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 Since Abhorrence was no longer active, they quickly sent their own demo in the return mail and eventually got signed to a recording deal.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 Karelian Isthmus 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. Their musical growth has not stopped and the band consistently strives to excel in the creativity and unique soundscapes which has always been the band's backbone.
Eclipse, is the result of this uncompromising attitude and while the band sheds their musical skin, the fans can rest assured that the direction of the music is still in the same distant horizon as it was when they went in to studio to records Tales from the Thousand Lakes.
Amorphis' eighth release was Silent Waters, which was released in 2007 and continued in similiar vein with Eclipse. Again based on Kalevala, the album tells the story of Lemminkäinen.
Skyforger was released in May 27 2009, and it contains 10 songs. The digipack version has one bonus song; Godlike Machine.
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.
In the decade from 2011 to 2021, the band released three more records that continued to gather public and critics approval and where the melodic metal style of the band consolidated even more.
Current Members
* Tomi Joutsen – vocals
* Esa Holopainen – guitar
* Tomi Koivusaari – guitar
* Niclas Etelävuori – bass
* Santeri Kallio – keyboards
* Jan Rechberger – drums
Former Members
* Pasi Koskinen – vocals (1996–2004)
* Olli-Pekka Laine – bass (1990–2000)
* 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
Official site: Amorphis.net
enigma
Amorphis Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
He was lead astray
Forces strange he had to face
Magic unseen
When he asked, he was not answered
But he would not yield
What he asked for was not given
To a whirling mass of water
Mountains of high
His desire he spoke out
To claim his due
A shadow moved in Louhi's mirror
The fairest maid of them all
Restless mind found her to his liking
But the queen wanted more
Louhi spoke in riddled tones of three things to achieve
Find and catch the devil's moose and bring it here to me
Seize the stallion born of fire, harness the flaming horse
He captured and bound the moose, he tamed the golden horse
Still remained the one final test
Hunt the bird from the stream of death
The lyrics to Amorphis's song Enigma describe a journey of a person who is searching for something profound, a manifestation of their own dreams. The singer faces several confrontations with strange and magical forces that do not answer his questions, though he refuses to give up on his quest. He voices his desire to claim his due and encounters Louhi, the queen who speaks in riddles and sets forth three challenges for him to achieve - finding and catching the devil's moose, seizing the stallion born of fire and harnessing the flaming horse, and hunting the bird from the stream of death. The singer succeeds in completing the first two challenges by capturing and binding the moose and taming the golden horse, but the song ends with the final, daunting task of hunting the bird from the stream of death remaining.
Line by Line Meaning
On his trail the stones they grew
As he journeyed, obstacles and challenges appeared before him.
He was lead astray
He was led away from his intended path.
Forces strange he had to face
He encountered unusual and mysterious powers.
Magic unseen
He encountered mysterious and invisible forms of magic.
When he asked, he was not answered
He sought answers but received no response.
But he would not yield
Despite the lack of response, he persisted in his quest for answers.
What he asked for was not given
He did not receive what he had asked for.
A shape to his dream
He sought to give form and structure to his aspirations.
To a whirling mass of water
He spoke his desires to a tumultuous body of water.
Mountains of high
His journey carried him to towering peaks.
His desire he spoke out
He vocalized his deepest longings.
To claim his due
He sought to receive that which he believed he was owed.
A shadow moved in Louhi's mirror
An unknown figure made an appearance in Louhi's reflection.
The fairest maid of them all
This unknown figure was the most beautiful woman of all.
Restless mind found her to his liking
He was drawn to this woman with a constantly active mind.
But the queen wanted more
Louhi had additional demands and expectations.
Louhi spoke in riddled tones of three things to achieve
Louhi presented three cryptic challenges that must be completed.
Find and catch the devil's moose and bring it here to me
The first challenge was to locate and capture a moose belonging to a devilish creature and bring it to Louhi.
Seize the stallion born of fire, harness the flaming horse
The second challenge was to capture and tame a powerful horse born of flames.
He captured and bound the moose, he tamed the golden horse
He successfully completed the first two challenges.
Still remained the one final test
There was still one challenge left to complete.
Hunt the bird from the stream of death
The final challenge was to hunt down and capture a bird from a treacherous stream.
Contributed by Violet N. Suggest a correction in the comments below.