Our fave Finnish progressive folk metalists Amorphis are back in late April with Circle, the follow-up to 2011’s solid but somewhat anti-climactic The Beginning of Time.
Circle has already been described as a concept(?) album based on an original story, marking the first time in Amorphis’ 20 year career that they have not based an album’s worth of songs on the Finnish national epic poem The Kalevala.
The first track is Hopeless Days, which you can sample for yourself right here. Initial reviews I’ve read of the album basically describe it as not breaking any new ground and have given it middling-to-upper middle grades. Amorphis is in possession of a sound and concept that is all their own, and I’m okay with them not breaking new ground since they broke major ground in their early days honing their sound.
Production on the new album from Hyprocrisy’s Petr Tagtgren roughens up some of the polished edges quite nicely here, though. Enjoy Abysmally…