Far From The Sun

[Brell]

I've always been curious...Are there any other Amorphis fans that dislike this album as much as I do? Like I mentioned in a different thread, it has some ok songs, like Day Of Your Beliefs, Evil Inside, FFTS, God Of Deception...But the rest are just kinda...meh...

It's the production that really kills the album in my opinion. The guitars sound weak, Pasi's vocals sound awful. I wish I could blame this all on a producer, but Amorphis produced it themselves!! If it had a similar sound to AM Universum, it might not be that bad.

I've also read some perplexing reviews of it. Some have said that it's heavier than AM Universum, and it's closer to the band's metal roots. WHAT???? Only thing I can say is, what weed are they smoking and where can I get some? LOL! It makes me wonder whether they are hearing the same album I am, like maybe I got a defective CD or something!

Watching the Forging DVD, I was surprised by how good the band sounded on Smithereens, and Tomi sounds amazing on Divinity. I would propose that the band record another "Magic & Mayhem" styled album, focused on the Pasi era (Tounela, AMU, and FFTS). Or....re-record the entire FFTS album, and make it sound like an Amorphis album! What would other fans think of this idea?

 

[tuonelan]

I've thought about a compilation/re-recording along the lines of Magic & Mayhem as well.

Top 12 songs from the 1999-2003 era by number of times played live:

Alone, Divinity, The Way, Greed, Summer's End, Day Of Your Beliefs, Goddess (Of The Sad Man), Tuonela, Far From The Sun, Morning Star, Nightfall, Evil Inside

Amorphis has put out three "best of..." compilations, Story (2000), Chapters (2003), and His Story (2016 - Japan). The songs from '99-'03 that appear on at least 2 of those 3 are: Alone, Divinity, Summer's End, The Way, Tuonela.

Divinity is the only song on all three.

The other songs that appear on only one of the three compilations are: Rusty Moon, Veil Of Sin, Killing Goodness, Drifting Memories, Too Much To See, Northern Lights.

Take your pick of a CDs worth from those, or do you swap out a song on the list for something neither on any compilation nor played much live? My personal choice for a song not on this list would be Withered.

 

[Brell]

Top 12 songs from the 1999-2003 era by number of times played live:

Wow, you actually know how many times songs have been played live? Is there a database somewhere, or are you keeping track of it yourself?

If I were in charge of the tracklist for such a compilation, these are the songs I would pick, in no particular order:

1. The Way
2. Morning Star
3. Greed
4. Divinity
5. Alone
6. Goddess (Of The Sad Man)
7. Shatters Within
8. Crimson Wave
9. Grieve Stricken Heart
10. Evil Inside
11. Far From The Sun
12. God Of Deception

Bonus Tracks:
13. Elegy
14. Better Unborn

I know Elegy songs were already covered on the Magic & Mayhem album, but I always wished those two songs had been included!

Possible songs for the "Title Track" of the album: "Divinity", "Grieve Stricken Heart", or "Evil Inside".

 

[tuonelan]

I used setlist.fm for the live stats. The data is on the page for "artist statistics." The data is crowdsourced, so it's likely not a complete set, but I'm fairly confident that the ranking order is relatively representative, even if the actual numbers of plays might not be complete. I used Discogs.com to check the songs on the compilations that I don't personally own.

I built a playlist out of my list above. Pretty good playlist, even with the original recordings. The Far From The Sun material sounds better mixed in with the other two albums, so I think part of my dislike may simply be that the songs on FFTS were just a bit slow, and when listened to all together the results sound flat. Tuonela and Am Universum break up that drag and make it more listenable.

 

[Brell]

I used setlist.fm for the live stats. The data is on the page for "artist statistics."

Right on! I'll have to check that out! Thanks!

 

[Summer Ewe]

I'm gonna keep it short and sweet: I dislike the album because it's a Pasi album. I'm probably an "untr00" fan because of this, but so be it. XD

 

[Brell]

I'm gonna keep it short and sweet: I dislike the album because it's a Pasi album. I'm probably an "untr00" fan because of this, but so be it. XD

No judgement here! My wife doesn't like the Pasi albums either. To each their own!

 

[Summer Ewe]

That's true!

 

[requiem]

Yeah, as much as I like aspects of it, 'Far from the Sun' is definitely an album from the band's low point of their career. I tend to like albums like this a lot more now that I know that they came out the other side of this phase and created truly great albums once again with Tomi, but I remember at the time it came out being pretty perplexed with it. This happened when Paradise Lost released 'Once Second' and then 'Host'. Those were pretty hard albums to stomach first up but now I can really enjoy them knowing that things take a turn for the better after that hahaha.

The same goes for 'Tuonela' and 'Am Universum'. I know a lot of people love 'Tuonela' but when it came out (I was 18) I was heartbroken because 'Elegy' was (and is) one of my all time favourite albums and I couldn't believe they went all rock on me. It was like I had moved out of a beautiful old house into a concrete apartment. Sure, it kept the rain out but the beauty and elegance was all stripped away...

 

[tuonelan]

One other way to look at it: without Tuonela/Am Universum/Far From The Sun we likely would have no songs like "Under A Soil And Black Stone" or "Three Words" or "Enemy At The Gates." Those songs are built on a foundation of the more jazzy rock elements and melodic approach that the band explored in the middle period. I think we'd have a much less powerful and inspired band if they had stuck to the metal side of the tracks.

What I love about Tuonela is that you can hear Esa evolving as a guitar player and can hear Sande exert his influence on the sound right from the start in the way that the keys and guitars work together. It's a much more organic sound than what came before.

I love the earlier albums as well, but I can't imagine the band sounding like it does today if they had stuck to the Elegy formula and not said "fuck it, we need some sax."

 

[Brell]

What I love about Tuonela is that you can hear Esa evolving as a guitar player and can hear Sande exert his influence on the sound right from the start in the way that the keys and guitars work together. It's a much more organic sound than what came before.

I love the earlier albums as well, but I can't imagine the band sounding like it does today if they had stuck to the Elegy formula and not said "fuck it, we need some sax."

I loved the Sax! I still wish they would use that on occasion! You're spot on about Esa. When I first heard that guitar on "The Way", my mind was blown!

 

[requiem]

One other way to look at it: without Tuonela/Am Universum/Far From The Sun we likely would have no songs like "Under A Soil And Black Stone" or "Three Words" or "Enemy At The Gates." Those songs are built on a foundation of the more jazzy rock elements and melodic approach that the band explored in the middle period. I think we'd have a much less powerful and inspired band if they had stuck to the metal side of the tracks.

What I love about Tuonela is that you can hear Esa evolving as a guitar player and can hear Sande exert his influence on the sound right from the start in the way that the keys and guitars work together. It's a much more organic sound than what came before.

I love the earlier albums as well, but I can't imagine the band sounding like it does today if they had stuck to the Elegy formula and not said "fuck it, we need some sax."

I know what you mean, and everything has worked out well in the end, but the glutton in me gets very excited at the idea of more albums in the style of Elegy if they never changed. Taking that style further would have been amazing, but alas we will never know!