So how has Holland been so far?
I love Holland. It is the first place in Europe I came to and for the band it is the base since 1998. Every time we come to Europe we start here. We store all our equipment here, hire a bus here.
Your bass player died here in Amsterdam. You don’t have any hard feelings?
Well I wasn’t in the band at that time. I was in high school when that happened. Finney had a really hard time. But you can’t me angry at Amsterdam. Being here is sort of honoring him, keeping the memories.
It’s awfull. We do charityshows every year for a library that was set up in his name.
Michel
Fantasiafest 2013
The world is full of beautiful things. If you want to escape every-day city life or the huge massive events, you have to pay a visit to FantasiaFest in Meppel, The Netherlands. On a quiet place in the middle of nature and old farmland there’s an old mansion ‘De Lindenhorst’ … Continue reading →
The Royal Spuds – ‘Wanted: Drunk ‘n’ Alive’ (2013)
Rating: 8,5/10 Release: 27 July 2013 Label: Independent The Royal Spuds are really in for it and they despite the fact they celebrate their one year anniversary of their first gig at the release date of their full length, they know what their doing. A year of quite a lot … Continue reading →
Skiltron + Rhovanion @ Little Devil
After two extreme hot days, it finally cooled down a bit on the Wednesday-night that Skiltron was about to set foot on stage of the Little Devil for their first European tour ever. With Rhovanion as their support it promised to be a great evening. Rhovanion Exactly at half past … Continue reading →
Skiltron – ‘Into the Battleground’ (2013)
Rating: 8/10 Release: 21 June 2013 Label: Hellion Records Bagpipes? Check! Catchy riffs? Check! Sing-along choruses? Check! Everything is there to make this a great record, and that’s exactly what these Argentinians did with their 4th full length. The first notes of the CD are that of an epic intro, … Continue reading →
Hörnerfest 2013
The last weekend of June is just like last year reserved for my favorite festival of the year, Hörnerfest. Just like last year this small festival near Hamburg had and amazing line-up, but next to epic bands, Hörnerfest has so much more to offer. Friday morning early the festival weekend … Continue reading →
Litvintroll – ‘Czornaja Panna’ (2013)
Rating: 8,5/10 Release: 15 April 2013 Label: Sound Age Productions It’s been a while since Litvintroll released their previous album. It takes us back to 2009 when their album ‘Rock’n’Troll’ was released, but now they’re back with ‘Czornaja Panna’. When this album was about to be released their friend Aleh … Continue reading →
Amon Amarth – ‘Deceiver of the Gods’ (2013)
By: Thijs Rating: 8/10 Release: 25 June 2013 Label: Metal Blade Records I’ve never been really experienced with melodic death metal. While my friends ramble on about the Amott brothers and Göthenborg sounds, I mostly remain silent in the corner with a big pokerface on these subjects. Amon Amarth, however, … Continue reading →
The Mahones, Melkweg Amsterdam
There is a first time for everything. Last Friday I visited a folk punk concert for the first time in my life. The program of the evening consisted of the support acts The McGonagalls and Circle J and of course the headliner The Mahones. Before the show I had some … Continue reading →
Interview with Amorphis
Circle and more
Congratulations with the new album Circle, it is really one of the best, or maybe the best so far!
What was your inspiration for this album? And is there a reason that it sounds darker then the previous albums?
We got little bit bored of the same way of doing albums. We wanted to have change. Of course with a long career you have to keep yourself hungry to try new things and challenge yourself. We needed to get more inspiration especially for the recording process, try out different things and come up with something not so normal. Maybe The Beginning Of Times was too sterile for us? It sounds maybe too soft comparing what does it sounds live.. With Circle we needed to get new directions for the recording process and the lyrical concept. Try out different things and come up with something not so normal for us. Now we used 7th person as a producer. And that’s been a while when we did like this last time, I think it was back in 2001 at Am Universum when we last time used producer (Simon Efemey). Even thought we had a producer with Circle we still had pretty big impact on the songs and how they turn out. And we did not try to musically-wise try to change everything. The songs were made at the same way they’ve always done. Musically-wise we did not try to change everything. The songs were made at the same way we’ve always been doing. Someone brings the demo to the rehearsals and so on. We did have some sort of a feeling to make this album harder and darker than The Beginning Of Times, but I think it was more like an general intuition. Now when I listen it when its mixed and mastered its definitely heavier than previous, the keyboards are more in the background, lots of heavy guitars and ultra low bass. There is a variation all over in the music, performing and production. Overall we wanted something different, maybe more experimental. Less vocal mass and choirs. I wanted to have more real pianos and real hammonds so I recorded them with authentic instruments, even some church-organs in big church. We were looking for more aggressive sound thus everybody thought the sound in previous album The Beginning of Times could have been more edgier.
Every album has its own theme. How do you come to a theme and how does it grow into an album?
So we thought now it was a time to make album with a producer outside the band. Also we discussed with each other that we could try something more modern now and our lyricist Pekka Kainulainen came with an concept which happen in the present time (or somewhere in the modern times). We read it through and actually it sounded much more interesting starting point than just another concept about an old story or classic Kalevala character once again.