Ok, I know most of you guys probably don't have a clue who Amorphis is... And most of you probably don't care. However, they've been one of my favorite bands for the last 12 years now. They started as a normal melodic death-metal band with their self-titled debut 7", and continued on with a slightly more progressive sound with "The Karelian Isthmus". When I was 14, I would probably listen to their second full length album "Tales from the Thousand Lakes" 4-5 times a day. I could close my eyes and replay every single note in my head (and I often did). "Tales" was an incredible CD, incorporating lots of keyboards, guitar melodies, and some real singing. They followed with "Elegy", and added a full time keyboardist and a full time singer (the growling guy took a backseat, and eventually stopped growling altogether). "Elegy" is considered to be one of their best... I don't like it as much. They got really 'Pink Floyd"-ish, IMO, and I started to lose interest. They followed "Elegy" with "Tuonela", which once again captured my interest. By this time, I pretty much assumed that every other album would be great... so I wasn't too upset when "Am Universum" pretty much sucked. Way too 70's progressive rock sounding for me. I listened to it a number of times, and it just never moved me. In 2003, "Far from the Sun" came out. I was REALLY hoping this one would be good. It was, afterall, the one that should've been good in the pattern! 
Sadly, it interested me even less than "Am Universum". I never even bought it (and, while I download a lot, I ALWAYS buy my Amorphis albums... sometimes more than once). I downloaded it, and it was bad.
Anyway, now that all that background info is out of the way... Here's my reason for making this thread. "Eclipse". My best friend (you know, that honorary best friend that you see once every 5 years, but the one that knows you inside and out anyway) sent me an IM about the new CD. I didn't know anything about it. He said they had a new singer... Fearing another "Far from the Sun", I went and downloaded it. Well, it's incredible! Gone is the acid-trippy, smoked-out, 70's pseudo-hippy crap they were getting into, and back comes the harder edge. This new CD has elements of "Elegy" and "Tuonela", with more growling/snarling/biting type singing than both of those combined. It's not the moody, melodic doomy stuff of "Tales", but it has an atmospheric power of it's own.
Yes, this CD impressed me enough to write this whole essay! Anyone who's into metal that doesn't already know Amorphis should check this out!
Sadly, it interested me even less than "Am Universum". I never even bought it (and, while I download a lot, I ALWAYS buy my Amorphis albums... sometimes more than once). I downloaded it, and it was bad.Anyway, now that all that background info is out of the way... Here's my reason for making this thread. "Eclipse". My best friend (you know, that honorary best friend that you see once every 5 years, but the one that knows you inside and out anyway) sent me an IM about the new CD. I didn't know anything about it. He said they had a new singer... Fearing another "Far from the Sun", I went and downloaded it. Well, it's incredible! Gone is the acid-trippy, smoked-out, 70's pseudo-hippy crap they were getting into, and back comes the harder edge. This new CD has elements of "Elegy" and "Tuonela", with more growling/snarling/biting type singing than both of those combined. It's not the moody, melodic doomy stuff of "Tales", but it has an atmospheric power of it's own.
Yes, this CD impressed me enough to write this whole essay!
Anyone who's into metal that doesn't already know Amorphis should check this out!
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