Ever since the arrival of Tomi Joutsen in 2006, the fortunes of Amorphis have taken a massive upswing, and it’s easy to see why. A charismatic front man with an exceptional voice, a series of increasingly well received albums and a PR machine firing on all cylinders have taken them from being merely a good underground band to one of the hottest properties out there. Their work rate since 2009’s excellent ‘Skyforger’ has been high to say the least. Between touring commitments, preparing a live DVD, re-recording old songs, they have still found time to write and record new material. Given the increasing quality of their recent albums, (the quite unnecessary ‘Magic & Mayhem’ excepted), you can feel reasonably confident that ‘The Beginning of Times’ is going to be very good; but maintaining that level of expectation is no easy task.
Current fans of Amorphis will be happy to know that their existing formula for their brand of folk metal remains unchanged, something that is evident from the melodic folk intro to opening track ‘Battle for Light’. Joutsen continues to express his wonderful versatility as a vocalist, switching between a powerful clean vocal to aggressive death grunts with consummate ease. As ever, the production and arrangement is majestic in particular on the opening and title tracks. The twin guitar attack of Esa Holopainen and Tomi Koivusaari meshes together like a well-oiled machine, with Esa providing some excellent lead moments on ‘Soothsayer’ and ‘Song of the Sage’. Santeri Kallio’s keyboards act like a third guitar, consistently driving the melodies forward. It’s all exactly as you would expect of Amorphis.
It’s by the time you get to the lead single off the album, ‘You I Need’, that you realise there is something missing. It’s hard at first to define exactly what it is, and the answer came for me whilst giving ‘Skyforger’ and ‘Eclipse’ repeat listens whilst preparing for this review. ‘You I Need’, is a good song, as indeed is every song on this album. There is not a dud among them. What it isn’t though is a great song, and the last few albums have had a fair few of those. Songs that not only break up the pace of an album, but songs that stick in your brain for weeks and months after, like ‘House of Sleep’, ‘the White Swan’ or ‘Silver Bride’. After repeated listens, I still haven’t found any songs on ‘The Beginning of Times’ that have that extra knockout quality.
Whilst I would not go as far as to say that Amorphis have become a victim of their own success, I’d definitely say that expectation exceeded the realisation on this occasion. ‘The Beginning of Times’ is a very good album with some very good songs; it just feels a little bit rushed and little too formulaic when compared with what you know they can deliver when firing on all cylinders. As busy as these guys have been, and as much material as they have released over the past couple of years, I think fans would appreciate more quality over quantity. Despite that, it’s still absolutely worth your attention and is still highly recommended. Just don’t press play expecting anything revolutionary. If you set your expectations accordingly before you start, you’ll love it.
http://www.myspace.com/amorphis
