AMORPHIS Discusses Upcoming Album

Before the AMORPHIS concert on May 5 at A38 in Budapest, Hungary, Metalhead.ro had the opportunity to go in backstage and talk to Tomi Koivusaari (guitar) and Esa Holopainen (guitar) about the group's upcoming album. A few excerpts follow:

Metalhead.ro: I would like to know some things about your new album. I understand it will be released in August, is that so?

Tomi: Yes.

Metalhead.ro: What can you tell me about it? Will it bring anything new in the music of AMORPHIS?

Esa: I think it's a continuation of our previous album, "Eclipse". I's mostly the same style.

Metalhead.ro: Regarding the lyrics, is it true that it will be inspired by "Kalevala"?

Tomi: In a way yes...A friend of Tomi, our vocalist, had written his own version of a story in "Kalevala". It mostly coincides with the original story.

Metalhead.ro: So, should we expect another story based on the Finnish folklore?

Esa: Yes , it too was inpired by that... From what I understood, it's about a jurney to the land of the dead.

Metalhead.ro: Have you ever thought about using other themes, apart from the inland folklore?

Tomi: We already did this, back when Pasi, our ex-vocalist, was in the band. He also wrote his own stuff...

Metalhead.ro: Do you considder repeating those things?

Tomi: I don't know... In this moment we thought it was natural to go back to our old themes.

Esa: It depends... Usually when we work on an album, we establish a theme, and build the album as a concept, with a lyrical and musical theme.

Tomi: Usually, we have the music written when we start with the lyrics.

Metalhead.ro: So, you first write the music, and then the lyrics?

Tomi: Yes!

Metalhead.ro: What can you tell me about the album's production.

Esa: It's the same as on our previous album. Marco Hietala from NIGHTWISH helped us again with certain vocal parts. We recorded with Tero Kinnunen at the Sonic Pump, and then the material was mixed by Mikko Karmila in the Finnvox studios. It wasn't very easy. We knew how we wanted the album to sound like... We wished it would be a continuation of "Eclipse". So, regarding the sound, I don't think there is anything new.

Read the entire interview at this location.

Check out pictures of AMORPHIS taken at the Budapest concert at the Kronos Mortus webzine.