Band:	Amoral
Album:	Beneath
Style:	Power metal
Release date:	October 26, 2011
A review by:	Troy Killjoy

01. Beneath
02. Wrapped In Barbwire
03. Silhouette
04. Things Left Unsaid
05. (Won't Go) Home
06. Closure
07. Same Difference
08. Hours Of Simplicity
09. Wastelands
10. This Ever Ending Game
11. No Future
12. Of Silent Stares & Fire Lost
13. Sleeping With Strangers [US bonus]
14. Staying Human [Japanese bonus]

It's official: Amoral's death metal era is over. And thank God for that, am I right?!

After the release of the universally accepted and critically acclaimed Show Your Colors, Amoral let the world know just what they're capable of. No more of that drab, unoriginal melodic/technical death metal. No, they've moved on to bigger and better things. Melodic metal with hard rock elements. What is more original and exciting than that?!

Led by Finnish Karaoke Champion Ari Koivunen, Beneath just goes to show you how many unusual ideas this quintet have been sitting on throughout the years, ideas that sadly never came to be in the old days of aimless, ineffectual death metal. Koivunen's range and general high-pitched approach will instantly force you to forget completely about Niko Kalliojärvi, who never even considered himself a vocalist anyway. Which probably explains why he joined some generic flower power band as a guitarist earlier this year. Put it this way, you won't be missing him or the music he accompanied.

As the old adage goes, "haters gon' hate", but those close-minded people will be missing out on the brilliance that is modern-era Amoral. Gone are the formulaic songs that followed typical structures and focused too heavily on choruses to entice the listener. This is where it's at!

Okay, okay, that was a little over-the-top sarcastic, even for me. This album is awful. Think Nickelback gone power metal. Ya, that bad*. The simplistic hard rock approach and generic melodies are somewhat hidden due to Koivunen's blatant wailing, but there are moments when they come to the forefront and rival the likes of Metallica's banality on Lulu. I mean how tedious can you get? I know people initially attacked them for creating "radio rock", but even radio rock carries some weight in the songwriting department. This is just boring. Boring rock-laden power metal with useless solos. I'm not upset about the change in vocalists (old news anyway), or about the more mainstream rock direction. I'm upset that they didn't execute it well. And not only did they fail to execute it well, they completely failed in their attempt to make good rock music. Or power metal. Did they even know what they were going for with this? Because I sure don't.

* no Roadrunner Records executives were humored in the making of this review