Inferno Magazine 2023

AMORPHIS

- THE FINNISH WAY

FINALLY, AMORPHIS ARE ABOUT TO HEADLINE THE INFERNO FESTIVAL ON GOOD FRIDAY 2023. THE FINNS ARE NICELY SANDWICHED IN BETWEEN NORWEGIAN BLACK RULERS EMPEROR TAKING LEAD ON THURSDAY AND THE YOUNGER SWEDISH CONTENDERS WATAIN. SO HOW DID A BAND THAT STARTED AS A DEATH METAL ACT AND LATER TURNED INTO A MELODIC AND SOMEWHAT MORE PROGRESSIVE ENTITY EARN THAT POSITION AT OSLO’S MUSICALLY DARKEST ANNUAL GATHERING?

Before exploring this question any further, it should be noted that the general argument made in 2020 when Amorphis were scheduled to play at Inferno for the first time still stands: Although the festival was established because of and has grown out of the Norwegian black metal scene, which has always remained at its heart and at the centre of attention, it has always featured bands from other styles of hard music as well.

A good starting point in the search for an answer to the headliner issue is to take a closer look at the band’s origin. Back in the late 80s, thrash metal had burned much of its early creative fuel and started to stagnate. At the same death metal was on the ascent. After fermenting and brewing in the underground for years, while spreading around the globe through tape-trading circles and demos, the genre stepped firmly into the spotlight. Five ground-breaking and style-defining albums were released in a period of just two years: Death led the pack with the crushing “Leprosy” in 1988. Obituary followed with the vocal-chord shredding “Slowly We Rot” in 1989 and in the same year Morbid Angel erected their “Altars of Madness”. The year 1990 saw Cannibal Corpse releasing their brutal debut “Eaten back to Life” and Atheist adding complexity to the scene with “Piece of Time”. Naturally many other bands also tried to hop onto the moving train and others felt inspired to follow this raging stampede of death.

At the beginning of the 90s, it looked for a moment as if death metal might overtake thrash in popularity – and then it didn’t. While US death metal with its heart beating hard in Florida remained popular ever since, it never reached stadium-filling proportions or headlining status at the very big festivals. Something else happened in the early 90s. In the North of Europe and particularly in Sweden, bands dropped out of the usual death metal cycle of constantly trying to sound harder, louder, more technical, and then repeat.

Instead of following this trend, acts from Stockholm such as Unleashed, Grave, and Dismember as well as At the Gates from Gothenburg started surfacing with album starting in 1991. These ‘Sons of Abba’ added catchy melodies to their downtuned guitars that would over time lead to a more popular and mass compatible style of death metal. Their Norwegian neighbours begged to differ. A young band called Darkthrone released a death metal album entitled “Soulside Journey” in 1991, which did not really catch. In the same year, another young musician, Øystein Aarseth aka Euronymous, from an obscure band called Mayhem opened a shop called Helvete in Oslo. They had self-released the dirty sounding EP “Deathcrush” already in 1987, but at the time few had cared. Still, this EP set the course because Norwegian metal went on a darker tangent and partly in expressed opposition to the development of death metal. This aversion is quite clearly expressed in the logo of Euronymous own label Deathlike Silence Productions, which features an image of Scott Burns inside a prohibition sign. The American producer is famous for his massive contribution to the sound of US death metal and involved in most of the classic recordings of the genre. Well, the rest of Mayhem’s story and that of the Norwegian scene at the time has long become black metal history.

Sweden’s other neighbour to the east was mostly unknown territory during the 80s. Finland’s rise towards establishing the Nordic country as one of Europe’s top metal locations and probably the only one where hard music is considered as part a of the mainstream began with death metal – from an international perspective. The first ones to have an album out were Sentenced with “Shadows of the Past” in 1991 from Oulu, the northernmost city of the European Union. Bass-player and later also singer Taneli Jarva also played in Impaled Nazarene, who established the country’s black metal branch with the “Goat Perversion” EP in 1992.

While Sentenced’s musically impressive career ended in alcohol induced tragedy in 2005, another Finnish band from Helsinki that had also started out as one of the country’s early death metal acts continued to carry the torch: When Amorphis hit the scene with their 1992 debut full-length “The Karelian Isthmus”, they started out on two labels that were already major players among their independent peers: Relapse in the US and Nuclear Blast in Europe. The reason for these signings was probably the obvious quality of Amorphis’ demo material. There was something different about these Finns right from the beginning.

“Whenever I think of our first two albums, I realise that I still have great sympathy for both and particularly for the first”, guitarist and main songwriter Esa Holopainen muses. “We were such a happy bunch and so enthusiastic back then. And we can in all modesty claim to have brought some new elements to death metal – although they did not seem compatible at first glance.”

The new elements that Holopainen is referring too are mainly traits that may be called “typically Finnish” in hindsight. The melodic approach on “The Karelian Isthmus” closely resembles that of their Swedish counterparts. Yet there was something else, which is already present on the debut, but which Amorphis expressed more clearly and detailed on their sophomore album “Tales from the Thousand Lakes”. It came out in 1994 – the same year in which Emperor released their debut album and Mayhem that defining manifest of Norwegian black metal entitled “De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas”.

Musically, “Tales from the Thousand Lakes” somehow manages to sound “Finnish” in a way that would later reflect in the music of compatriots including such stylistically diverse bands as Finntroll, Children of Bodom, Wintersun, and even Nightwish among many others. The roots for this sound reach deep into the traditional music of the Nordic country.

“We were of course largely inspired by death metal”, the Finnish musician states the obvious, “but there was also an element of traditional music that has always been with us from the start. We did not take it directly from folk bands and what is nowadays called folk metal did not even exist at the time. Our inspiration was rather derived from Finnish rock and prog bands from the 70s that we all liked.”

Amorphis had found one of their trademark characteristics as traditional influences have always remained a part of their constantly evolving sound. The prog-side of the band manifested in all clarity through the keyboards on that growled hit “Black Winter Day” on “Tales from the Thousand Lakes”, which gained the band many new followers at the time and live remains a favourite of all audiences.

“Our eyes were opened by ‘Tales from the Thousand Lakes’ and many doors for us as well”, Holopainen adds. “Those were glorious times. Everything was new and we even made it across the Atlantic where we toured with our friends from Entombed.”

“Tales from the Thousand Lakes” also brought a lyrical trademark of Amorphis to the forefront, where it has remained ever since. It was largely inspired by the Finnish national epic, the “Kalevala”. This collection of orally transmitted traditions from their country's past was gathered and re-invented by the physician and philologist Elias Lönnrot (1802-1884). The “Kalevala” has had a similar defining cultural impact in the founding of the national state of Finland as the “re-discovery” of the Eddas and Sagas in Iceland.

“Again, it was our interest in Finnish prog that also led us to lyrically explore the Kalevala on our first albums”, the guitarist continues. “We did not plan it, but somehow this topic has always stuck with us until today. The greatest achievement of Amorphis to me has always been to fit lyrics that were inspired by texts going back to ancient times fit seamlessly together with music that was born in the industrial steel towns of England.”

In a way, this development ran parallel to acts like Enslaved, who were using Norse myth in their lyrics even before their debut album ‘Vikingligr Veldi’ appeared. Both bands do not simply recite medieval or later texts but frame them in a metaphorical contemporary context. They even managed to spark a renewed interest in these old tales within the metal community.

Although there were no strong ties between the metal scenes of Norway and Finland – or in the case of Impaled Nazarene even animosity at first, there has always been contact. “The oldest and probably weirdest memory regarding playing in Norway comes from our guitarist Tomi Koivusaari”, Holopainen smiles. “He was a member of Abhorrence at the time, and they had been invited to perform with Mayhem. All I can say is that this was a very strange experience judging from Tomi’s stories.”

During the 90s, Amorphis did not get to see much of Norway – sadly as Holopainen notes. “Most of the times, we only made it to Oslo but since 2005 our visits have happened more often, and we also got to play in Bergen and Trondheim”, he remarks. “We have always felt very welcome in Oslo, and we have just been there on the tour for out latest album ‘Halo’.”

Luckily for the Oslo crowd, Amorphis are already making plans for a different setlist. “We have been booked for the 70000 Tons of Metal cruise in February”, Holopainen finishes the conversation. “That means we will have to perform twice on the ship. We don’t want to be boring and play the same songs twice. We like a good challenge, and the Inferno Festival will benefit from it too.”

Looking back in time, it becomes clear that Amorphis have played an important role in the evolution of the darker side of metal. They very much deserve their position as one of the headliners of the Inferno Festival. For those, who continue to doubt that obvious fact: just check them out.

Amorphis performs at Rockefeller stage Friday 7th of April 23.30.