2. Boneyard
3. World On Fire
4. The Flood
5. The Rift
6. Call Of The Winter
7. Dead White
8. Tyhjyys
Tyhjyys begins with the hauntingly beautiful track, ‘Shores Of Lake Simpele’. It’s a mellow instrumental but sets the atmosphere for the remainder of the album as many of the songs contain segments that verge on soothing, interspersed with segments containing a more traditional melo-death harshness. Long instrumental breaks are characteristic of Wolfheart but they are well-crafted and fit with the flow of the album. Wolfheart manages to capture the cold somberness often associated with Finnish melodic death metal; that feeling of melancholy and of desolation. Tuomas Saukkonen’s growling vocals serve to accentuate the angrier moments contained within the album.
‘The Rift’ presents some distinctly death
metal elements, but still retains melody. This is true of the entire album,
although the purest death elements are found within this track. Tyhjyys is expertly
written with each segment flowing seamlessly into the next. It would be
difficult to point out any obvious weaknesses in Wolfheart’s third full-length
release.
Meaning ‘emptiness’ in the Finnish
language, Tyhjyys captures the complexity of the word. Which may seem
contradictory at first thought, but some listeners will understand perfectly.
It stands out as a journey through the empty void that the prevailing theme of
natures’ power is capable of evoking. Perhaps it’s reading too much into the
album (and perhaps not) to say that it’s a powerful allegory in itself.
Tyhjyys isn’t an album that will turn a
non-listener of the sub-genre into a fan of melo-death. It’s not an album that
when given a superficial listen will warrant several replays. However, upon
glimpsing beyond the surface, Tyhjyys is a bewitchingly somber, intricate,
immersive album deserving of a thorough listen.
Best tracks: Shores Of Lake Simpele,
Tyhjyys, Call Of The Winter
