Finland’s pioneers of melodic death metal Amorphis was definitely one of the main priorities for me at this year’s Metalfest.
Not only are they a great band who have created a whole truckload of amazing music, but this show was also a special one as it was a sort of release party for their latest album in the collection, called The Beginning Of Times.

The show started out with a piece of wonderfully crafted music over the p.a. system, which quickly unfolded into the opening track of said album as the band-members took the stage and took over the music. I noticed that Tomi Joutsen had once again expanded on his by now rather curious looking signature microphone by adding handles on the sides in addition to the already existing one on the bottom, and also added was some form of funnel at the front which he sang into. Whether all this had a specific technical advantage or not I know not, but it looked kind of interesting.

Something else I noticed, and this surprised me even more, was a lack of audience in the grounds before the main stage.
Sure, there were a lot of people gathered to see the band, and the crowd reached far back, but even up in the front there was nothing even beginning to resemble a mass of people; you could, even after the gig had started, go practically anywhere you pleased without worrying about treading on someone else’s toes.
In addition to this, the crowd was abnormally calm and quiet for a typical festival audience, but I’m sad to say this had a very noticeable reason; the band was boring as hell up on the stage!
Sure, the songs sounded great, just as you’d expect, but there was no life in the musicians. This was especially noticeable in vocalist Joutsen who spent most o the time slouching about with his head hanging. His otherwise so magnificent headbanging (the man has the meanest dreads you’ll ever hope to see) only happened sporadically, and even then it was powerless and uninteresting to behold.

Because of this it felt very wrong to me when he asked if we, the audience, were still alive out there. Well, I’m sorry, but such a drab performance can not but help to be reflected in the response of the crowd, or lack thereof as was the case here.
The small comments Joutsen dropped once in a while did offer a possible explanation to this lack of commitment from the bands side, as he was constantly complaining about the heat. I on the other hand, feel that this was a cheap excuse, as a professional band such as Amorphis should definitely be able to deal with such things.
I do admit that it was hotter than hell’s backgarden however, it was in fact so bad that the security saw it fit to hose us all down with the fire-hose, which was most appreciated.
It didn’t do much for the hopeless situation up on stage however, and when Joutsen announced that they had reached the final song for the day, the final nail was struck into the coffin. All assembled was of course thinking, and shouting for the one and only Black Winter Day (at least the ones with enough presence of mind to shout at this point did), but instead we got House Of Sleep. Sure it’s a great song, but honestly, the theme was maybe a bit overkill after 50 minutes of soporific lack of performance. After this there was a pre-recorded outro which sounded like a repetition of House Of Sleep but now in Finnish. Need I say more?

Honestly, the new album may be called The Beginning Of Times, but this show felt more like the ending of it.

Setlist:

Battle For Light
My Enemy
Against Widows
Sky Is Mine
You I Need
Towards And Against
Crack In A Stone
Silver Bride
The Castaway
House Of Sleep