I just listened to the album for the first time the whole way through and I'm impressed so far! I feel like they've embraced more of the "proggy" aspects of their sound and emphasized them more on certain tracks. Some highlights for me include The Bee, Message in the Amber, Daughter of Hate, Wrong Direction, Heart of the Giant (my favorite so far), Amongst Stars (Anneke sounds great as always), and the bonus track Brother and Sister.

Wrong Direction curiously enough sounds like The Way from Tuonela. When I first heard that track I thought it was a subconscious apology for following "the way" shown by Pasi Koskinen which led to albums like Far From The Sun (which was a bit mediocre) and this is the band acknowledging that they took the "wrong direction" at one point. I am obviously reading way too much into that, but thought it was interesting. lol

Goddamn, this is some good stuff! What's interesting is the increasing presence of the oriental elements, they've been incorporating those since forever but they almost hit Orphaned Land levels this time!
Listening to it nonstop.

I can't believe I've never heard of this band before. Just bought the new album on a whim and love it. Wonderful, beautiful sounds. Looking forward to delving deeper into their catalogue.

Really enjoyed this album. Heart Of The Giant is my favourite but this whole album is really consistent. First whole album I heard of these guys and wasn't disappointed. Great experience!

I have always been kind of a middle of the road Amorphis fan. I enjoy their releases, but after two or three spins they go back on the shelf until I'm reminded the band exists on the next album.

This release though? It could turn me into a mega fan. The songwriting here is just insanely good.

Looking forward to checking them out live in Seattle in September!

The amount of awesome, catchy tunes in this band is just unbelievable.

Written by tominator on 22.05.2018 at 16:42

Really enjoyed this album. Heart Of The Giant is my favourite but this whole album is really consistent. First whole album I heard of these guys and wasn't disappointed. Great experience!

Blind buy everything at least back to Eclipse.

Written by MeatWolf on 22.05.2018 at 20:24

Blind buy everything at least back to Eclipse.

After what I have listened to, I think that I will definitely pick up some more albums from these guys.

On another note, im super disappointed Honeyflow didn't make it to the main release. If you're not in Japan, I highly recommend checking the song out. It's awesome!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6Dcx1KjQ2Y

Interesting and fresh album! I think it gets a little boring towards the end, and surprised that it have got such praise as it have done. But when it is good, it is really good! Daughter of Hate slays

Amorphis always hide killer tracks in bonuses See "Stone Woman"

Written by tiny dog ghosts on 23.05.2018 at 11:20

Amorphis always hide killer tracks in bonuses See "Stone Woman"

Yeep. See also, New Song, Illusions, Come the Spring, Separated. Dark Tranquility does this also. I love and hate it at the same time.

Written by WorpeX on 23.05.2018 at 15:50

Written by tiny dog ghosts on 23.05.2018 at 11:20

Amorphis always hide killer tracks in bonuses See "Stone Woman"

Yeep. See also, New Song, Illusions, Come the Spring, Separated. Dark Tranquility does this also. I love and hate it at the same time.

Talking about Amorphis bonus tracks and don't mention Sign? Definitely my favourite of their bonus tracks, although all three from the UTRC sessions (Come The Spring, Winter's Sleep, and The Wind) are fantastic as well. One of the few bands I've made efforts to get digital versions of their various bonus tracks

Written by tominator on 22.05.2018 at 16:42

Really enjoyed this album. Heart Of The Giant is my favourite but this whole album is really consistent. First whole album I heard of these guys and wasn't disappointed. Great experience!

MeatWolf mentioned blind buying everything back to Eclipse. I'll second that. I'd throw in Tales From the Thousand Lakes, Elegy and Tuonela too for some of their earlier work. Elegy and Tuonela were both with Pasi as lead singer. Tales is their release that was my introduction to the band, and from that point I was hooked.

Written by jadis40 on 23.05.2018 at 19:24

Written by tominator on 22.05.2018 at 16:42

Really enjoyed this album. Heart Of The Giant is my favourite but this whole album is really consistent. First whole album I heard of these guys and wasn't disappointed. Great experience!

MeatWolf mentioned blind buying everything back to Eclipse. I'll second that. I'd throw in Tales From the Thousand Lakes, Elegy and Tuonela too for some of their earlier work. Elegy and Tuonela were both with Pasi as lead singer. Tales is their release that was my introduction to the band, and from that point I was hooked.

I'd personally recommend skipping Tales and Elegy and just get Magic and Mayhem instead. Joutsen does an excellent job and the recording quality is consistent with the current era. Listening to the older albums after starting from their recent work is almost like listening to a completely different band.

Written by WorpeX on 23.05.2018 at 21:00

I'd personally recommend skipping Tales and Elegy and just get Magic and Mayhem instead.

Clearly not!
Tales and Elegy are the band's best work for me, actually by far (though I havent come to listen to Queen of Time yet).

Written by Redel on 23.05.2018 at 23:35

Tales and Elegy are the band's best work for me, actually by far

I'm of the newer generation of fans (since Eclipse) and Tales isn't even close to being their best album for me. Elegy is maybe third and that's not taking Queen of Time into account. That said, I wouldn't recommend Magic & Mayhem over Tales because the atmosphere is unique.

Written by Risto on 24.05.2018 at 00:03

I'm of the newer generation of fans (since Eclipse) and Tales isn't even close to being their best album for me.

Thats ok, I respect that.
You know, maybe that is the "bias of time (or is it age?)". Back at the time (1995 or so it was), there was only Tales and the debut. Amorphis was equivalent to Tales for us, and we were so overwhelmed by this album, we hailed it.
Under these circumstances, it is always hard to top an album, I guess. Maybe you will one day make a similar experience.

My first exposure to Amorphis was Tuonela back in the nineties and I loved the melding of styles they pulled off on that record. To me this latest outing feels like they took just about all of the elements of their catalogue and made them just stellar in quality, breadth, and well to these ears of mine simply sublime. I cannot wait to see them on their tour this fall with Dark Tranquility and Moonspell!!!!!

The tracks I've heard until now have overblown me. This album is a TRUE GEM! Will stand beyond its own time

Impressive how this band manages to improve on itself every single album. No setbacks, only progression. I didn't dare expecting them to top Under The Red Cloud, which at the time also highly impressed me and became an instant favourite. But I'll be damned, they did it again! A perfect blend of heavy and mellow, absolute perfect grunting mixed with haunting cleans. And the guest artists really add flavor to it all, while all the while their "signature" sound is never compromised. This is one of thise albums that I will fondly get back to even years from now, no doubt.

This is, and will definitely remain my favourite album for 2018 by far.

I for the life of me have no idea why this site adores Amorphis so highly

How the fuck they are always so good, i love the fact they surprise me after every album with this insane level of music. God bless them !!!!!!!!

Amorphis never disappoints as usual, very solid album!

I never expected this to surpass UtRC and I'm glad I kept those expectations low. I'm glad they embraced their proggier side because it has made for a truly memorable and enchanting album. Sadly I can't say this is on par with the previous release. For lack of better phrasing, the infectiously catchy melodies - the bones upon which Amorphis build their sound - are simply not in the same abundance as on UtRC. Regardless, I will continue to spam spin this release for the next few weeks. Once again Amorphis have proven themselves once of the most consistent bands in our era.

I may need to re listen this, but i really don't get what you guys are on about. This seems to be the definition of an average album.

Too much orchestration/symphonic stuff compared to the last release, but still great

Didn't enjoy it as much as Red Cloud, but still excellent !

It was not so good, its like orental mid east bands what plays some kind a folk metal, like Orphaned Land and that kind weird mixture. I don't like such music in whole album. Some songs was good, lyrics was good, but what next, where they go now?

Album of the year - check. Favorite song is probably The Golden Elk. At this point, Amorphis just can't make a single bad song, their form and creativity in the past 10-15 years is really impressive, I think unpararalled.