I think The Black Waltz is an awesome album, one of the best I've ever heard, but there are some disturbing elements as well. The vocals somewhat hurt my ears, they are not that bad for one song but I like to listen a whole album at once and the end the vocs start to get a little boring. They are too samelike throughout the album, I would have prefered the usage of both "old" and "new" vocals together. Musically it's a masterpiece. I simply love the new sound and most of the song are so well made and catchy I cant believe it. Like in Swampsong too there are 3-4 songs that seem quite much less worked out than the best. It's not a bad thing in general, you can always skip them and get back when the best songs are heard too many times. Still again the ability to listen the album from beginning to end with no interruptions suffers.
Those are still mostly minor things I really had search out for to get some critism going. Defeat, Bitter Metallic Side, The Black Waltz and The Groan of Wind are just such a breathtaking masterpieces, it's next to impossible to find a bad word to say about them. I cannot imagine how this good music can be made, it's just so catchy and harsh at same time and has enormous amounts of feeling. I really like usage of acousic guitar as well, even if it has a minor role. Sneck filled his role really well as well, I dont know did he wrote the keyboard parts but they are awesome. Kalmah certainly did not fail me; The Black Waltz is the best Kalmah album to date, and what the heck, the best album ever made! You guys rule!
