Amorphis have always been one of my all time favorites to listen to. They've got that special something about them which I have tried, time and again to pinpoint but fail to do so. And them being Finnish just adds brownie points. I don't know what it is about the Irish and Finnish but I am so marrying one of those. Unpredictability is something I pay attention to when it comes to music. I like not knowing what to expect and being blasted off my chair and landing on my ears, only to get back and repeat the cycle. Amorphis successfully accomplished that with 'Circle' but at the same time, have managed to maintain their musical style. They have developed a unique genre of their own merging the awesomeness of folklore with progressive/melodic death tunes. I absolutely love the sophisticated yet rugged nature of Amorphis and Circle was brilliant enough to make me listen to it 5 times in one week.
For those of you who don't know who I'm going on about, ( and shame on you if you don't), Amorphis are Finnish (eeeee) metal veterans who incorporate elements of all genres into their music such as progressive, heavy, melodic, folk and even bring in some fancy doom bits, the end result being like something you've never heard before. In simple terms, they are friggin awesome. And this is just a fraction of how I feel about their new album.
'Circle', starts off on a high note with 'Shades of Gray', which, when I heard Tomi's vocals, I was in a total trance. The magnificent guttaral death growls and a very obvious death metal groove suddenly transcends into a beautiful folkish melody. It definitely starts the album off on a catchy and melodic note with the sudden pauses to take in Tomi's strong vocals, both clean and those beautiful death growls.Most of the time you always expect the best part or the highlight of an album to spring a surprise on you somewhere in the middle, this isn't the case with Amorphis' latest. The heavyness kicks off right from the beginning. Added to that, it is such a nice song to sing along to!
'Mission' is a really nice track, beginning with the symphonic sounds of a piano, followed by mesmerizing vocals and the piano returning again giving the track that beautiful doom and eerie feeling. The lyrics are simple and you can feel the emotion when you really tune in.
The next track is one of my top songs, dramatic and intense, goes into more of what the concept is, “Homeless man he is, a wanderer without a hope,” keeping the listener engrossed with the mysterious story of struggle. The instrumentation in 'The Wanderer' is crystal, well-layered, and I absolutely love the guitar segment towards the end of the song, melodic and heavy, giving the chorus that extra oomph. The chorus of The Wanderer is something I love off this track. "Woah, the spirits roam", that line emits so much feelingand is sung so passionately I had tears when I first heard it. The emotion that Amorphis give out with the theme of this whole album and you connect instantly with what the song is about.
'Narrowpath' starts so beautifully with the soothing sounds of the flute and gradually when you least expect it, transcends into the sheer awesomeness of a gorgeous folk metal sound. A track that definitely gets you banging your head at a sane speed. The flute gigves the track that celtic touch and you know me when it comes to anything Celtic.
'Hopeless Days' kicks off on a severely heavy note with brilliant fast guitar work from Holopainen, Koivusaari and Etelavuori, slower drums, and honestly gave me the feeling that I was walking through a haunted house. And then it slows down with the subtle, gloomy vocals only to smack you in the face and pick up again. The constant change in tempos in this song really caught my attention.
'Nightbird's song', starts off on a soft melodic note leading you to believe you're in for a nice soothing track and then boom. This is nothing short of pure metal brutality, and has a very black death metal feel to it. It's in this song that you can really see how amazing and deep Tomi's growls get, only to hear him switch almost instantly to his soothing clean vocals. My favorite off this whole album. The entire song besides the chorus is all growls and the guitars are nothing short of majestic.The track catches you unaware yet again with a gorgeous flute interlude, building up again. At one point I actually had to check whether I was listening to the same song. Amorphis are masters when it comes to the perfect balance between melodic and death tones in their music.
'Into The Abyss' is a strong track with significantly longer instrumental segments and perfectly balances the drums and guitar merging with the clean, husky vocals. Kallio's brilliant keyboard work featured on this track really stands out and adds to the whole melodic theme that Amorphis remains consistent with.
'Enchanted By The Moon', I cannot even begin to describe how magnificent this track is. It blew me away. It has an eerie doom element throughout the length of the song, slowing down towards the middle of the song with more brutal growls and those slow paced drums, only to pick up pace into a groovy folk-sounding melody, with the organs that give it an even more haunting atmosphere. One of the more intense tracks.
Fading out slowly, it leads in to the final track of this enchanting album, 'A New Day', starting on a soft note, is probably the most subtle song on the entire album, with a calming sound. The lyrics in this song are something to check out, giving us fans and listeners an idea that there is still hope for 'The Wanderer' who is the protagonist of the story the album Circle is here to tell and that's probably my favourite part of the whole album. The fact that Amorphis have an inspiring story of survival to tell us as the main protagonist struggles through the troubles of life.
In all, I fell in love with Amorphis' 11th album, and became an even bigger fan because I love concept albums. It's heavy, emotional, inspiring, and speaks out that there is always hope. It's not easy to keep this up with the number of line up changes that they've had. Words will not justify the magnanimity of 'Circle'.
I can't wait to see them in Sydney in October. It's going to be beyond amazing =)
For those of you who don't know who I'm going on about, ( and shame on you if you don't), Amorphis are Finnish (eeeee) metal veterans who incorporate elements of all genres into their music such as progressive, heavy, melodic, folk and even bring in some fancy doom bits, the end result being like something you've never heard before. In simple terms, they are friggin awesome. And this is just a fraction of how I feel about their new album.
'Circle', starts off on a high note with 'Shades of Gray', which, when I heard Tomi's vocals, I was in a total trance. The magnificent guttaral death growls and a very obvious death metal groove suddenly transcends into a beautiful folkish melody. It definitely starts the album off on a catchy and melodic note with the sudden pauses to take in Tomi's strong vocals, both clean and those beautiful death growls.Most of the time you always expect the best part or the highlight of an album to spring a surprise on you somewhere in the middle, this isn't the case with Amorphis' latest. The heavyness kicks off right from the beginning. Added to that, it is such a nice song to sing along to!
'Mission' is a really nice track, beginning with the symphonic sounds of a piano, followed by mesmerizing vocals and the piano returning again giving the track that beautiful doom and eerie feeling. The lyrics are simple and you can feel the emotion when you really tune in.
The next track is one of my top songs, dramatic and intense, goes into more of what the concept is, “Homeless man he is, a wanderer without a hope,” keeping the listener engrossed with the mysterious story of struggle. The instrumentation in 'The Wanderer' is crystal, well-layered, and I absolutely love the guitar segment towards the end of the song, melodic and heavy, giving the chorus that extra oomph. The chorus of The Wanderer is something I love off this track. "Woah, the spirits roam", that line emits so much feelingand is sung so passionately I had tears when I first heard it. The emotion that Amorphis give out with the theme of this whole album and you connect instantly with what the song is about.
'Narrowpath' starts so beautifully with the soothing sounds of the flute and gradually when you least expect it, transcends into the sheer awesomeness of a gorgeous folk metal sound. A track that definitely gets you banging your head at a sane speed. The flute gigves the track that celtic touch and you know me when it comes to anything Celtic.
'Hopeless Days' kicks off on a severely heavy note with brilliant fast guitar work from Holopainen, Koivusaari and Etelavuori, slower drums, and honestly gave me the feeling that I was walking through a haunted house. And then it slows down with the subtle, gloomy vocals only to smack you in the face and pick up again. The constant change in tempos in this song really caught my attention.
'Nightbird's song', starts off on a soft melodic note leading you to believe you're in for a nice soothing track and then boom. This is nothing short of pure metal brutality, and has a very black death metal feel to it. It's in this song that you can really see how amazing and deep Tomi's growls get, only to hear him switch almost instantly to his soothing clean vocals. My favorite off this whole album. The entire song besides the chorus is all growls and the guitars are nothing short of majestic.The track catches you unaware yet again with a gorgeous flute interlude, building up again. At one point I actually had to check whether I was listening to the same song. Amorphis are masters when it comes to the perfect balance between melodic and death tones in their music.
'Into The Abyss' is a strong track with significantly longer instrumental segments and perfectly balances the drums and guitar merging with the clean, husky vocals. Kallio's brilliant keyboard work featured on this track really stands out and adds to the whole melodic theme that Amorphis remains consistent with.
'Enchanted By The Moon', I cannot even begin to describe how magnificent this track is. It blew me away. It has an eerie doom element throughout the length of the song, slowing down towards the middle of the song with more brutal growls and those slow paced drums, only to pick up pace into a groovy folk-sounding melody, with the organs that give it an even more haunting atmosphere. One of the more intense tracks.
Fading out slowly, it leads in to the final track of this enchanting album, 'A New Day', starting on a soft note, is probably the most subtle song on the entire album, with a calming sound. The lyrics in this song are something to check out, giving us fans and listeners an idea that there is still hope for 'The Wanderer' who is the protagonist of the story the album Circle is here to tell and that's probably my favourite part of the whole album. The fact that Amorphis have an inspiring story of survival to tell us as the main protagonist struggles through the troubles of life.
In all, I fell in love with Amorphis' 11th album, and became an even bigger fan because I love concept albums. It's heavy, emotional, inspiring, and speaks out that there is always hope. It's not easy to keep this up with the number of line up changes that they've had. Words will not justify the magnanimity of 'Circle'.
I can't wait to see them in Sydney in October. It's going to be beyond amazing =)
‘Into The Abyss’ and ‘Enchanted By The Moon’
both have very good leads, the former’s one being emotional and slow,
while the latter’s has a quick guitar solo towards the end. They are
very good tracks and sound mystic. ‘A New Day’ is the final song
on ‘Circle’. This song has acoustic chords in sections complementing the
lead and ends with an unexpected saxophone passage, which is all very
good.
So, all the songs on the album are quite solid.
- See more at: http://www.metalwani.com/2013/04/review-amorphis-circle.html#sthash.iFE2kcuB.dpuf
‘Into The Abyss’ and ‘Enchanted By The Moon’
both have very good leads, the former’s one being emotional and slow,
while the latter’s has a quick guitar solo towards the end. They are
very good tracks and sound mystic. ‘A New Day’ is the final song
on ‘Circle’. This song has acoustic chords in sections complementing the
lead and ends with an unexpected saxophone passage, which is all very
good.
So, all the songs on the album are quite solid.
- See more at: http://www.metalwani.com/2013/04/review-amorphis-circle.html#sthash.iFE2kcuB.dpuf
‘Into The Abyss’ and ‘Enchanted By The Moon’
both have very good leads, the former’s one being emotional and slow,
while the latter’s has a quick guitar solo towards the end. They are
very good tracks and sound mystic. ‘A New Day’ is the final song
on ‘Circle’. This song has acoustic chords in sections complementing the
lead and ends with an unexpected saxophone passage, which is all very
good.
So, all the songs on the album are quite solid.
- See more at: http://www.metalwani.com/2013/04/review-amorphis-circle.html#sthash.iFE2kcuB.dpuf
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