Review - Amorphis “Tuonela”
album on
Relapse Records through Shock!
Amorphis is
a band originally from Finland whose muse extends across so many popular genres
that to label them as Heavy Metal would be too limiting. Now with Millersville
PA label Relapse Records their vehicle is
more available to the known world but may fall short of some expectations.
Tuonela = Hades, the Underworld. This is about as metal as these guys get; that and the death growls in Greed and the double-kick in Nightfall. The influences I picked up from this record included Pink Floyd, Kula Shaker, Stone Roses, Deep Purple/John Lord, Black Sabbath/Ozzy Osborne
, Tea Party, Kiss, Red Hot Chili Peppers, even Steve (Queen/“Innuendo”) Howe and Australia’s 1994 Campus Band comp winners Storytime (or at least the people that influenced Storytime). There’s the ‘classic metal’ flair in The Way, eastern stylings within Nightfall, Greed and Withered, and riff borrowings from many of the aforementioned amidst Divinity, Shining and the Australian-Only bonus Northern Lights.For
a release labelled as metal, Amorphis “Tuonela” on
Relapse Records through Shock! spans a great number of
styles, but I found things a little tedious from about the title track with
slight pick-ups during Rusty Moon and
Shining. Pasi Koskinen’s
vocals seem a little monotonous and the overall feel of the CD is a little
flat. I enjoyed some of the retro-perspective influences and would possibly get
into a live show if their flair for borrowing extended to the stage «««
PG (Jacky) Gleeson