AMORPHIS - listening party of the new album in Finland

25 June 2015

AMORPHIS presented their upcoming album 'Under the Red Cloud' to international journalists in Helsinki and Christina Dimitrova was there.

Here is here report and photos:

Finnish titans AMORPHIS presented their upcoming album 'Under the Red Cloud' at an exclusive listening party at the Suomenlinnan Studios, a day before the start of the notorious metal festival Tuska Open Air in the Finnish capital..

The listening session was organised by the Finnish office of their label Nuclear Blast and gathered journalists from all over the world, including Bulgaria. The album is released by Nuclear Blast/Wizard on September 4 and is produced by Swedish master JENS BOGREN, known for his work with OPETH, KATATONIA, BLOODBATH, PARADISE LOST, DARK TRANQUILLITY, SOILWORK, etc.

What strikes the listener is that, deliberately or not, AMORPHIS' 'Under the Red Cloud' harks back to the old classics 'Tuonela' and 'Elegy', especially the first single 'Death of A King', which was aired on the Finnish Radio Rock on the day of the listening session for the journalists. The sitar in the intro sounds almost like 'Greed' from 'Tuonela' and brings in a special oriental sound.

The sitar reappears in 'Enemy at the Gates' and 'White Night', the latter having a strong Celtic sound, thanks to the flute of ELUVEITIE's CHRIGEL GLANZMANN, while ALEAH STANBRIDGE from TREES OF ETERNITY brings to the album an ethereal enchantment.

The vast majority of the ten songs in the regular edition of the album combine TOMI JOUTSEN's clean vocals and guttural growls. There is just one with clean vocals only – the clearly radio-oriented 'Sacrifice', which reminds of 'The Wanderer' from 'Circle'. However not particularly bad, it is too predictable and clearly was written following the standard radio hit formula – verse-chorus-verse-chorus-solo-verse.

As JENS BOGREN himself put it after the listening session, it is rather surprising that 'Sacrifice' was not chosen for the first single off the album. Unlike 'Circle', which definitely sounded somewhat all over the place, 'Under the Red Cloud' is rather organic and logical in the track order. Also, while the various bonus tracks scattered in numerous special editions of 'Circle' annoyed to no end the fans who were forced to shell out their hard earned money if they wanted to have all songs, 'Under the Red Cloud' will have only three bonus tracks. - Two for the digipak edition and the double vinyl and one for the Japanese edition.

BOGREN's competence can be clearly discerned in the running order and track selection in 'Under the Red Cloud' - Little surprise, considering that he was closely involved with the band as early as the rehearsals of the new songs, months before the actual recording started.

The general opinion of the journalists who were present at the listening session is that 'Under the Red Cloud' is easily the best AMORPHIS album since 'Skyforger' - an undisputed high point in their 25-year career. Unlike 'Skyforger', which however filled with magnificent music, was somewhat monotonous, 'Under the Red Cloud' is dynamic and diverse and proves that AMORPHIS quite rightfully are considered one of the best Finnish bands.

According to producer JENS BOGREN, 'Under the Red Cloud' will require more than one listen, but the fans will end up liking all of it.

Guitarist ESA HOLOPAINEN commented that BOGREN has done an amazing job with the album. “There's a lot of elements in the songs but every note and element is in perfect harmony so that the result is fucking heavy and melodic. All I can say is that 'Under The Red Cloud' will be in my personal Top 3 AMORPHIS albums that we've ever done,” HOLOPAINEN said.

The album art was done by the Frenchman VALNOIR MORTASONGE who has also done the art of albums by LAIBACH, PARADISE LOST, BEHEMOTH, ULVER, etc. The lyrics were once more written by PEKKA KAINULAINEN.