Amorphis Releases New Album Details.

Yet another album that is going to get pimped out this year is the anticipated new one by Amorphis. You may or may not recall I jumped at the news that the next album was to be a concept album. Well now the full release information is out. As you can see the cover art is typical of this era of Amorphis with a sort of ethereal landscape painting. Except it's a giant egg hovering over an island I think. Hence the name of the album 'The Beginning of Time'. Due out at the end of May here is the tracklisting.

01. Battle For Light
02. Mermaid
03. My Enemy
04. You I Need
05. Song Of The Sage
06. Three Words
07. Reformation
08. Soothsayer
09. On A Stranded Shore
10. Escape
11. Crack In A Stone
12. Beginning Of Time
13. Heart's Song (digipack bonus track)

If you haven't yet checked these guys out, do so. I can't imagine being disappointed in this new one when it comes out.

Amorphis Issues New Album Update.

According to their Facebook page Amorphis is currently on the final stages of making the new album as a followup to 2009's Skyforger. And there is some interesting developments. It seems Marco Hietala from Nightwish is doing vocal production work on this and the new album may be a concept album based on the Finnish god Väinämöinen. No word on album title yet and the album art is not finished but as soon as we get word we'll obviously pass it on. I'm just wondering since Marco is involved in this if there is going to be a Nightwish/Amorphis tour package being planned as well. Full quote after the jump.

Dear Fans,

a little update on what’s happening in camp Amorphis. The album recordings are advancing straight and smoothly (whatever that means…). We are now working on the vocals and again we have Marco Hietala producing Tomi. This time everything else has been done at Sonic Pump Studios except for the vocals, which are currently in the works at Marco’s home studio in Kuopio.

We are emerging with roughly 15 new songs and on the album there’s most likely going to be 10-11 tracks. It’s again a great feeling to start realizing that the songs and ideas which have been in our heads are finally going to see the light of day.

Pekka Kainulainen has worked really hard on the lyrics. The album is going to tell the story of the most important character of Finnish mythology and folklore. He is Finnish god Väinämöinen, who was described to be an extremely powerful, wise old man who had a magical voice. Some believe that Väinämöinen was the creator of the world, an ancient hero and a very influential shaman.

Having a subject as strong as this, it was pretty obvious that making music for the album was going to be a challenge. There are lots of musical elements that have been heard on previous albums, but there is also much more. Needless to say, we are keen to hand all the material over to Mikko Karmila, who is going to start the mixing at the end of this month.

Travis Smith is currently working on the album cover and the coming artwork so far looks no less than amazing.

Stay tuned folks!!

Devil Music A-Z: Amorphis

I'm a sucker of late for the Scandinavian metal scene. The compositions and lyrics are usually far superior then most of their counterparts in other countries. Especially in the area of melodeath. Amorphis is from Finland and have been around for quite a long time actually with their first release dating back to 1993. Now with all of the praise I've given to the Scandinavian scene I've got to be kind of a downer here. Amorphis falls in the category of I really wanted to like them. They're not horrible and put together some really good music but it just doesn't quite click with me. I think it's the vocalist which this band has had quite a few of though Tomi has the longest tenure of any of them.

I do enjoy the shit out of their second release Tales from the Thousand Lakes. It blends a great mix of death metal vocals with folk inspired compositions.I'll go back and check out more of the recent releases later and apparently June 16th will be the release of the new cd Skyforger. I seem to be pretty fickle so who knows maybe it will click with me as these guys deserve more attention.

*Prophetic update*
Yeah I'm a dumbass. First by saying that Tomi has the longest tenure. Pasi still has him beat. But that's about all he's got him beat by. I did in fact go back and listen to this band with Tomi on vocals and all I can say is wow. This band has found it's vocalist and it's sound. It's not so much melodeath as progressive death with a sprinkle of rock music. The last cd Skyforger is their best yet and you guys should really check them out. Here's a few vids from recent years.


Silver Bride from Skyforger


Silent Waters title track from same album