AMORPHIS

One of the bands that more than a decade ago had their emphatic say in writing the opening chapters for the international success story of the Finnish heavy metal, Amorphis is back with new spring in its step. With Tomi Joutsen, the band has not only added to its outfit a fine Tom Selleck-style cookie duster and a bunch of dreadlocks, but also found a talented and versatile but strangely unsung vocalist. The band that had almost ground to a halt with their prog-flavoured heavy rock and the former frontman Pasi Koskinen has now put on a new gear with Eclipse (2006), their first album with Joutsen in the lead.

Capable of death grunt and Hetfield-style barking but also of clean vocals, Joutsen has certainly widened Amorphis' musical horizons. Their sound today is a combination of nuances from the band's breakthrough album Tales from the Thousand Lakes, from the mildly experimental Elegy and from the trilogy Tuonela – Am Universum – Far from the Sun that laid the foundation for the band's modern direction. Melodies take turns with heavy hammering: a suitable recipe for trashing the national epics into an original audiovisual experience. For this gig, fill your picnic hamper with Carelian pastries, not with kebab.

www.amorphis.net
myspace.com/amorphismusic

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