Following in the heels of two of the most flawless Finnish metal albums of the early 1990s – “The Karelian Isthmus” (1992) and “Tales from the Thousand Lakes” (1994) – AMORPHIS took off on a wild psychedelic folk tangent with their third studio album, “Elegy,” released on May 14th, 1996, on Relapse Records. Obviously, this sea change did not sit too well with some of the band’s early fans who their death-metal antics had drawn in. This album was the first to feature Pasi Koskinen on lead vocals. While Tomi Koivusaari got to drop some of his signature growls here and there, the clean vocals that had been merely experimented with on the previous album were suddenly the predominant vocal approach altogether. Then, as if this were not enough to drive old-school death-metal fans nuts, these new songs also marked a significant departure from the typical death-metal approach, in terms of songwriting, toward a more progressive sonic terrain. Needless to say, as I was going through my somewhat elitist prog snob phase at the time, “Elegy” was THE album that cemented AMORPHIS onto my musical radar for keeps. Then, it obviously helped that the album kicked off with songs like “Better Unborn” and “Against Widows,” both of which mixed thick oriental psychedelia and death-metal flourishes rather nicely. Yeah, it has since become common knowledge that AMORPHIS were friends and fans of the Helsinki-based power trio, KINGSTON WALL, in the early 1990s. “Elegy” was the first AMORPHIS album that flirted with this type of sound; some of their later affairs could even be described as open love letters to KINGSTON WALL. As a twenty-something Finnish metalhead-cum-prog-nerd I was familiar with the older AMORPHIS stuff, of course, and I had even found their 1994 endeavor particularly interesting, but this album was something else entirely! Its proggy and psychedelic flourishes were one of the main reasons I had to haul my arse to the Ruisrock Festival at Turku later in the summer of 1996; even with Flea of RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS making an entrée on the main stage clad merely in a gas mask and waving helicopters at the crowd in a tabloid-worthy fashion, it was AMORPHIS that pulled one the most memorable performances of the whole festival, musically.

In retrospect, the album seems to have been met with mixed reviews at the time, especially outside of Finland. For the life of me, I cannot recall that having been the case in the general musical climate of Finland at all. The only street-credible radio stations we had 30 years ago – that is, Radio Mafia and Radio City – both gave ample airtime to the more radio-friendly songs on the album, especially to the acoustic reprise of “My Kantele.” The song appears twice on the album; first, as a full-on death-metal number and, wrapping up the whole album, as a stripped-down, acoustic reprise at the end. Well, the latter version really stands out, so it makes sense that it got singled out so much.

Considering how this vintage-proggy-and-folksy approach would later become one of the band’s best trademarks, all this nonsense about selling out and whatnot seems hilarious. Besides, I think most of the metal bands of the era experimented a lot – and those that didn’t, well…. You don’t see too many of them fooling around anymore, so I guess it pays off to be more open-minded.

One of the factors that contributed to the “wild mess” of exuberant versatility on this album stemmed from the fact that the songwriting credits are split between four band members. Then, while the band had flirted lyrically with the Finnish epic, Kalevala, before, by this point, it was fast becoming one of the most defining aspects of their songcraft. The lyrics come almost verbatim from these traditional Finnish ballads and poems documented from the Karelian folklore by Elias Lönnrot in the 1800s, and translated to English here, obviously. As far as I can recall, this was the spin that the press seemed to love the most at the time, especially the non-music-oriented mainstream media. The funny thing is, having struggled through the Finnish school system in the 1980s, yours truly was one of those young rascals who were force-fed with this particular piece of Finnish mythology ad nauseam. I’m not gonna lie: I fucking hated this Finnish epic from the bottom of my heart during my delicate teenage years. Then, this wild bunch of death-metal rogues came out of nowhere and made that ancient tome sound cool again. Back in 1996, progressive Finnish death metal did not come much better than this. In fact, there was nothing quite like this on the international menu, either, at the time. For myriad reasons, this particular AMORPHIS album is THE one I have the fondest memories of. If there was just one AMORPHIS endeavor that I could keep, I reckon it would be this one.

Written by Jani Lehtinen

Tracklist

1. Better Unborn
2. Against Widows
3. The Orpham
4. On Rich and Poor
5. My Kantele
6. Cares
7. Song of the Troubled One
8. Weeper on the Shore
9. Elegy
10. Relief
    

Lineup

Esa Holopainen – guitars, sitar

Pasi Koskinen – vocals

Tomi Koivusaari – guitars, vocals

Olli-Pekka Laine – bass

Kim Rantala – keyboards, accordion

Pekka Kasari – drums

Label

Relapse Records

Links

https://amorphis.net

https://www.facebook.com/amorphis