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Three years on from their last album, Elegy, Amorphis finally release their fourth album Tuonela. Was it worth the wait? Well, to be honest, I was initially a little disappointed, as I had expected Amorphis to delve deeper into the progressive aspects of Elegy and the My Kantele e.p., which is not the case here. Tuonela is made up of shorter and more straightforward compositions, which sees the members of Amorphis concentrating their efforts into writing strong songs instead of experimentation. The abscence of former keyboardist, Kim Rantala, is very noticeable within the first minute of first song "The Way", as keyboards are provided by session member Santeri Kallio and take much less of a frontal role as they had on Elegy. On Tuonela, the keyboards are used mainly as atmospheric enhancement rather than a lead instrumental and at times are barely noticeable. The biggest change in Amorphis's sound, and the one that will probably have people crying "sellout" , is the abscence of Tomi Koivusaari's Death vocals, as clean vocalist Pasi Koskinen has taken over 100% of the vocals, leaving Tomi more time to focus on his guitar playing. That's not to say that there are no harsh vocals on Tuonela, just that they are few and far between, only taking a leading role in "Greed", which sees Pasi handling the Death vocals with as much ease as he does his clean singing. Also, the lyrics were all written by Pasi, who gives his takes on ancient Finnish culture and life in the cold North rather than taking the lyrics straight from ancient Finnish literature as they had done in the past. Pasi's lyrics are rather bleak and give off feelings of sorrow and despair, providing this album with a dark spirit that dances hand in hand with the strongest melodies this band has come up with to date. Despite the inclusion of a saxophone on "Nightfall" and the title track and a flute in "Rusty Moon" by Sakari Kukko, Tuonela is nowhere near as experimental or progressive in nature as was Elegy, and as stated earlier, this lead to initial disappointment at first listen, but once the magic of these songs took residence within me, I could not get these songs out of my head for days. You get the feeling that Amorphis have become comfortable in who they are as a band and just wanted to write 10 really great songs that stand on their own without the progressive embellishments of the previous album. And with that, they have succeeded once again.
Amorphis - Tuonela 8/10
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AT LAST, THE LONG WAIT IS OVER!! THE NEW AMORPHIS HAS FINALLY GRACED OUR
METALLIZED SOULS ONCE AGAIN. A WARNING HERE: IF YOU DIDN'T LIKE "ELEGY", THEN
THIS REVIEW WILL CERTAINLY WASTE YOUR PURIST TIME. BUT IF YOU HAVE ACCEPTED AND
WORSHIPPED "ELEGY" WITH OPEN ARMS AFTER THEIR MONUMENTAL "TALES FROM THE
THOUSAND LAKES", THEN BY ALL MEANS INDULGE IN THIS ONE.
LIKE MOST SPECIAL ALBUMS, "TUONELA" WASN'T EASY TO DIGEST THAT EASILY. YES IT
WAS CATCHY, BUT IT STILL HAD TO BE SCRUTINIZED AND GIVEN UNDIVIDED ATTENTION.
AND THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I DID. AND AFTER NUMEROUS LISTENS I WAS HOOKED ONCE
AGAIN, FOR LIFE TO THIS EXCELLENT ALBUM. THE STEP (OR LEAP) WASN'T THAT BIG LIKE
"ELEGY" HAD OVER "TALES...". IN FACT, IT'S A SAFE THING TO SAY THAT "TOUNELA",
CONTINUES THE LEGACY OF "ELEGY".
THE BAND STILL RETAINS THE JAM BAND VIBE FROM "ELEGY". THE SITAR IS USED ONCE
AGAIN, THE ARABIC SOUNDING GUITARS, THE 70'S PSYCHEDELIA, THE WAH, THE SOMBER
AND OPTIMISTIC GUITAR HARMONIES ARE STILL INTACT.
HOWEVER, A FEW CHANGES HAVE OCCURRED TOO. VOCALIST PASI KOSKINEN HAS IMPROVED
HIS CRAFT TO A GREATER LEVEL WITH MUCH MORE SINGING EASE AND CONVICTION. LESS
DEATH GROWLS ARE FEATURED EXCEPT FOR 2 TRACKS AND HE DOES THEM ALL AS WELL. GONE
ARE THE LOW AS FUCK DEATH GRUNTS OF TOMI KOIVUSAARI WHO WAS THE LEAD VOCALIST
BEFORE (HE NOW HANDLES THE RHYTHM GUITAR AND SITAR DEPARTMENT). BUT PASI DOES IT
JUST AS GOOD, ALTHOUGH NOT AS LOW. THE LYRICS ARE NOT ANYMORE BASED ON FINNISH
LITERATURE AND FOLKLORE, BUT FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCES THIS TIME AROUND. THERE
ARE LESS KEYBOARDS NOW BUT IT DOESN'T HINDER THE BANDS PERFORMANCE AT ALL. A
SAXOPHONE AND FLUTE ARE USED.
THESE FINNISH LADS JUST CAN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG. THEY JUST KEEP PROGRESSING AND
FORGING WITH THEIR OWN ORIGINAL SOUND. PRODUCED BY SIMON EFERNEY (PARADISE LOST)
A GOOD NOT SO CLEAN, NOT SO DIRTY SOUND IS ACHIEVED. THE CD PACKAGING IS ACE TOO
WITH ITS VARIOUS IMAGES AND EXCLUSIVE BOOKLET PAPER.
IT'S NO "TALES..." BUT IT STILL IS A MASTERPIECE.
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Finland is getting upper and upper in my favorite country list, since the latest releases of the Finnish bands are really good.After Nightwish, Children Of Bodom, Impaled Nazarene, now it is Amorphis' turn to surprise me pleasantly.Of course this is not a new band.However its past has been very different from its present.Did I trouble you?I hope not!They used to play Atmospheric Death Metal (and they were very good at it), but now they have made a turn towards different sounds.Their record label described them as Space Rock, which is a pretty weird description.All ten songs of this album feature the band's attempt to try its strength in something different, approaching new fans.However, unlike others, they did so very successfully, by producing an album of such a high quality that nobody could say anything against them.The songs are heavy, definitely METAL, the use of keyboards is clever and sensible and the rhythms are changing, giving a good variety to the album.Sometimes the guitars and the keyboards play some oriental tunes (or could they be traditional Finnish? I wouldn't know) that fit nicely to the songs, while the singer proves that he has a nice voice, that, in my opinion was devalued in his brutal past. Their older fans will also be pleased, since the band has included a song,"Greed", that has brutal vocals and could remind them of their past (not that it would be difficult for them to listen to the rest of the album, as well).The last thing that I would like to add is that the production was handled by the former producer of Paradise Lost, so don't be surprised if something reminds you of them. A very refreshing album, that I truly enjoyed.
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