Isn't it hard to believe this is the seventh Joutsen-era Amorphis album? It's really exciting that the band has had such a second wind since he joined. It's pretty easy to imagine an alternate universe in which they just faded away and broke up after Far From the Sun. They still would have been remembered for Tales... and Elegy but it's pretty amazing that they're bigger now more than ever.

Even though their style hasn't changed much since 2006, I actually notice quite a difference from Circle onwards. Eclipse through Skyforger is such a wonderful trilogy of albums which they clearly tried to replicate with The Beginning of Times but it just seemed a bit tired by the point. There's still great songs on that album like Crack in a Stone, Soothsayer, Battle for Light, but it isn't very cohesive. I really liked the more aggressive sound of Circle but, again, the songs weren't very consistent. Nightbird's Song, Enchanted by the Moon, and Shades of Gray hit hard, but then ones like Into the Abyss and A New Day seemed like obvious filler to me, and I was never into Wanderer either. I also wish they would drop "that folk metal song" which it seems the band thinks needs to appear on every album. On Circle it was Narrow Path, on Red Cloud it was Tree of Ages; neither song is good, both just sound like they're trying to be Eluveitie for some reason.

I thought Under the Red Cloud had more going for it than the previous two albums, which is exciting. Really great songs like The Skull, Dark Path, Death of a King, The Four Wise Ones, all of which sounded like the band trying to push their sound a bit further. There were still less interesting cuts like Sacrifice and Tree of Ages, but the majority of the album is very solid and a bit more creative/"progressive" sounding than Circle, so here's hoping the new one sees them taking it even further. I think that first track is a very good sign.

Meh it sounds like a rehash of their previous albums.

Maybe I just outgrew them, I suppose...

I tought that too, but then when i put on their "modern era" albums like Eclipse and Silent Waters i get excited again

The songs are good, but just not as good.. at least for me

I listened to all their albums an infinite number of times and none of the songs you name in your message ring a bell. That's my problem with the Joutsen era.

Then why the hell did you listen to the albums an infinite number of times?

Partly because the music is somewhat enjoyable.. though not memorable. Also, they're a band I used to like in the 90s.. then my interest decreased with their early 2000 albums, but they surprised me with Eclipse, which is one of my favorite Amorphis albums to this day. Down inside I believe they could surprise me again with any new album.

I guess there's also something else.. I like continuity and for some reason, I want to keep following bands I've been a fan of at some point in my life. I do this with a bunch of bands. It's hard to explain why. Very rarely do I give up..

I do the exact same thing. My collection would be much smaller if I didn't...lol

New song.



It's definitely the single of the album, but it's still extremely solid and catchy, as is the norm with Amorphis singles at this point. I prefer The Bee though.

The Bee gets me more stoked but the new single's perfectly fine. Actually reminds me quite a lot of Tuonela/AM Universum, especially in the intro. Nice song.

I wonder if this is just because Holopainen came up with the tape delay thing during that era, I mean he's been doing it all over the place since then.

In terms of arrangement, this track is different to virtually all other Joutsen era songs. I really like it, more than The Bee actually.

The Bee is a good song and I'll be buying this album.

Amorphis has always been one of my all time favorite bands and while they have had their weaker moments, particularly in the era with their second singer around the time of Am Universum, etc, the vast majority of stuff they put out is good if not excellent.

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I've been a huge fan of "Tales" since the time I first listened to it (around 2000) but I had always avoided the rest of their discography based purely on friends' opinion on them: "they are pop now", "they totally sold out". Well, that chaged not too long ago, I saw "Am Universum" at a really cheap price and decided to get it and I was totally blown away! I loved from the second it touched my ears. I've heard a couple of songs of their other discs and no surprise, they're great too (save maybe for "Far from the Sun"). I'm really tempted to get their other releases but probably that would mean getting overwhelmed my so many songs at the same time and I really want to get the gist of every single one of them.

Not to be the one to nitpick, but it hasn't actually been 15 years, since Pasi Koskinen left Amorphis in 2004, when Tomi took over the vocal duties.

As for the new material, I'm not as pleased as the rest of you, but in all fairness, I kinda gave up after Silent Waters. Skyforger was a decent single listen, but lacked the freshness Eclipse and (to some extent) Silent Waters featured. The beginning of times passed me by without much notice. At the time, it felt uninspired and bland. Circle gave me a bit of hope through interviews and the fact that the single that played in the radio prior to release ("Hopeless days") sounded so fucking crushing compared to everything else I'd heard from them the last couple of years. But as it turned out, that was as heavy as it got, and the rest quickly faded away from my interest.

I guess I should give Under the red cloud another spin, since I can't recall a single riff, melody, or basically anything from it. I blame it on all the pot I was smoking at the time, but I also have this unshakeable feeling I'm not gonna like it.

It really sucks, but as I have stated, I should give them another chance. So many memories; good ones.

My brother gave me Elegy as a gift for my 13th birthday. Those were different days, I owned maybe a couple of cd's and I'm sure one of them was by Salt-N-Pepa. The sound quality was way superior to cassettes which I had listened to quite a lot before, and the whole experience really got to me. It was the album that got me into metal, and I can't really give it enough praise. I still listen to it now and then. Truly an immortal album.
Or when me and my friend went to see them in Helsinki for the tenth anniversary of Eclipse in 2016. I was a bit let down over the fact that they didn't give Elegy a playthrough on it's 20th birthyear, but in my book they made that up by performing their next best release plus a couple of songs from other albums. One of the most chilled out concerts I've attended (it could have been because of the massive amount of pot we smoked before and during the concert), there was a relaxed athmosphere throughout the arena, and there was a friendly mutual communication between band and crowd.

When Eclipse was released, I was in tears and joy over how one of my absolutely favorite bands had managed to release an instant classic pretty much out of the blue, after having done just that exactly ten years and four albums before.

Ten years, and then some, are up. Surprise me, Amorphis. Please...

What the actual fuck?




If those two songs I linked are anything you'd like to hear more of, Under the Red Cloud is worth revisiting. As a whole it's significantly heavier than anything since Elegy.

^
I totally get what you're saying but honestly who considers Elegy a "heavy" album? It's my favourite Amorphis album by lightyears, but I hardly even consider it metal. It's '70s prog rock with harsh vocals. When Circle was coming out and was being advertised as "The heaviest Amorphis album since Elegy!" all I could do was scratch my head and wonder what the hell everyone was talking about. Everything since Tomi Joutsen joined the band has been heavier than Elegy.

Love both of the new songs and Red Cloud has been growing on me. As a fan since their first record came out they have been one of the only bands that have not disappointed me, He'll I even still listen to Far from the Sun! Course the Toumi era is way better than the Pasi era and now Olli Pekka laine is back they are at their height as far as I'm concerned.

I was wondering in the song The Bee what do they mean by Prince Electors.

I consider it heavy, sure. To me it's heavy metal, folk, & melodeath with some 70's prog influences. The Jousten stuff is at it's core hard rock, more or less, with some folk, power metal, and melodeath undertones. Granted, I haven't heard all the Jousten albums, only Beginning of Times and Under the Red Cloud (and Magic & Mayhem of you want to include that), but to me Elegy was easily far heavier and more metal than either one.

Well, fuck me. After listening to those two I guess you have a point. I'll be shutting up now and go back a couple of albums :O
And thanks!

That basically dismisses songs like Against Widows and On Rich and Poor entirely. My Kantele, Cares and Weeper on the Shore are very much on the metal side as well.

It leaked today and I couldn't wait until Friday because I'm terrible. On my second spin right now, and hot damn, it's good. Really good. Massive sound and dense as hell songs. It's gonna take another while to really sink in, but I love it already.

Every review I've read of it so far says it's as good as or better than Under the Red Cloud. I must remind you all also that Under the Red Cloud is in the top 5 Amorphis albums ever made. I have also learned that I am not to distrust Amorphis when it comes to making amazing music.

This album is pretty progressive which helps it establish a distinct identity in the catalog, alongside the occasionally obvious orchestral bits and choirs. Not overdone though.

Heart of the Giant will probably become a live staple, awesome track. Other early favorites are Daughter of Hate, Pyres on the Coast and The Golden Elk.

Yeah it's a solid album. So far I like almost every song, some more than others. Two of the tracks don't click yet, but ah well.

Yeah, I had a lot of similar friends who liked the early stuff, but didn't like this direction. I bought Tuonela and Am Universum when they came out and really liked both albums. I stopped with Amorphis after that for some reason, until Beginning of Times, which I dug. I went back and bought the handful of albums I missed, and now I am a fan of all the eras of the band. Tuonela is still my favorite Amorphis album, and the Pasi albums (minus Far From the Sun, which is okay) are the ones I revisit the most.

Cool, it's midnight in Finland so the album's officially out and up online (legally, I mean). Let's discuss!

It really clicked with me after a few spins. I'm a die-hard Amorphis fan, but I can't say this one was love at first sight like, say, Skyforger was. This album's just so damn dense that I felt like I really had to try to pay attention to everything I was listening to and felt a bit overwhelmed during my first listen. I could hardly tell at the time which songs stood out to me, there's just so much going on in each of them.

After spinning it solidly over the past two days, though, it's really opened itself up to me. It's such a ludicrously massive, ambitious, huge album. Far and away their "biggest" sound ever, what with all the crazy instruments and choirs and guest musicians. For the most part I like that these additions beef up the already epic music, but in a few cases I think they're a bit much. Off the top of my head the second half of "Message in Amber" kind of turns into a Nightwish or Orphaned Land song and I don't really like that the band kind of fades into the background while the choirs and female vocals take over the melody. It's about 20 seconds of the album so I guess it's a nitpick, but it's kind of a hindrance to a song I otherwise love.

But otherwise these additions just make massive songs like Daughter of Hate and Heart of a Giant even more massive. I've read a lot of reviews who say that Amongst Stars is a highlight, but I actually can't agree. I like Anneke van Giersbergen as a singer but she just sounds...weird in this song. It's not bad for the kind of song it is, it just doesn't really feel very Amorphis to me, and sounds a bit out of place on the album.

But practically everything else is exactly what I was hoping for. Infectious melodies everywhere, and simply huge songs that I can't wait to see live.

And can we take a moment for Tomi Joutsen? How is it possible that he just gets better and better? Easily one of the great metal vocalists going right now, probably my #1 favourite. His voice is just out of this world, and the last couple albums (plus the Hallatar record) have shown him being more versatile than ever.

Only song I've heard so far aside from the ones released already is Amongst Stars, and godfuckingdamn, that song is perfect. Absolutely perfect. Everything about it is just done so correctly and without fail.

Gentlemen, we may have a masterpiece on our hands.

Album of the year candidate again. This album only confirms my conviction that Amorphis is the best band ever. A more concise review will follow once I have taken some time to let the record grow on me.

I think my only problem is this album is bloooooated. It starts to sound samey after 6-7 tracks, and while it’s definitely good, I think I could do with 2-3 less songs. Maybe I’ll feel different with a few more listens.

I disagree. I was worried about that being the case when I first saw the song lengths, but I honestly hardly notice that most of them are over 6 minutes. As for the songs sounding "samey" I just can't see where you're coming from - there's a huge amount of variety in the music, even more so than usual for Amorphis.

Sorry man I think you are nuts to call Elegy "hardly metal" or "prog rock with harsh vocals".

Elegy is not a really heavy album in comparison to brutal death metal like Disgorge or Gorelord or old school death like Cannibal Corpse or Immolation or grindcore like Assuck or Black Metal like Gorgorgorth, but it is indeed a progressive melodic death metal album.

There are obviously tons of bands that have a proggy melodic death style and they are still every bit as much metal bands as any of the heavier ones.

And heavier or not, Elegy is just a fucking amazing album.

Of course it's not as heavy as The Karelian Isthmus, or even Tales From the Thousand Lakes, but IMO it's one of their best.

Anyways, I just finished listening to it and it's a good album IMO just like most of their albums are good (other than Far From the Sun and to a lesser extent Am Universum, Tuenola and The Beginning of Times), but I don't think it's their best and I'm not sure where it ranks.

It's going to take me listening to it several times and digesting it to decide, but at this current moment I'd consider Elegy, Tales From the Thousand Lakes, Skyforger and probably Eclipse also, all better albums.

However, I like it better than the aformentioned weaker albums, and also better than The Karelian Isthmus.

I'd say it's in league with their last albums, Under the Red Cloud, Silent Waters, and Circle, but not sure where it ranks.

IMO Amorphis really can't write a bad song, just sub-par songs.

It's still hard for me to say which of my albums is their favorite but Elegy, Tales and Skyforger are my top 3.

I dunno, that’s just how I felt after one listen. Honestly I was working too so maybe the monotony of that was affecting my experience. I’ll still give it a couple more listens.

Joutsen-era Amorphis is never bad, but there's also no classic album left in the band.
On my second listen of hte new one now and it's the same... solid, really worthy, but ultimately able to be filed under "Joutsen Amorphis" along with the rest. I guess if I'm honest, it's actually a real accomplishment that they can make so many above-average albums this late in their career. But close as they come, none of them are Elegy or Tales.

Even though I recognize their classic status I consider Under the Red Cloud to be better than both of these (even Eclipse is better than Tales for me). There's a newer generation of fans (myself included) who don't have nostalgic ties to the 90's, for which there definitely is some classic worthy material in their recent output.

8/10 foe me. Some really strong songs a few fillers, but overall these guys are still on a roll. I think a lot of these songs are really going to work live, can't wait till October to see them again!

Well guys, I think this is the best Joutsen album. And as I prefer the Joutsen era, the best Amorphis album period for me. The increase in scope is just astounding. Yes the skeleton is the same, but they added so much cool shit to all of the songs! And after listening to the album a couple times, almost all of the songs blow previous stuff out of the water. I love the production as well. A lot more clear and better layered than previous albums. And yes, Joutsen has never sounded better.