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Well known Finnish veterans Before The Dawn have been stalking the scene with their creepy tales for a number of years, but their most accomplished work is 2004's 4:17am, an enveloping release that will prove a nice change for Melodic Metal fans, as they throw a few different influences at you despite falling somewhat into the melo-death category.

With opener "Heaven", Before The Dawn set up the perfect template for this style: cool intro riff, aggressive and growled verse, clean, soaring chorus. In essence, they tread the same despair-filled paths as Dark Tranquillity and modern Amorphis, with the clean choruses echoing Into Eternity and the riffs owing a lot to dark Power Metal such as Evergrey. The mood is oppressively gloomy, and not a sliver of light passes through tracks such as "Seed" and "My Room", but the vocal melodies (at least the clean ones) are quite memorable, and the growls here, handled by guitarist Tuomas Saukkonen, are very cool indeed, sounding genuinely evil and full of loss.

4:17am is more Melodic Death than Power Metal, but it should appeal to both camps, as it shows the genres from different angles. Not a classic, but certainly worth a listen or two.