From the ‘Two Moons’ opening, with Moog-inspired strains and resurrected gruff vocals, the Finns announce their latest is a return to form. For lyrical inspiration, Amorphis return to Kalevala, the national book of poetry that garnered their biggest successes (although this is more of a concept album this time around, concentrating on one story, the tragedy of Kullervo). Sure, these ten tracks (a bouncy, laidback ‘Stonewoman’ is a nice bonus on some versions) aren’t The Karelian Isthmus, nor Tales From The Thousand Lakes (still one of the greatest death metal platters of all time, albeit oft-overlooked), but they’re certainly the missing link between Elegy and Tuonela, moreso than My Kantele. To that end, it marries the acoustic sensibilities to aggressive guitars and the (until now) “final” appearance of death metal voices. For those that bristled at the pedestrian feel of recent output, Eclipse will come as a refreshing surprise! Even ‘Under A Soil And Black Stone’, which threatens to be another paint by numbers effort, gets a fuel-injected enema, around the three minute mark. New vocalist, Tomi Joutsen (ex-Sinisthra) adroitly fluctuates between vocal styles, sometimes between verses. First single, ‘House Of Sleep’ is a piano laden bit of power pop Goth - think uptempo Type O, or countrymen H.I.M.. The lilting ‘Leave Scar’ quickly ushers in Joutsen’s guttural best, but just as easily sways into more tuneful moments, whereas the Middle Eastern-introduced ‘Perkele (The God Of Fire)’ is predominately a heavyweight. Ditto a gentle-begun ‘The Smoke Up’ and the massive (7:41) closer, ‘Empty Opening’. Even the songs delivered cleanly aren’t exempt from a passing (discernible) grunt or two, with everything wrapped in that undeniably infectious, folky rhythm. If this is only a partial eclipse, I look forward to the “full thing”. Hopefully we won’t have to wait as long as its celestial namesake.