Album Rating: 4.8

Fuck yeah Kyle!!!

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

very predictable but really addicting - i like this record a lot. doesn't stand up to their best work but that's fine.

Album Rating: 4.8

Addicting is correct. This is honestly my second favorite Amorphis.

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

that's a fascinating take - definitely don't agree lol. i will say this album has a restrained sweetness to it - knows exactly where it should be tonally so it's never too much or too little so it's super easy to listen to.

Album Rating: 4.8

I understand that I'm in the minority there, but this album is pure beauty and the replay value is through the roof.

Album Rating: 4.0

So much good catchy melodeath this year - this album, Halo Effect, In Mourning, Kardashev (l know more prog death, but still). Omnium Gatherum and Mors Principium Est were fun, too

Album Rating: 4.8

That new Omnium Gatherum is subpar, but the others slay agreed.

Amenphis

Album Rating: 4.8

Bordermen

Album Rating: 4.5

Go away 'nothing new' naysayers, this is one splendid record, waaaay better than mechanical Halo featuring 'you should have growls in the verse, cleans in the chorus, IN EVERY SONG' demand by producer. And actually even better than Queen of Orphaned Land. Sounds to me like their first honest record ever since the brilliant Red Cloud.

Songs have amazing natural flow and some kind of magic to them I can't explain. It gets stuck in the middle a bit with The Strange and Tempest but ends with two amazing numbers by Esa, Lantern, which is hands down the best things he's written in years, and Despair with astonishing orchestral grand finale.

And thank god they finally dropped Bogren and Metastazis.

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

I will not accept Bogren slander here

Album Rating: 4.8

Amenphis [2]

Album Rating: 4.5

Bogren did amazing job with Red Cloud but it was time for him to go on Halo already

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

honestly i think several of your comments are reductive and unfair meatwolf. you realize under the red cloud, queen of time and halo are part of a trilogy, right? they're supposed to have similar thematics and art/sound direction. insinuating any of these albums are dishonest are ridiculous and i highly doubt jens had as much creative input as you think. he more strongly influenced the sound design because that's his role (and he's bloody good at it).



i agree it was time for the band to approach things differently but that isn't to jens' discredit, very few bands use the same producer after a run of albums because they want to keep things creatively fresh and approach things in a new way.



like you discredit bogren and metastazis but they were only used in their main body of work for that trilogy of albums - you speak like it was some long-standing working relationship but surely you believe it'd be more jarring having a different art direction and producer breaking the trilogy up, right?



i commend your passion but these things you comment on are often more nuanced than you give them credit for so be mindful before you continue discrediting people for no reason.

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

Yeah I don't think Bogren is much of a 'musical producer', mostly sound design. Never spoke about it with the bloke so it's pure speculation. Halo was indeed quite stale and I'm glad they switched it up here. I want to revisit this one, where I cannot really get myself to care for Halo.

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

i agree halo is the weakest of the trilogy but it does end on 3 great tracks at least. this is definitely better, i just don't place that on bogren or the visual artist lol.

Album Rating: 4.5

@DarkNoctus discredit? What I wrote about cleans/growls was expressly stated by band members (I guess it was Santeri) after they decided to pick another producer. Bogren also picked which songs would end up on the album which is also band members info, and then he dropped The Well and The River Song which are utterly superior to anything that is on the stanadard edition. Also Bogren told them what to do with arrangements and had the final word about stuff in general which you can read here https://www.metal1.info/interviews/amorphis-borderland/?lang=english or here https://metalinsider.net/interviews/interview-amorphis-jan-rechberger-and-tomi-joutsen-discuss-new-album-borderland

'Trilogy' is such a vague description? In this interview https://arrowlordsofmetal.nl/amorphis-interview-met-esa-holopainen-tomi-joutsen/ Esa gets asked about this and he replies strictly as 'three albums with same team' thing, not 'three albums as a concept we intended to do' thing. It definitely was not holy cow of an idea in any way.

And Queen of Time artwork is still absolute pain to look at, no matter what anyone had in mind about it.

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

That's very interesting MeatWolf! Glad this record is a lot more diverse. It really has some killer tracks, a bit sad it starts of a bit weak though.

Album Rating: 4.8

Amazing album all the way through agreed.

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

trilogy is not a vague description, it has been described as such by the band and where it isn't as canonical as other more thematical trilogies it's artistically consistent. the promo for queen of time described that there'd be one more album in this trilogy so it was pre-arranged before halo was finished.



the band obviously chose to use jens for a reason - it wasn't contractual. it's not like they were stuck with him. i think you're mischaracterising the interview in a sense, though i see why you think what you do. they're comparing how jens played a more active role where the new guy is more passive but the job of a producer is also to keep the band focussed on a cohesive vision because when you have five or more creative ideas in a room it can be extremely easy to drown yourself in ideas and create a bogged down project. jens will have given direction and been opiniated but there's nothing to say the band couldn't overrule him as the band *hired* him. he didn't have authority over the band and if they were unhappy with his direction or decisions they could have said no or just dropped him and found someone else.



not to mention there'd have been a pre-discussion between the producer and the band of exactly how much authority they want. jens is more than happy just playing a passive role and does so with other bands so if jens was more authorative it's because the band wanted that for whatever reason. usually when i see producers take a more active role it's because the band have creative disputes between ideas and therefore want someone who can cut through that and decide from a perspective outside of the barebones creative process, but i can't say exactly what or why amorphis made this decision



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