Solo projects by metal guitarists are often self-indulgent affairs. But then again, Amorphis’ Esa Holopainen never was your typical lead guitarist for a metal band. He tends to build his guitar solos around recognizable melodies and a handful of impactful notes with a great sound, while his compositions for Amorphis are often less riff-oriented than one might expect. The first album of his solo project Silver Lake takes this approach even further by largely adopting an atmospheric rock approach with songs that are relatively simple compositionally, but very sophisticated in terms of arrangements. An approach that works extremely well.

What surprised me most is how pleasant the flow of the album is. Every track has a different singer – only Katatonia’s Jonas Renkse appears on two tracks – which usually means the album is all over the place. In my interview with Esa Holopainen, the guitarist even said he wrote most of the songs for the singers who perform on the tracks. His signature is all over the record, however. There are a few heavy riffs here and there, but the overall sound is much closer to the catchier side of progressive rock with a distinct folky approach in how the melodies are woven into the arrangements.

The result doesn’t sound miles away from what Amorphis did on ‘Am Universum’, only with a bolder attitude towards focusing on the most memorable moments of the songs. Holopainen makes excellent use of space, allowing even the busiest arrangements to breathe rather than cramming them full of notes. Most of the Silver Lake songs have the distinct dreamy atmosphere that Holopainen’s songs are known for, more often than not helped by a main melody that manages to be melancholic and hopeful at the same time. Also, Holopainen’s tasteful use of warm-sounding acoustic guitars is much more prominent here than on any Amorphis album.

Albums like this one always are at risk of having certain singers turn people away, but Holopainen truly found the right singer for each song. Personally, I don’t think Renkse ever sounded as good as on the subdued melancholy of ‘Sentiment’ and ‘Apprentice’, while Amorphis’ Tomi Joutsen was the obvious choice for the album’s heaviest track ‘In Her Solitude’. Leprous frontman Einar Solberg delivers a particularly emotional performance on ‘Ray Of Light’, while my favorite track is probably the poppy rocker ‘Storm’, which is given its powerful edge by Nordman singer Håkan Hemlin. Anneke van Giersbergen as always adds a glimmer of hope to her track ‘Fading Moon’.

Honestly, Holopainen could have made an album full of instrumental, largely acoustic pieces like the opening title track and it would still be great, but the fact that he and his producer Nino Laurenne went out of their way to make a collection of well-written and excellently performed songs out of this effort is worthy of praise. ‘Silver Lake’ is melodically similar enough to Amorphis to appeal to their fans, but it’s also different enough to have people who don’t listen to metal be enchanted by Holopainen’s melodies. It’s dreamy without losing track of its well-built song structures. Highly recommended.

Recommended tracks: ‘Storm’, ‘Silver Lake’, ‘Sentiment’