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Rating: The year 1999 is a turning point for Amorphis.
When "Tuonela" is released, little to nothing is left of the raw death metal that characterized their previous works, vanished and blurred into the notes of "The Way"... and it immediately becomes a classic.
Perhaps driven by wonderful albums such as "Elegy" and "Tales From The Thousand Lakes," "Tuonela" is often recognized as one of the band's most overrated albums, but it cannot be denied that at the root of this lies a fundamental confusion stemming from this deep stylistic change, which goes to the heart of old fans' beliefs. "Tuonela" represents the new, and the new, often, is frightening.
Now there's Koskinen's clean voice that only in a track like "Greed" timidly hints at the ferocity of the past. There's the saxophone and flute of Sakari Kukko, which in pieces like "Nightfall" or especially the intense "Rusty Moon" accentuate those folk influences the band had already previously drawn upon. There's the love for Pink Floyd, for their complexity and delicacy in arrangements, as well as subtle nods to seventies rock that blend with metal in the progression of the sound ("Divinity," "Tuonela," "Shining"), there are oriental echoes ("Greed") as well as the more essential and at the same time enveloping riffing ("Summer End"), progressive tones that delicately underline a clear decadence.
Amorphis are inspired in "Tuonela," no longer as exalted as in the past but still capable of stirring emotions before today's disappointing performances. For those nostalgic for the past (and not only), welcome to Tuonela.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Morning Star (03:51)
You live only for yourself
Or send your soul to the heaven's grace
Been weak as the autumn leaves
Or strong as the growing seed
Swallowed into the black
Search for entrace
Chorus:
Wathc to the eyes of morning star
Beckon for the savior
But it's much too far
Reach for the infinity
The only thing that remains is decay
03 Nightfall (03:53)
As a rot to rape the spring sown seed
A plague sprang forth of his tracks
Churns ran red when cows milked blood
And famine cracked poor backs
Who would hear a lament sad
Under the bright blue sky
That's sung in hovels dark and low
With eyes too weak to cry
But horror be the nightfall's gloom
For the man upon the road
When moon doth laugh at worthless lives
Twice hard for all promise showed
Empty stare upon his face
Nine fathoms deep
He set upon the road again
On ground that bears no seed
04 Tuonela (04:32)
"Sorrow is my bread
And tears I drink as wine
Oblivion my happiness
Ground under teeth of time
For cold be the stone
When frost devoured the land
Consolation is no gift
Of winter's icy hand
Upon a crust of snow
I'll lay my broken frame
What steel and iron won't take
I'll give in winter's name
No good a sullen soul no use a simple knave
No groom for brides of plaited hair
This man old and lame
If only I could breathe
To see the sun of may
but still longer are the nights than days
As I wither away
Came the man of crown
With sound of war drums beat
Said no sword arm's strong enough
Without my two good feet
But not overlooked am I
In eyes of the maid I'll wed
I'll reap the crops of Tuonela
My bride's wealth in death
"
05 Greed (04:18)
Not thirsty am I for the blood
Of redeemer of thy greed
My hunger can't be satisfied
With flesh of thy nazarene
No gilded streets of heaven's grace
Entice me in thy speech
No holy mother doth condone
All your pillage war and greed
But know thee that all oceans worth
Of waters turned holy
Won't change the course of river
That runs inside of me
My blood flows ever skyward
And pools where thy black is white
For woulst thou not carme at my soul
With sword of thy supreme truth
Strike me down on my bended knees
For thy baptism so soothe
My blood flows ever skywawrd
And pools where thy black is white
Alone am I to raise my head
In the starless forest night
06 Divinity (04:56)
Last day brings the grace
for bearers of forbidden name.
Step into five fold mace-
As son as father in a frame
Someday fire wipes the rain
Fears are frozen tears whisper
Things that no one (hears)
Cry now, cry now for me again
Tomorrows pride and pain
Why you kneel before my NAME.
Crushing my belief
and make shape to my relief.
For who you set your prayers-
I can't hear them anyway
Someday fire wipes the rain
Fears are frozen tears whisper
Things that no one (hears)
Cry now, cry now for me again
Tomorrows pride and pain,
Why you kneel before my NAME.
Someday fire wipes the rain
Fears are frozen tears whisper
Things that no one (hears)
Cry now, cry now for me again
Tomorrows pride and pain,
Why you kneel before my NAME.
07 Shining (04:25)
My soul is bleeding
I feel so small
Afraid that this will never end
I can't understand the pain in my bones
I sleep through another trance
Climb over the rainbow
From here you can see so much
I need someone to take me down
But who can you trust
Got so many things to say
But it's something I don't wanna be
Gotta get away case it's time to shine
Like a fallen angel I run
I won't ever see the sun
See the circle is now complete
Yet the harvest remains undone
Where hemlock grows and vermin crowl
All dreams descend with fear
Crushed by the darkness that wells inside
That beast I hold so dear
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Other reviews
By GIASSON
The band decides to fully leverage his warm voice to strip away all the rough edges of their identity and seek a much more rock-oriented dimension.
You find yourself facing a mature group, fully aware of their own value, finally able to express their essence without resorting to force.
