2018 album

[tuonelan]

Second and third things from the first listen. I love the guitar tone Esa gets on his solos on this album, and the transparency and detail in Tomi J's vocals. Both of those elements sound very alive to me and have a lot of depth to them where past recordings sometimes sounded a bit more compressed and less detailed. And I think Oppu's bass sits better in the mix than did Niclas's bass.

I noticed in the trailers and videos that Oppu is using a Rickenbacker bass a bit on this one and that both Esa and Tomi K were playing unfamiliar guitars (their old Gibsons were there, but also Esa on a new-looking white double cutaway and Tomi K on a satin finish brown double cutaway, neither of which I recognized). Wish that Amorphis had a high enough profile that one of the big guitar or bass publications would ask them (or Jens) about the gear used in the recording sessions.

 

[Brell]

Parts of the album are very reminiscent of Tuonela & AM Universum, and I think it's great to see elements from those albums pop up. I also get a strong Skyforger vibe when I listen to these songs.

Edit: A little Silent Waters too.

 

[tuonelan]

The Spark interview with Jens where he talked about the Middle Eastern vibe that Amorphis has got me thinking about the Kingston Wall influence during Elegy-Am Universum and how that built the bridge for bringing in Bogren's Orphaned Land experience. Between that and Oppu...

Think The Golden Elk is where I hear the Tuonela (song) echoes most strongly. The chord progression under the oud/strings section on it are reminiscent of the song.

 

[Brell]

Think The Golden Elk is where I hear the Tuonela (song) echoes most strongly. The chord progression under the oud/strings section on it are reminiscent of the song.

After the intro of The Golden Elk, where the band drops out and it's just the verse riff playing....total callback to Karelian Isthmus & Tales!

 

[tuonelan]

Still have not listened enough to give it a fair comparison to the rest of the discography, but currently I'm thinking about it the way that I think about Silent Waters and about Under the Red Cloud the way I think about Skyforger. I think SW/QoT have absolutely amazing songs on them and I love them both. I think S/UtRC hold together better as albums across the whole disk because the sound is more unified from song to song.

 

[WardyS1]

Still have not listened enough to give it a fair comparison to the rest of the discography, but currently I'm thinking about it the way that I think about Silent Waters and about Under the Red Cloud the way I think about Skyforger. I think SW/QoT have absolutely amazing songs on them and I love them both. I think S/UtRC hold together better as albums across the whole disk because the sound is more unified from song to song.

Absolutely agree.

Life is busy and not had nearly as much time with this record as would like but agree. And am hearing a ton of old school Amorphis here too, pre-Joutsen era, with a healthy dose of Under The Red Cloud which makes sense as UTRC felt like a new beginning anyways!...