Amoral has always been one of those bands that have never quite maintained my interest, making music that’s ‘listenable’ but nothing special, and I have to admit I somewhat expected their latest offering, Fallen Leaves And Dead Sparrows, to be more of the same but I couldn’t have been more wrong. A triumphant and versatile release, this is quite simply their best album yet.
One of the things that really stands out from the album are the vocals from frontman Ari, with his most controlled and powerful vocal performance to date – although that shouldn’t be a surprise, given that Marco Hietala (Nightwish) produced the vocals for this album and you can really hear his influence in a good way. Vocals can quite often make or break an album, so it’s great to see just how much they add to this one – especially during slower number See This Through with an emotionally driven and smooth performance throughout.
In addition to this, the instrumentation has this wonderfully thick and chunky tone to it that lends itself fantastically to the vocals, complementing them perfectly. The sound clarity is just superb and there’s time for everyone to shine with some great solos taking centre stage as the album progresses, and a fine example of this is the instrumental number The Storm Arrives. It plays on the band’s strengths and it’s chock-full of showy instrumentation and solo-work that almost makes you want to take a step back in order to take everything in!
Fallen Leaves And Dead Sparrows is an all-round great album and Amoral have really outdone themselves with this one. It has the spark that seemed to be missing in their previous releases and is an extremely rewarding listen as a result.
8/10
