Nuclear Blast has issued that the Finnish kings of melancholic dark metal, AMORPHIS, have released the first single off the band’s upcoming album, “Circle”.
Check out the lyric video for “Hopeless Days” below
„Circle“ was produced and mixed by legendary producer/musician Peter Tägtgren (HYPOCRISY, PAIN) and is set to be unleashed April 19, 2013 via Nuclear Blast.
Finnish melancholic dark metal forerunners AMORPHIS will perform their eleventh album, “Circle”, in its entirety at a special record-release show on on April 25 at Circus in Helsinki.
“Circle” will be released on April 19 via Nuclear Blast Records. Production and mixing duties for the follow-up to 2011’s “The Beginning Of Times” were handled by HYPOCRISY and PAIN mastermind Peter Tägtgren, who has previously worked with such bands as CHILDREN OF BODOM, CELTIC FROST, IMMORTAL and DIMMU BORGIR. The recordings took place at Petrax Studio (NIGHTWISH, CHILDREN OF BODOM, KORPIKLAANI) in Hollola and 5K Studios in Helsinki. The cover artwork was created by Tom Bates (BLEED FROM WITHIN, DEVIL SOLD HIS SOUL) and can be seen below.
Commented AMORPHIS vocalist Tomi Joutsen: “The mystic, androgynous person on the cover represents a spiritual guide. This character was sent from another time and place to help the album’s protagonist find a new path for his life.”
“Circle” track listing:
01. Shades Of Gray
02. Mission
03. The Wanderer
04. Narrow Path
05. Hopeless Days
06. Nightbird’s Song
07. Into The Abyss
08. Enchanted By The Moon
09. A New Day
10. Dead Man’s Dream (bonus track)
The album’s limited digibook version will come with a bonus DVD containing the following:
* The Making Of “Circle”
* Nightbird’s Song (video clip)
Apart from the CD+DVD digibook version, “Circle” will be available on CD (without the bonus track), black 2LP in gatefold, brown 2LP in gatefold and as a bulging limited box, including three bonus tracks and a wristband — exclusively via the Nuclear Blast mail order.
A short summary about the album’s concept/story that spreads throught out the lyrics by Pekka Kainulainen, who wrote the lyrics for most recent AMORPHIS albums: “The protagonist has been dealt a bad hand at birth. He’s always felt himself an outsider with strong potential to become marginalized. Through an accident, after a crisis, he finds a connection with his inner powers. A guide is sent to him, from some other time and place. He gets a chance to take hold of his own life and change his destiny. From the past of Carelian Finland he finds his own spiritual tribe and the power to turn the course of his doomed life. This is a story of survival.”
Joutsen added about the album title: “‘Circle’ represents integrity. Back in the days, when there was something special to talk about, wise men used to sit in circle. Not everyone was invited to join them. But in this story, the protagonist was invited among the wise men’s circle.”
Regarding the direction of the new AMORPHIS material, the band’s guitarist and founding member Esa Holopainen said: “While promoting ‘The Beginning Of Times’, we started to feel that we were giving the same explanations over and over again when people asked about the studio process and how the songs came about. Even though the music was very strong, the making process didn’t offer any surprises and appeared to be quite secured. Now the addition of a new dimension to the developing process has inspired us to focus on our material even more. The songs are extremely strong, bombastic and skull-pummelling.”
“The Beginning Of Times” entered the German Media Control chart at position No. 16 — the best chart position ever scored by an AMORPHIS album in that country. The CD also landed at position No. 1 on the Finnish chart.
Nuclear Blast has issued that today, Finnish melancholic dark metal masters AMORPHIS reveal the cover artwork and tracklist of their recently announced 11th studio album “Circle”, produced and mixed by HYPOCRISY and PAIN mastermind Peter Tägtgren (CHILDREN OF BODOM, CELTIC FROST, IMMORTAL, DIMMU BORGIR) in Petrax Studio, Hollola (NIGHTWISH, CHILDREN OF BODOM, KORPIKLAANI) as well as in 5K Studios, Helsinki. The record is set to be released via Nuclear Blast on April 19, 2013.
Vocalist Tomi Joutsen comments on the cover artwork, created by Tom Bates (BLEED FROM WITHIN, DEVIL SOLD HIS SOUL – http://www.facebook.com/artoftombates ) :
“The mystic, androgynous person on the cover represents a spiritual guide. This character was sent from another time and place to help the album’s protagonist find a new path for his life.”
This very guide was already mentioned by AMORPHIS’ lyricist Pekka Kainulainen in his summary of the album concept: “The protagonist has been dealt a bad hand at birth. He’s always felt himself an outsider with strong potential to become marginalized. Through an accident, after a crisis, he finds a connection with his inner powers. A guide is sent to him, from another time and place. He gets a chance to take hold of his own life and change his destiny. From the past of Carelian Finland he finds his own spiritual tribe and the power to turn the course of his doomed life. This is a story of survival.”
The tracklist of “Circle” reads as follows:
1. Shades Of Gray
2. Mission
3. The Wanderer
4. Narrow Path
5. Hopeless Days
6. Nightbird’s Song
7. Into The Abyss
8. Enchanted By The Moon
9. A New Day
Bonus track:
10. Dead Man’s Dream
The album’s ltd. digi book version will come with a bonus DVD, including:
– The Making Of “Circle”
– Nightbird’s Song (video clip)
Apart from the CD+DVD digi book version, “Circle” will be available on CD (without bonus track), black 2LP in gatefold, brown 2LP in gatefold and as a bulging ltd. box, including 3 bonus tracks + a wristband – exclusively available via the Nuclear Blast mail order.
Finnish melancholic dark metal forerunners AMORPHIS have set “Circle” as the title of their eleventh album, due on April 19 via Nuclear Blast Records. Production and mixing duties for the follow-up to 2011’s “The Beginning Of Times” were handled by HYPOCRISY and PAIN mastermind Peter Tägtgren, who has previously worked with such bands as CHILDREN OF BODOM, CELTIC FROST, IMMORTAL and DIMMU BORGIR. The recordings took place at Petrax Studio (NIGHTWISH, CHILDREN OF BODOM, KORPIKLAANI) in Hollola and 5K Studios in Helsinki.
A short summary about the album’s concept/story that spreads throught out the lyrics by Pekka Kainulainen, who wrote the lyrics for most recent AMORPHIS albums: “The protagonist has been dealt a bad hand at birth. He’s always felt himself an outsider with strong potential to become marginalized. Through an accident, after a crisis, he finds a connection with his inner powers. A guide is sent to him, from some other time and place. He gets a chance to take hold of his own life and change his destiny. From the past of Carelian Finland he finds his own spiritual tribe and the power to turn the course of his doomed life. This is a story of survival.”
AMORPHIS singer Tomi Joutsen adds about the album title: “‘Circle’ represents integrity. Back in the days, when there was something special to talk about, wise men used to sit in circle. Not everyone was invited to join them. But in this story, the protagonist was invited among the wise men’s circle.”
Fan-filmed video footage of AMORPHIS performing a brand new song — tentatively titled “Mehtä” (English-language translation: “The Forest”) — on December 14, 2012 at Klubi in Turku, Finland can be seen below.
Regarding the band’s decision to perform a brand new track during their Finnish tour, Tomi said: “We just wanted to try how it worked, and it went [over] really well.
“We don’t want to play too many [new] songs, because people are recording [the shows with their phone cameras] and [posting] it on the Internet, and we don’t wanna spoil the album [for everyone].
“I was really nervous, of course, when we played it the first time, but it went over great. I think it’s gonna be an awesome live song.”
Regarding the direction of the new AMORPHIS material, the band’s guitarist and founding member Esa Holopainen said: “While promoting ‘The Beginning Of Times’, we started to feel that we were giving the same explanations over and over again when people asked about the studio process and how the songs came about. Even though the music was very strong, the making process didn’t offer any surprises and appeared to be quite secured. Now the addition of a new dimension to the developing process has inspired us to focus on our material even more. The songs are extremely strong, bombastic and skull-pummelling.”
“The Beginning Of Times” entered the German Media Control chart at position No. 16 — the best chart position ever scored by an AMORPHIS album in that country. The CD also landed at position No. 1 on the Finnish chart.
Finland’s west coast rock and metal band Circle will be “artists-in-residence” at next year’s edition of the Roadburn Festival, set to take place April 14-16, 2011 at the Midi Theatre in Tilburg, Holland.
Circle and side project Pharaoh Overlord will be bringing their relentless riffs and genre-destroying musical virtuosity back to Roadburn for the first time since 2007. Circle will be drawing from their enormous (33+ full length records!) discography to play two completely different sets from their 2010 European tour.
With their style ranging from psychedelic rock to free jazz, with literally dozens of other genres between, they has been one of the most diverse musical groups of our time, and if there was ever a band designed to play multiple sets at a festival, it would be Circle. Not only do they have literally hundreds of songs to choose from, but they are also extremely creative and capable of musically changing styles and sounds at the drop of a studded leather hat. Add in their bizarre-but-consummate showmanship, and you have a compelling recipe for
maximum entertainment.
Circle spin-off band Pharaoh Overlord will be playing for one set as well, and anyone who saw them in 2007 knows that it will be something quite unforgettable. They take stoner rock and deconstruct it to it’s most minimal form, The Riff, resulting in music that is akin to well-muscled instrumental kraut rock. Combining their deliberate heaviness with a unique on-stage delivery, they induce a psychotropic stoner-sufi trance that is as much a riff worship ritual as it is a musical performance. After a 4-year recording hiatus, they have recently released their new album, Siluurikaudella.
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s ASA unveil the long-overdue release of "Collective Failure" + first music video for title-track! Check it out and stay tuned for more news! Click image to watch the video
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s SARCOFAGUS return with a Historic 2010 Concert Video Premiere on YouTube! Click image to watch the video
Ads
Visionary artist KIMMO KUUSNIEMI's ANCIENT STREAMING ASSEMBLY (ASA) have released “Aurora Nuclearis”, a powerful 12-minute audiovisual experience, dedicated to the Late Keyboardist Esa Kotilainen. - Click image to watch the video
Click image to watch the video
Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 