Amorphis makes melancholic melody

Throughout several albums Amorphis has slowly shed its Death Metal skin and has emerged through its previous release "Elegy," heading in a more avant garde '70s prog-rock musical direction. The subterranean growls and the double pedal trademarks associated with Death Metal have been completely dropped by the group.

Amorphis HH

With its new offering, "Tuonela," the band picks up where "Elegy" left off and showcases the group's efforts put into fleshing out its traditional Finnish musical roots. What results is an effort full of immense potential, but in the end, uneven.

While some of the songs on "Tuonela" gloriously blend loud guitars, exotic Scandinavian instruments and catchy traditional sounding vocal melodies, other numbers drag on, serving as nothing more than boring fillers.

The first track, "The Way," captures the listener's full attention with its amazing play of loud to soft dynamics. The song begins softly with a delayed clean guitar line reminiscent of U2's The Edge. It slowly evolves, complimented by flutes and other instruments, morphing into a raging, mid-paced monster of a song with the addition of distorted guitars to the mix. Singer Pasi Koskinen's strong and expressive voice only adds to complement the number.

Amorphis' record's title track, "Tuonela," is also a sombre masterpiece. The main guitar melody from this number is both memorable and melancholic. Taking a ballad's pace, the song lulls beautifully through a minor key, and is possibly one of the best numbers the band has ever written.

In marked contrast, the group briefly dips into its Death Metal style of old with the majestic "Greed," where it attacks listeners full on with heavy yet melodic riffs complemented by what else, subterranean growls. This sudden change in pace is actually a high point for "Tuonela," as "Greed" acts as an effective contrast to other songs and reminds the listener how the group has changed since it was formed. Metallica, anyone?

It's a pity, then, that the rest of the album is not able to keep up this level of intrigue and quality. The listener's attention is quickly lost on tracks such as "Divinity," "Nightfall," "Shining" and "Rusty Moon," where the music is immensely self absorbed, slow and unmemorable. These tracks do show Amorphis still being consistent with the style it set on previous releases, but they appear as only second rate results compared to the stand out numbers previously mentioned.

Following the direction of the band on previous release "Elegy," Amorphis, with "Tuonela," shows that it is well on its way to developing its own niche in the music industry. But as with most attempts at coming up with something original, it takes time, practice and several attempts to get the job done. "Tuonela's" mediocrity may outshine its more inspired songs, but one can be assured that there's some hope for the future. Ambiguity might have struck Amorphis this time, but the future looks a little more certain.

Reviewed by

Daily Arts Writer

Adlin Rosli

Relapse Records

Tuonela

04-13-99