AMORPHIS: New Album Update

Finnish metallers AMORPHIS have issued the following update:

"The [new AMORPHIS] album recordings are advancing straight and smoothly (whatever that means...). We are now working on the vocals and again we have Marco Hietala [NIGHTWISH, TAROT] producing Tomi [Joutsen, vocals]. This time everything else has been done at Sonic Pump Studios except for the vocals, which are currently in the works at Marco's home studio in Kuopio.

"We are emerging with roughly 15 new songs and on the album there’s most likely going to be 10-11 tracks.

"It’s again a great feeling to start realizing that the songs and ideas which have been in our heads are finally going to see the light of day.

"Pekka Kainulainen has worked really hard on the lyrics.

"The album is going to tell the story of the most important character of Finnish mythology and folklore. He is Finnish god Väinämöinen, who was described to be an extremely powerful, wise old man who had a magical voice. Some believe that Väinämöinen was the creator of the world, an ancient hero and a very influential shaman.

"Having a subject as strong as this, it was pretty obvious that making music for the album was going to be a challenge. There are lots of musical elements that have been heard on previous albums, but there is also much more.

"Needless to say, we are keen to hand all the material over to Mikko Karmila, who is going to start the mixing at the end of this month.

"Travis Smith is currently working on the album cover and the coming artwork so far looks no less than amazing."

On September 17, 2010, AMORPHIS celebrated its 20th anniversary by releasing a special retrospective, "Magic & Mayhem – Tales From The Early Years", featuring newly re-recorded versions of the songs from the band's first three albums (1992's "Karelian Isthmus", 1994's "Tales From The Thousand Lakes" and 1996's "Elegy") with slightly different arrangements, better audio quality and featuring the band's current lineup. AMORPHIS guitarist Esa Holopainen told Petri Silas of Finland's Soundi magazine in June 2010 that he was especially happy with how "My Kantele" and "Song Of The Troubled One" turned out. The collection also includes such gems as "Vulgar Necrolatry" and the band's cover of THE DOORS' "Light My Fire". The latter song was previously recorded by the band and was included on the reissue of the "Tales from the Thousand Lakes" LP, but the new collection features an all-new version that was tracked in early 2010.

"Skyforger", the latest album from AMORPHIS, was certified gold in Finland for sales in excess of 15,000 copies. (Note: The sales requirement for albums to reach gold status in Finland was recently lowered to 10,000, but because "Skyforger" was released before this change took effect, the old rules still apply.) The bandmembers were presented with their gold plaques on July 6, 2010 at a release party for their first-ever live DVD, "Forging The Land Of Thousand Lakes", at Cinema Andorra in Helsinki.

"Skyforger" was honored in the "Metal Album Of The Year" category at last year's Emma Gaala (Finnish Grammy equivalent).

AMORPHIS was nominated in two categories at the Emma Gaala — "Metal Album Of The Year" and "Domestic Artist Of The Year".