Band:	Wolfheart
Album:	Tyhjyys
Style:	Melodic death metal
Release date:	March 03, 2017
A review by:	Dream Taster

01. Shores Of The Lake Simpele
02. Boneyard
03. World On Fire
04. The Flood
05. The Rift
06. Call Of The Winter
07. Dead White
08. Tyhjyys

Fan boy disclaimer: I love this band. Now that it is out of the way and I won't dwell on the fact that I still listen to Shadow World weekly, let me bring my unbiased opinion of the latest Wolfheart, which is the fully formed brainchild of Tuomas Saukkonen. The Finnish band has made ripples on the great lake of melodic death metal since its inception with a sound self-proclaimed as winter metal, which is an aggressively energy-packed form of Gothenburg metal with themes about nature. It so happened that I started formulating this review as I was trekking through Montreal, Canada by -25C so I am no stranger to winter and the power of nature.

Tyhjyys, which is Finnish for "emptiness", continues the tradition of Nordic sounding melodic death bands from Finland such as Insomnium and Omnium Gatherum. Fast and furious tracks with great atmosphere and power-laden melodies are the band forte and they deliver their best effort to date with this album. While it may only be 45 minutes long, it has the strength of a wooly mammoth and the element of surprise of a winter storm. Tuomas strong growls dominate the songs but at the same time they leave room for expression for all the other musicians.

While Wolfheart is led by Tuomas Saukkonen, the universal truth about great musicians being the ones able to surround themselves with great performers is once again proven true. Joonas "Jonttu" Kauppinen is killing at drums with his technical progressive touch. Mika Lammassaari on guitars is the perfect complement to Tuomas with his off-beat solos and timed-to-perfection strumming. Lauri Silvonen is bringing the doom into these songs with his unique toned-down bass guitar style.

There are some old school In Flames acoustic guitars on tracks such as the grand opener "Shores of the Lake Simple" and "The Flood" that reconnect with the past of the genre. Otherwise, the album is very much of this decade, in terms of production and sound. The clarity of the guitars and drums in the mixing is astounding.

Tyhjyys is anything but empty. There is a clear direction on this album, and it's definitely up and away from anything negative in life. The songs are intense, well-rounded, modern, with flair and not unkind to the past of the genre. This is going to become a reference album for Wolfheart and for fans of melodic death in general.