AMORPHIS (Chapters) CD & DVD
Ten years ago AMORPHIS signed with Relapse Records, but now the band got a major-deal with Virgin Records, where they have released their new album "Far From The Sun", but that's not the theme of this review. As the title says, "Chapters" gives the listener an overview about the Relapse years, from the first album "The Karelian Isthmus" until the last one "Am Universum". For me personal, it's like a meeting with a good old friend, because I used to listen a lot to the first and second album ("Tales From The Thousand Lakes") back in those days. It were the days, when the UK-based band Paradise Lost was a strong influence for a lot of metal bands, and AMORPHIS belongs to one of the best. Ok, this is history and over the past years AMORPHIS went not only through a lot of line-up changes, no, they have left the old path and have turned into a hard to pigeonhole band, with differents elements from Finnish folk to 70's progressive rock, mixed up with a bit of psychedelic and more.
"Chapters" contains songs from "Am Universum", "Tuonela", the "My Kantele" MCD, "Elegy", the "Black Winter Day" MCD, "Tales From The Thousand Lakes", and, of course "The Karelian Isthmus". After listening to this compilation in one take, I must admit that the musical way from AMORPHIS was very organic and it was based on a natural progression. Relapse Records have done a good job wih "Chapters" and it seems as if it's a farewell to the ten years of this relationship. The tasteful designed booklet includes informative linernotes and as a bonus you find three unreleased tracks, though there could have been more unreleased cuts on "Chapters", but there's the DVD, that contains five promotional videos of "Alone", "Divinity", My Kantele", Against Widows" and "Black Winter Day". For the latest activities, check out the AMORPHIS homepage.
(KK)