Karelia - Music

Amorphis Is A Finnish Progressive/melodic Metal Band And Formerly Death/doom Band Started By Jan Rechberger Tomi Koivusaari And Esa Holopainen In Helsinki Finland In 1990. Amorphis Absorbed And Incorporated Influences From Many Metal Genres And With Time Passing Their Sound Evolved Dramatically. Initially The Band Was A Death Metal Act But With Time They Have Evolved Into Making Music That Is More Classifiable As Doom Metal With Folk Influences And More Recently Progressive Metal And Symphonic Metal Utilizing Increasingly Complex Arrangements And A Less Brutal Sound. Amorphis Is Also Well Known For Their Use Of The Finnish National Epic The Kalevala As A Source For Their Lyrics. In 1989 Jan Rechberger And Esa Holopainen Played In A Speed Metal Band Violent Solution Which Tomi Koivusaari Had Left The Previous Year To Form The Death Metal Band Abhorrence. Violent Solution Slowly Withered Away As The Musicians Became Interested In Other Things And Styles Of Music. At This Point Jan Rechberger And Esa Holopainen Had The Idea Of Putting Together A Death Metal Band. In Early 1990 Tomi Koivusaari Was Asked To Be The Vocalist And Oppu Laine To Be Their Bassist. During That Time The Band Asked Tomi To Pick Up The Slot Of Rhythm Guitarist As Well As Singing Which Led To The Band Dumping All Original Compositions And Starting Again. With The Band Starting To Move Along Tomi's Other Band Abhorrence Split Up And He Found Himself With Much More Time To Put Into Amorphis. The Band Went Into Gear And Started Churning Out New Brutal Music. Shortly After The Band Had Recorded Their First Studio Demo Tape Tomi Got A Letter From Relapse Records Offering Abhorrence A Recording Contract. Since Abhorrence Was No Longer Active They Quickly Sent Their Own Demo In The Return Mail And Eventually Got Signed To A Recording Deal. The Deal Would Later Almost Destroy The Band Due A Very Long Commitment And Poor Artist Relations. They Quickly Released A Death Metal Classic The Karelian Isthmus In 1992 - And Would Later Release The Original Demo As The Privilege Of Evil EP. The EP Featured Abhorrence's Original Vocalist Jukka Kolehmainen As A Vocalist On The Abhorrence Cover Song Vulgar Necrolatry. The Band Quickly Adopted New Ways Of Making Music And Started Incorporating Different Styles In With The Original Death Metal Aspect Creating A Very Unique And Complex Soundscape. This Experimentation In Elements Of Folk Doom Metal And Progressive Rock Resulted In The Melodic Death Metal Cornerstone Tales From The Thousand Lakes In 1994. The Shift Away From Death Metal And Further Into Progressive Soundscapes Influenced By Finnish Prog Rock Bands Like Kingston Wall Became Even More Apparent On Elegy In 1996 And By The Time Tuonela Released In 1999 Their Death Metal Roots And Kalevala Stylings Were But A Distant Memory. Eventually Feeling The Need To Circle Back To How Tales From The Thousand Lakes Was Formed The Band Decided To Bring Back Their Kalevala Lyricism And Develop Their Classic Melodic Metal Sound Further. They Resurfaced With New Vocalist Tomi Joutsen And Released The Fan Favourite Eclipse In 2006 To Critical Acclaim - Another Example Of Their Constant Musical Growth And Uncompromising Attitude. With Renewed Vigor The Band Explored This Modern Direction Further With Equally Beloved Follow-Ups Silent Waters 2007 And Skyforger 2009 - All Three Albums Focusing On One Specific Character At A Time From Kalevala. Forging The Land Of Thousand Lakes Was Released In July 2010. It Is Available As A 2 DVD & 2 CD Package 2 Digipacks In A Box Or As A 2 DVD Set. DVD 1 And The CDs Contain A Live Concert In Oulu Finland In 2009. The Second DVD Contains A Shorter Set From Summer Breeze Open Air 2009 A 60 Minute Documentary And All Most? Amorphis Videos Plus A Photo Gallery. Magic & Mayhem – Tales From The Early Years Was Released In September 2010. It Contains 12 Tracks From The First Three Albums Plus A Bonus Track Light My Fire. They Have All Been Re-Recorded With The Current Line-Up. Some Arrangements Have Changed - Essentially They Are The Songs As They Have Evolved Through Many Concert Tours Recorded In A Studio Environment. In May 2011 The Beginning Of Times Was Released And Went Straight To Number 1 In The Finnish Album Charts And Number 16 In The German Charts. Feeling The Need To Take Another Short Break From The World Of Kalevala They Released Circle In April 2013 - Featuring An Original Self-Contained Story With Some Heavier And More Progressive Influences While Retaining Their Melodic Style. Since 2015 The Band Has Released Three More Records That Continued To Gather Public And Critical Approval - Under The Red Cloud 2015 Queen Of Time 2018 And Halo 2022 - All Leaning Towards A More Symphonic Grandiose Style Compared To Their Previous Releases. Current Members
* Tomi Joutsen – Vocals
* Esa Holopainen – Guitar
* Tomi Koivusaari – Guitar
* Olli-Pekka Laine – Bass
* Santeri Kallio – Keyboards
* Jan Rechberger – Drums Former Members
* Pasi Koskinen – Vocals 1996–2004 * Niclas Etelävuori – Bass 2000-2017 * Pekka Kasari – Drums 1996–2002 * Kim Rantala – Keyboards 1996–1998 * Kasper Mårtenson – Keyboards 1993–1994 Discography 1992 The Karelian Isthmus
1994 Tales From The Thousand Lakes
1996 Elegy
1999 Tuonela
2001 Am Universum
2003 Far From The Sun
2006 Eclipse
2007 Silent Waters
2009 Skyforger
2010 Forging The Land Of Thousand Lakes
2010 Magic & Mayhem – Tales From The Early Years
2011 The Beginning Of Times
2013 Circle
2015 Under The Red Cloud
2018 Queen Of Time
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