The grandly named Fallen Leaves & Dead Sparrows is the sixth album from a former death metal band that, for the last few years and exasperated with ill-fitting labels, have called themselves “ambassadors of classic rock for the 21st century.” It’s one hell of a boast.
Musically speaking, the Finns drop such iconic names as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Queen and Black Sabbath in their latest biography. In keeping with these lofty ambitions, Fallen Leaves… is a concept piece about what Amoral term “one big mistake that cannot be undone”, a parable of someone in twilight years whose life has gone down the shitter.
Ari Koivunen has a warm, versatile voice that, along with the fluid interplay between guitarists Ben Varon and Masi Hukari, brings compositions such as Blueprints and If Not Here, Where? to ripe fruition.
This is an album of admirable commercial maturity, though whether it’s the watershed Amoral believe it to be is something that only time will reveal.
