Amorphis were kind enough to kick off their Forging Europe tour in Copenhagen, and they were kind enough to bring Orphaned Land along for the ride.
As the venue changed after the closure of Pumpehuset to Amager Bio, they were for this night only also playing with Metallica Jam, who was celebrating their long-standing tradition of the arrival of the Christmas Brew…

This meant that instead of headlining, Amorphis was now second band of the night, but apart from the fact that they only had limited stage-room (a lot of the back was taken up by Metallica Jam’s equipment), this didn’t seem to bother them much at all.
Quite a few more people in the crowd had arrived since Orphaned Land had played, and the room was pretty well-filled with an exited audience, and the band wasn’t about to disappoint anyone.
The show began with Silver Bride, and already from that point they had me caught, and I wasn’t the only one feeling the terrific atmosphere created by Tomi Joutsen and the rest of the band.
Throughout the show, the band was really fired up and gave a lively and intense performance, as they were presenting us to a nice and varied setlist spanning mostly the newer and early eras of Amorphis, with Alone as the only exception. There was no question that classics like The Castaway and Black Winter Day went straight into people’s hearts, as did From The Heaven Of My Heart and House Of Sleep, but I think that one of the most positively received surprises came when Joutsen announced that they were playing something from the first album, after which Exile Of The Sons Of Uisliu was played. A good idea, and a song probably picked as it also appears on the newly released collection Magic & Mayhem – Tales From The Early Years, where it appears in a new recorded version.

Maybe it was because they were now longer the headlining act, but somehow Amorphis show felt a little pressed for time on me, and even though they played an entire set it felt like they could have used a bit more time on the crowd.
Still, it was a very, very good show, and it contained all the stuff I was hoping for. Especially the ending with My Kantele got everyone a notch further up on the scale, as if it had been necessary…

Setlist:

Silver Bride
Sky Is Mine
Towards And Against
The Castaway
Song Of The Troubled One
Exile Of The Sons Of Uisliu
From The Heaven Of My Heart
The Smoke
Alone
Black Winter Day
House Of Sleep
My Kantele