How did you discover Amorphis?

[Tuuletar]

Now I realized that I have been listening to them pretty long time...
It was probably 2007 or 2008 when I heard about Amorphis for a first time. Few times I had heard these radio songs (House of Sleep, Silent Waters) and thought they're pretty nice ones, but didn't pay more attention to the band. Then I saw them as a support band for Nightwish at their gig in Helsinki, June 2008. I still remember that it was raining and thundering, but Amorphis did convince me. Bit later I bought Silent Waters (back then it was the latest release, but also the beautiful cover artwork drew my attention) and also Eclipse - and I fell in love with this music full of feelings.
On March 2009 I went to their gig again (Verkatehdas, Hämeenlinna) and after that show my interest towards the band grew even more.
And after Skyforger was released, I started to go to the gigs more often and little by little Amorphis become my favourite band. And the rest is history, indeed.

 

[Luoto]

The first encounter with the band was in 2004 when a school mate brought "Divinity" to an upper secondary school* band course lesson to play it (I still remember I played drums ). I liked the song but kind of forgot about them until December 2005 when "House of Sleep" premiered on the late Radio City. Couple of weeks later they were featured in a metal show (of the same channel) where they played "Leaves Scar". Tomi Joutsen was the first vocalist who convinced me with his death growling and I knew this band is something special - pretty much a turning point in my music taste.

Their first gig in Oulu with Joutsen was in March 2006 at 45 Special, a rather small club considering their popularity now. Needless to say the club was packed Can't remember exactly what older songs they played but these days it's pretty nice to have witnessed "The Orphan".

* lukio, equals senior high school

 

[edguardian]

Muchmusic's Loud
Amorphis - Against Widows

 

[papajohnny]

I'm not sure when exactly, I guess it was in 2008/9. Winter time.
Long story short, a friend played me Black Winter Day in quite an atmospheric setting. Back then, we didn't really know anything about death metal, and regarding the Finnish scene we only knew of HIM and Lordi, maybe some other band.
This was a refreshment in my ears. And quite the contrast to what I was listening up to that point.

Soon later, he burned me the CD with some of their stuff (mainly Tales and few songs from Isthmus and Elegy).

Amorphis, or Black Winter Day, was the "gateway" music for me. It introduced me to the wonders of "the North" and extreme metal music. Since then I have explored lots of other genres, bands and scene, and am still exploring, but it still remains my favorite song and my favorite band.

Fun fact, when I got the CD, a friend showed me the picture of Tomi J - said he was a singer. Until I got proper Internet connection in 2009. or something, I was living in illusion that the the dude with massive dreadlocks sang on older albums too

 

[koivusaari]

Back in 2001 I got a cd compilation featuring In The Beginning from a friend of mine. I remember I was very impressed by the song, especially by vocals. One month later I went to local music shop and bought all albums which were released by then. Right when I came home, I put Tales From The Thousand Lakes, mainly because of the beautiful artwork, into the player. Already during the intro, Thousand Lakes, I got goose bumps and knew I found my favourite band.

 

[xptrinity]

"Alone" on the rock radio Tangra It was Song of the Day or something or another. I really liked the song, so I got some tapes (The Karelian Isthmus and the Tales) from a friend and gave then a listen. But back then I was not much into growling and death metal, so I wasn't that positively impressed. Fast forward five years later - Amorphis are Band of the Week on the recently revived rock radio Tangra, so I heard The Smoke and was flabbergasted

 

[EddieGunner]

somewhere back in 2001 or 2002 not sure

BLACK
WINTER
DAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

 

[Karhu]

Well a friend from Spain who posts on the Type O Negative message board sent me a CD with a bunch of Euro metal songs on it, that had to be about 2000? It had Black Winter Day and My Kantele and of course that sucked me in. I had to check when I first saw Amorphis live it was 2005 but I was posting on the Amo board before that, not sure 2002 or 2003? At that '05show I saw Niclas before they played and said in Finnish that I was Karhu and obviously the word spread to the rest because after the show we hung out at another club and had beers and LOL's and even got to party on their tour bus.

 

[tuonelan]

In the '90s I got stuck in a musical rut and was mostly listening to older stuff I'd discovered in my 20s, mostly Goth/Industrial, and the more mainstream Metal/Hard Rock you get on US rock radio (Metallica, Disturbed, Godsmack, etc.). In the '00s I decided that I didn't want to be one of those people who only listens to older music and made an effort to find new musical ground to explore. While searching for Industrial Metal online in 2006 I ran across Sybreed, which led me to Mnemic and the Nuclear Blast website and all the mp3 samples they used to have online for download. One of those mp3s was Empty Opening, which I liked enough to save and to keep around, but it wasn't until Silent Waters that I really gave the band a listen and the first time through that album I started grinning like an idiot somewhere between Silent Waters and Towards and Against and made my wife listen to the album. Over the next year and a half I picked up the rest of the catalog and have kept up with the rest of the releases, all because of Esa's damn guitar and his wah/delay solo on the outro on a free download.

 

[Karhu]

In the '90s I got stuck in a musical rut and was mostly listening to older stuff I'd discovered in my 20s

I was like that in the 80's, everyone was into Poison, Motley Crue, etc. but I actually was interested in older stuff (OLD Sabbath, OLD Judas Priest SUPER OLD Whitesnake, etc. AND anything good from the '70's) Music since the '80's had it's ups and downs since 1999 (no Prince jokes here please since I'm from Minnesota) but Type O Negative saved my musical soul, not forgetting Amo here too. If it wasn't for my Spanish friend, it would have taken me alot longer to find my current interests.

 

[Karhu]

Oh and I had to add this, good times getting Finnish lessons from the band way back then (this used to be on the old board):

And all I wanted was a few autographs. Turned out to be a great evening.

 

[Karhu]

Oh hej btw does anyone know that the band is aware of this forum?

 

[nizzon]

I saw Black Winter Day on headbangers ball on MTV, early 90's. Instant hit.

 

[Eurynome]

I saw Black Winter Day on headbangers ball on MTV, early 90's. Instant hit.

Back in the glorious days when MTV still played MUSIC!

Oh hej btw does anyone know that the band is aware of this forum?

At least two of them are, no idea about the rest.

As for the original question, I discovered Amorphis in'96 when Elegy arrived at the record shop where I was working at the time- gave it a spin because of the beautiful cover and was instantly hooked. It's still my favorite of the pre-Joutsen albums, although I find it hard to listen to Koskinen's voice nowadays.

 

[Tiiti]

It was 2001 and Am Universum. Then came Far from the Sun which wasn´t so good IMO. At that time Tuonela and Elegy were THE albums.

Nowadays I prefer Magic and Mayhem -cd over the albums with Koskinen. Didin´t like he´s sound really much.

I reach to see Amorphis with Koskinen once, almost there where thay was at the end of the road in the year 2003 or 2004, and haven to say, that the gigs with Joutsen have been something so different.

 

[nizzon]

Back in the glorious days when MTV still played MUSIC!

Yeah Headbangers Ball was pretty good back then.

 

[Saara]

My husband found it during Am Universum. I remember hearing Tales of the Thousadn Lakes all the time. But I wasn't hooked then. Some years after I was bored while listening Youtube and whine how shit music there is and I can not find anything good stuff. He said: Listen to Amorphis (and Children of Bodom), they are not only released great albums but they can really play cool live. So I listened. I think it was Silent Waters album that I was like WOW WOW. So nowadays my husband curses the day he pointed me those bands as he has to come to gigs and he can not avoid hearing those band's playing 24/7 exept if he escapes to a bedroom. Downstairs there play Amorphis in laptop no matter is there someone or not, it is just nice to walk through the room and listen what ever Amorphis plays at that time I am afraid and almost know that he is getting Amorphis overdose during the coming summer, I have booked gigs and the poor guy knows that I have a gift to him. Of course Amorphis skirt he has been desperately try to me to tell what is it as I said it takes time before your gift is sent. Anyway I am pretty sure he is glad of the gift when I give it to him

 

[orcslayr23]

Just recently discovered them. I was bored at work, gave my iPod a rest and listened to Soundtracker. I forgot what channel it was, but Skyforger came up and I loved it. Since then i've been hooked.

 

[tuonelan]

Thought I would add, here, that I feel really lucky that after purchasing Silent Waters and Eclipse I found a copy of Chapters when I was searching through the metal CDs at Rasputin Music. It's pretty common, today, to hear fans recommending Magic and Mayhem as a good introduction to Amo's pre-Joutsen material, but it really only bookends the band's material. Forging the Land of Thousand Lakes (and the live setlist, usually) feature Alone and Divinity, but that's still not a lot of exposure to the full range of Amo's material. Chapters gave me a better range of the band's sound and helped convince me to pick up Tuonela even before I had matched speeds with the earlier stuff.

I know that many metalheads are less than impressed with Amo's progressive hard rock sound in the Pasi years, but Tuonela and Am Universum have some great music on them and I'm not sure I would have given them as much of a chance had I not found Chapters and had those songs grow on me.

 

[Tuuletar]

Tuonela was actually my first touch to the older albums. After Magic and Mayhem-collection and "the retro tour" in December 2010 I decided to get the old albums as well. However it was kind of coincidence; one day I went to the local record shop and by chance I noticed Tuonela there. To be honest, I had some sort of prejudice towards the album, since I didn't like Pasi's voice that much. But I decided to buy it anyway, since it was cheap and the cover was beautiful.
But soon the album grew on me and it still is my favourite from Amorphis' progressive era. The Way, Rusty Moon and Summer's End are actually among my favourite Amo-songs. But Am Universum has some really great songs as well, I like the jazzy feeling in them. Well, then again I do like saxophones, heh.
So after Tuonela I bought the rest of the old albums, yet I started to love Elegy even more...