Definitely liking the new Amorphis CD (as was obvious with my drunken 4am post). It's not as heavy as their previous two. It's got a lot of proggy leads and folky elements. Tons of twangy solos, pretty psychedelic (spelling?) at times. Overall everything I had hoped for. If you liked Eclipse and Silent Waters this is DEFINITELY going to be up there for 09.
As for the God Dethroned I liked Lair of the White Worm and The Toxic Touch better than Passiondale, but none of their recent stuff really has kept my attention like their older discs do. The new Old Man's Child is surprisingly fucking wicked. I'm diggin it a lot.
Let's see I haven't posted anything substantial in a while. Since this is a Skyfire forum, I might as well let it be known that Profugus Mortis changed their name to Blackguard, and released an album this year entitled "Profugus Mortis" (go figure lol). It's basically PM's "Another Round EP" with a few more songs, but it's siiick so it's worth checking out. Dawn of Tears came out with a 2nd CD "Dark Chamber Litanies" available for free download at their website. So very good, just like their first album "Descent". If you've never heard them they are melodic death with symphonic black elements with hooks that remind me of the melodies that skyfire/illnath/dissection would have made had they all orgied and had some sort of bastard riff system. Huh.