The brand new single “You I Need”, from AMORPHIS’ impatiently awaited new album The Beginning Of Times, is now available for online streaming on the bands Facebook profile: http://listn.to/amorphis

The song will be released as a digital single on May 10th in North America via iTunes (artwork below).

Amorphis - You I Need

The Beginning Of Times will be released on May 27, 2011 (Europe) and June 7, 2011 (North America).

For more info visit: www.amorphis.net | www.facebook.com/amorphis | www.nuclearblast.de/amorphis

Amorphis - You I Need

The digital single “You I Need” will be released in Finland on April 20 and in other countries on April 22. The song will be premiered on the Amorphis Facebook page and various radio stations on Monday, April 11.

On Easter Sunday, April 24, Amorphis will participate in the charity gala Idols tekee hyvää and perform the new song for a large TV audience (MTV3, 19:15). The proceeds of the event, which brings the popular American format Idol gives back to Finland for the first time, will be directed to education projects for children and teenagers in poverty-stricken countries such as Haiti and Cambodia.

Amorphis recently revealed the title and artwork for their upcoming album. The Beginning Of Times will be released at the end of May (27th, via Nuclear Blast).

The tracklist is as follows:

‘Battle For Light’

‘Mermaid’

‘My Enemy’

‘You I Need’

‘Song Of The Sage’

‘Three Words’

‘Reformation’

‘Soothsayer’

‘On A Stranded Shore’

‘Escape’

‘Crack In A Stone’

‘Beginning Of Time’

‘Heart’s Song’ (digipack bonus)

The new album is the most challenging Amorphis album so far in terms of both music and lyrics. Its central character is the iconic hero of Finnish mythology, Väinämöinen, whose tale has been masterfully retold by lyricist Pekka Kainulainen.

The Beginning Of Times was produced by the band; vocals were recorded under the guidance of Marco Hietala in his home studio in Kuopio. Like its predecessors, the album was mixed by Mikko Karmila. Its cover artwork shows Travis Smith’s magnificent interpretation of the mythological birth of the world from a goldeneye’s egg.

In June, Amorphis will embark on the extensive The Beginning Of Times tour, which is scheduled to continue through 2012.

Finnish melancholy rockers AMORPHIS are currently hard at work recording their as-of-yet-untitled follow up to 2009`s Skyforger release. Expect a May 27^th release in Europe! Guitarist Esa Holopainen offered the following update:

“Dear Fans,

A little updating on what’s happening in camp Amorphis. The album recordings are running smoothly (whatever that means). We are now working with vocals and again we have Marco Hietala producing Tomi. This time everything else has been done at Sonic Pump Studios except vocals which are currently under work at Marco’s home studio in Kuopio.

We are coming out with roughly 15 new songs and for the album there’s most likely going to be 10-11 tracks. Again it’s a great feeling to start to realize that the songs and ideas which have been in our heads are finally going to see the daylight.

Pekka Kainulainen has worked really hard with lyrics. The album is going to tell the story of the most important character of Finnish mythology and folklore.  He is the Finnish god Väinämöinen who was described to be an extremely powerful old wise man who had a magical voice. Some believe that Väinämöinen was creator of the world; an ancient hero and very influential shaman.

Having a subject as strong as this it was pretty obvious that making music for the album was going to be a challenge. There are lots of musical elements which have been heard on previous albums but there are much more. Needless to say that we are keen to give all the material over to Mikko Karmila who is going to start the mixing at the end of this month.

Travis Smith is currently working with the album cover and the coming art looks so far no less than amazing.

Stay tuned folks!”

Check out a studio video here: http://royalartistclub.com/amorphis/blog/2011/01/24/recording-vocals

For more info visit: www.amorphis.net | www.myspace.com/amorphis

AMORPHIS - Forging The Land of Thousand Lakes

Nuclear Blast Records and Finnish progressive metallers, AMORPHIS, are proud to announce the first ever DVD concert stream event featuring the recent 2DVD+2CD release, Forging The Land of Thousand Lakes exclusively at Nuclear Blast’s brand new streaming room!

Fans around the world can tune in to watch on Friday, December 3, 2010 at:

Location: http://www.nuclearblast.de/streamingroom

1^st Streaming Time: 5:00pm (Central European Time) for Europe

2^nd Streaming Time: 3:30pm (Pacific) / 6:30pm (Eastern) for North America

The Nuclear Blast streaming room will be to ‘go-to’ location for fans to tune in and watch live DVD concert streams (and other surprises) on select dates. Fans can also connect via Facebook, Twitter, AIM, and MySpace to chat with one another and even band members on certain occasions!

AMORPHIS released Magic & Mayhem – Tales from the Early Years on November 22nd in North America. The album features 13 re-recorded classic tracks from the bands first three albums as well as the Privilege of Evil EP.

For more info visit: www.amorphis.net | www.facebook.com/amorphis

AMORPHIS "Magic & Mayhem – Tales From The Early Years"

Finnish metallers AMORPHIS have entered Sonic Pump Studios in Helsinki to begin recording their tenth studio album, to be released in early 2011 via Nuclear Blast Records.

A short video clip from some of the early studio sessions can be viewed at this location (MP4 file).

On September 17, AMORPHIS celebrated its 20th anniversary by releasing a special retrospective, “Magic & Mayhem – Tales From The Early Years”, featuring newly re-recorded versions of the songs from the band’s first three albums (1992′s “Karelian Isthmus”, 1994′s “Tales From The Thousand Lakes” and 1996′s “Elegy”) with slightly different arrangements, better audio quality and featuring the band’s current lineup. AMORPHIS guitarist Esa Holopainen told Petri Silas of Finland’s Soundi magazine in early June that he was especially happy with how “My Kantele” and “Song Of The Troubled One” turned out. The collection also includes such gems as “Vulgar Necrolatry” and the band’s cover of THE DOORS‘ “Light My Fire”. The latter song was previously recorded by the band and was included on the reissue of the “Tales from the Thousand Lakes” LP, but the new collection features an all-new version that was tracked in early 2010.

“Skyforger”, the latest album from AMORPHIS, was certified gold in Finland for sales in excess of 15,000 copies. (Note: The sales requirement for albums to reach gold status in Finland was recently lowered to 10,000, but because “Skyforger” was released before this change took effect, the old rules still apply.) The bandmembers were presented with their gold plaques on July 6 at a release party for their first-ever live DVD, “Forging The Land Of Thousand Lakes”, at Cinema Andorra in Helsinki.

“Skyforger” was honored in the “Metal Album Of The Year” category at this year’s Emma Gaala (Finnish Grammy

AMORPHIS was nominated in two categories at the Emma Gaala — “Metal Album Of The Year” and “Domestic Artist Of The Year”. equivalent).

The annual Helsinki Metal meeting was hold in February on the eve of the cold winter storm coming from the sea. The wind was blowing the area of the Cable Factory when hundreds of people were heading to enjoy the metal offering on the stage and in the exhibition area. Last year the event suffered from the decreased number of visitors. However bigger names pulled the whole cable factory full. Here is the brief article with tons of pics from the HellSinKi metal meeting.

Read the rest of this entry »

Pages: 1 2

Wacken Open Air 2007 

Wacken is a blessed mecca of the whole metal world. Again this year it was entirely sold out when ten thousands of metal manics travelled from all around the world to gather and witness plenty of ass kicking bands. The weather forecast for Wacken didn’t look that promising. The chaotic and muddy mess caused by long and heavy rains rampaged the ground during the whole summer. The  festival often provides a survival test to every visitor with its mud and crap. But but gods of metal had seen the light and blessed the whole three day metal inferno with tremendous extreme heat and a sunny weekend. Things could not be better…sun, metal and beer. That combination is nothing but an utter perfect way to enjoy the metallic mayhem at Wacken.

As usual, the true metal commando team from Metal-Rules.Com was there again witnessing a helluva lot of great bands and above all an unexpected huge fire in the main area. Feel, see and enjoy this article.

Read the rest of this entry »

Amorphis – Keyboardist Santeri Kallio
Interviewed by EvilG
Questions by EvilG & Arto Lehtinen
Transcription by Duke / Live Amorphis Pics by Arto Lehtinen

Amorphis line-up 2006:
Tomi Joutsen – vocals
Esa Holopainen – guitar
Niclas Etelävuori – bass
Santeri Kallio – keyboards
Jan Rechberger – drums

Amorphis has recently been rejuvenated with the addition of new vocalist Tomi Joutsen and their latest album ECLIPSE is their best offering since ELEGY (1996). The dueling clean/death styled vocals are back as are more driving songs. Everything that was wrong about their previous lackluster release (2003′s FAR FROM THE SUN) is easily wiped away by the vitality of ECLIPSE. Recently, I was given the opportunity to interview Amorphis keyboardist Santeri Kallio and we spoke about his background, his time with Amorphis before becoming an actual member, Finnish music, and about the new Amorphis album.

Read the rest of this entry »

AMORPHIS
Tomi Koivusaari (Vocals, Rhythm & Acoustic Guitars)

Interviewed in July 1999 By EvilG

Finland’s Amorphis are a band that are not afraid of progression and experimentation. I am a late comer to this band (1996′s Elegy to be exact) so I am in no way hung up on the fact that the band have strayed from their death metal roots. The main point is that they are still a metal band, albeit with a number of other influences. No one that I’ve heard sounds like Amorphis. They have carved out a sound all their own that is in many respects an acquired taste. Thanks to the good people at Relapse Records I was granted this interview with Tomi Koivusaari, the former lead vocalist and present day guitarist / backing vocalist.

Read the rest of this entry »