Just when you think everything has been done before and all the truly great ideas have been overused, Amorphis come along and put out an album like Elegy, their third album and definetly their most adventurous release to date.

Elegy welcomes three new members joining guitarist/vocalist Tomi Koivusaari, lead guitarist Esa Holopainen and bassist Olli-Pekka Laine. Since keyboardist Kasper Martenson was unable to fully commit himself to the band, Kim Rantala comes in to take his place and his performance here is phenomonal. Also departed is drummer Jan Rechberger, who was unable to deal with the touring side of things, so his replacement is Pekka Kasari, whose work on this album is a huge improvement over Jan's on the last two albums. His drumming is much more varied and adds to the songs rather than just keeping up with them. But the biggest addition to the Amorphis ranks is the inclusion of clean vocalist Pasi Koskinen, whose powerful vocal range and convincing tone expand on the flirtations with clean vocals on Tales From The Thousand Lakes, as they make at least 50% of the vocals on the album, where the deep growl of Tomi provides the perfect balance between melody and aggression.

Moving even further away from all things Death Metal than the last album, Elegy welcomes a strong 70's progressive rock influence that works wonderfully in conjunction with the atmopsheric, melodic foundation that Amorphis have become known for. Indeed, certain passages within more than a few songs remind of prog rock legends Deep Purple and Hawkwind. This is most due to Kim's keyboard playing, which takes a leading role in a few of the songs and is rather reminescent of the great Jon Lord. He is certainly one of the best keyboardists to enter the realm of Metal and his contributions here are very effective. In fact, Rantala is credited with writing the title track, which is the highlight of the album for me. Definetly one of the best songs this band has ever recorded, it bulids and builds to an epic height making it near impossible to not be swept away by its glory.

Once again, Amorphis have used another Finnsih literary work to provide the concept of Elegy, with the Kanteletar being a compainion piece to the Kalevala, which inspired the concept of the previous album, Tales From The Thousand Lakes. If I have one complaint about this album, it's the fact that the windswept atmosphere that was ever present on the amazing last album is a bit forsaken here, as there is much more on offer on Elgey from an instrumental standpoint. Not to say that these songs are completely devoid of atmosphere, its just that it is not as powerful and enveloping an atmosphere as before. A minor flaw that does snot take away from the overall enjoyment of this incredible album, which oozes with originality and innovation. Amorphis have indeed become something very special in the world of not just Metal, but music in general.

This review is credited to:
palewake