I made an effort. I really tried. And i am not impressed...

Don't take me wrong in really like Amorphis. Ever since their first album I am with them on sort of on and off relationship. I absolutely loved their Bee album. And I think this is where the problem is. Would I never heard QoT, most likely I would fall in love with Halo. As it is now in every track on new album I hear echos of one of the tracks on previous album. To make matter worse some of those new tracks are inconsistent, they fell like three different songs amalgamated into one.

I got the feeling that some material on Halo is actually leftover staff from Queen

More than anything else, this album reminds me of The Beginning of Times as a moment in Amorphis' creative cycle when the creative energy of collaboration starts to turn into comfort and familiarity, and they "settle in" a bit too much in a particular mode of writing and playing. I don't think that Bogren has anything more that he can drag out of the band by pushing them to explore new ground.

The ground they are on, though, is still higher than it was for TBoT, and far above their low point on Far From the Sun.

Hoping that they find someone else as opinionated as Bogren to work with on the next album, who can unsettle things once again and spark some fresh experimentation and new ideas.