Year: 2022
Total Time: 55:42
Label: Atomic Fire
“Halo” is the title of the fourteenth album of the beloved Finns and …in the name of the thousand lakes, every listen of the album seems to be super-beneficial. I first listened to the album in January, a month before its official release, and from then until today, close to a quarter, it has been filling my daily life richly.
The new AMORPHIS album can be approached as the third chapter to “Under The Red Cloud” (2015) and “Queen Of Time” (2018). Both lyrically and musically, the band continues to steadily build on their glorious past and attempts to once again showcase their folk Scandinavian identity. The folkloric collection of myths and traditional stories “Kalevala” is the source of inspiration for AMORPHIS’ lyricist Pekka Kainulainen, with the music combining melodic death metal, progressive and folkloric oriental melodies.
With the guitars on the forefront, even more than their previous albums, the harshness blends harmoniously with the wonderful timbre of Tomi Joutsen’s voice and the …blessings of the band’s producer Jens Bogren, AMORPHIS create an album of world class and similar scope. It is noteworthy that the band wrote more than thirty tracks, to finally come up with the eleven ones for the album, and Jens’ role in this process has been catalytic, as he was the one who made the selection, without any interference from the members of the group.
It’s really hard for me to pick out certain tracks from “Halo”, first of all because the album sounds like a very tight and harmonious whole from start to finish, moreover because I don’t find any mediocre moments on it. The introduction with “Northwards” sets the tone, and the second half of it, is worth paying attention to, for its folk/progressive approach (Santeri Kallio’s keyboards are simply great once again). From there we hear the two “cmmercials” of the album “On The Dark Waters” and “The Moon”, different sounds, catchy ones, on which AMORPHIS step very firmly to win us over for the rest of their album.
The following quartet puts us well into the magical world of the Finns. “Windmane” is mid tempo, smooth and light in its main body, while “A New Land” is a wonderful melodic death composition with an amazing chorus that sticks in your mind at once. “When The Gods Came” and “Seven Roads Come Together” are the ones to follow, standing out among other reasons for their beautiful guitar leads.
“War” has great diversity and … as usual, a beautiful charm in the chorus, with Joutsen’s clean melodic passages taking the lead. “Halo”, the album’s title track, is perhaps just a click behind the others, but not lacking in overall composition. It just doesn’t make a difference in my opinion.
To move on to a top composition, “Wolf”, just before closing the album. This characteristic black metal type riff in the verses gives the whole album the element of the unexpected and is really something different, evolving the sound of AMORPHIS. And for the end, a track left out of “Under The Red Cloud” as I was informed, a ballad, “My Name is Night”, where the Finns invest in serenity, atmospheric and light emotions.
Indulge in the magic of “Halo”. AMORPHIS’ new album is the definition of atmospheric death, a piece of art of the highest level, compositionally, lyrically, performatively, and generally aesthetically. For me, placed in the best five albums of the Finns, who are definitely at the peak of their recognition, with the bar rising dangerously and our expectations soaring, both for their upcoming tour as well as for the band’s recording future.
Rating: 8,5/10
Editor: Kostas Kafritsas
Related Link: AMORPHIS – Official Page
