End of Eden

In November 2009, Amberian Dawn settled back in Finland after their The Clouds of Northland Thunder tour with Epica and Sons of Seasons. On 23 November the official website announced that main composer Tuomas Seppälä had many new songs finished for a third album, to be released in 2010, and that lyricist Heidi Parviainen had started writing the new lyrics. The recordings started in late 2009 with drums, and were finished within a half year. The album title was thought up relatively late in the process, when all music was finished and the lyrics were on the way, alongside the album art inspired by the name and concept. On 18 July the band announced on their website that the upcoming album was to be called End of Eden, and on 23 August they announced the cover art and track list. At the same time they released an online single, "Arctica", for download on MySpace and Spotify. == Composition ==

Musical style The album was early reported to be "more diverse, faster and darker than [...] previous albums" and to have "a bigger, more polymorphic sound". This album also has more complex song structures. Composer and keyboardist Tuomas Seppälä has commented that "I just wanted to try something different and quite boldly experimented with different kind of musical styles. Those styles are not new to me, but I haven't composed this kind of stuff to AD before. I'm planning to continue this kind of experiments in the future also and will definitely do some even more shocking stuff for AD in the future." One song on the album, "Virvatulen Laulu", is both written entirely in Finnish and in a classical style rather than the band's otherwise heavy metal approach. Seppälä comments, "I wanted to experiment more on this album, and the result include "Virvatulen Laulu" which is a classical piece". Seppälä has called "War in Heaven", the final song on the album, "a very slow, dark and heavy piece of music and it's definitely not a typical AD song. I just wanted to compose a song to AD in a feeling of 80's heavy metal I like so much." Alongside "Talisman" and "City of Corruption", he calls it his favorite off the album. Lyrical themes Speculations quickly arose after the track list and cover art reveal whether End of Eden was to be a concept album, but this was denied by Seppälä in an October 2010 interview, in which he said that "despite there's many song names that are somehow religion related, this is not a concept album". He also commented on the colour change from earlier album (blue to red) was a reflection of the developing music, and felt natural. == Reception ==

Necroweb gave the album 9.5 stars out of 10, praising the band's ability to "combine a certain melancholy mood with fast melodies", but also noted that while the band has evolved from The Clouds of Northland Thunder, it is a quite minimal step in the right direction. Metal Sickness on the other hand called the album averaged, praising some sections of composition, including solos and Heidi Parviainen's vocal quality, but complaining on certain tracks lacking any real interest, including "Ghostly Echoes" and "Field of Serpents". The Finnish opera piece "Virvatulen Laulu", was also complained upon. HeavyLaw accused the band of repetition and self-plagiarism, especially in songs such as "Talisman", "Come Now Follow", and the lead single "Arctica", but also praised reneweal in songs such as "Sampo" and "Field of Serpents", and believed that the album's best tracks (including "Viratulen Laulu") also were the best of Amberian Dawn, opposite to the album's worst being their worst overall. == Track listing ==

The album has been released in two versions, one European and one Japanese. The European version ends with "War in Heaven", while the Japanese version continues with two bonus tracks - and extended version of "Sampo" and an outro song called "The Clouds of Northland Thunder". "Tailsman", "Come Now Follow", "Arctica", "Ghostly Echoes", "Sampo", "Blackbird", "Field Of Serpents", "City Of Corruption" and "War in Heaven" are featured as downloadable songs on the Rock Band Network. == Personnel ==

;Amberian Dawn • Heidi Parviainen – vocals • Tuomas Seppälä – keyboards, guitar, orchestral arrangements, producer, engineer • Kasperi Heikkinen – guitar • Emil Pohjalainen – guitar • Tommi Kuri – bass • Joonas Pykälä-Aho – drums ;Guest/session musicians • Jens Johansson – additional keyboards on "City of Corruption" and "War in Heaven" • Markus Nieminen – operatic male vocals on "Virvatulen Laulu" • Peter James Goodman – male vocals on "War in Heaven" ;Production • Lari Takala – engineer, mixing • Svante Forsbäck – mastering ==References==