosphere is also there, comprising the clean rhythm down tuned guitars and the district presence of the keyboards. The piano intro in Silent Waters slows things down and follows the Gothic Metal depressive pattern with Joutsen warm and melodic vocals. AMORPHIS turned for another time to the Finnish traditional and epic poem Kalevala for inspiration and put together some dark atmospheric songs like Towards And Against and The White Swan. The band takes us to a journey through icy and snowy landscapes with mid tempo tracks like Silent Waters or the epic I Of Crimson Blood. Esa Holopainen and Tomi Koivusaari have done an excellent work on the guitars by blending clean and distorted sounds in the emotional Her Alone or the mystical Shaman that definitely brings to mind My Kantele from the album Elegy.   
The band sounds more solid than ever and has definitely found the right chemistry with Tomi Joutsen's voice. AMORPHIS took some things from the past and made an album that is one step farther from Eclipse.