Band:	Amorphis
Album:	Tuonela
Style:	Folk metal, Progressive metal
Release date:	March 1999
Guest review by:	ForestsAlive

01. The Way
02. Morning Star
03. Nightfall
04. Tuonela
05. Greed
06. Divinity
07. Shining
08. Withered
09. Rusty Moon
10. Summers End
11. Northern Lights [Japanese bonus]

Tuonela is Amorphis’ most beautiful album. It defies metal boundaries and explores uncharted sonic paths. With an almost perfect collection of songs from start to finish and a haunting atmosphere, it is a journey worth taking.

Let’s be honest, there’s no meritocracy in metal and the arts in general. No matter how much we want to believe that hard work and talent matter, many unknown factors are at play. Eventually, you get bands like Anthrax considered one of the big four, Disturbed reaching a billion views on YouTube, and Limp Bizkit headlining festivals. At the same time, there are bands like Nevermore that slowly and unfairly fade into obscurity. And, of course, there is the still-active Amorphis, who, despite their immense talent and consistency, has never achieved the level of success they deserve. However, this review is not about personal grievances; it aims to celebrate Amorphis’ most ambitious, most unique, most beautiful album: Tuonela.

The 90s were an evolving period for Amorphis. They started as a humble death metal band but soon released Tales From The Thousand Lakes, a classic folk, death metal album with an amazing atmosphere. Elegy matured their sound even more, adding more sophistication and finesse to both their aesthetics and songwriting while removing a lot of the death influences. Finally, the end of the 90s brings us to Tuonela.

Tuonela’s sound is unprecedented for metal standards. First of all, it has all death metal influences stripped away, and it can only be described as a form of progressive rock, with the drums less in the forefront and the numerous guitar layers, keys, and vocals taking the lead. There’s a strong focus on rich textures achieved with versatile instrumentation and the tasteful use of delay, reverb, and all kinds of effects. Typically, busy mixes with lots of layers can be demanding for the listener, but Amorphis knows which components to bring forward at the right time, whether that is a riff, a melody, or a chord progression played by the keyboards, as in the bittersweet “Summer’s End” that closes the album.

Speaking about specific songs, Tuonela is packed with great songwriting. The opening “The Way” is one of the best tracks the band has ever written. “Divinity” is a great single, and the ending of the song “Tuonela” with the piano and saxophone is just pure bliss. Rarely has a band used a saxophone in such a way that adds to the atmosphere rather than ruining it by trying to be too prog. Overall, each song has something to offer, and because of the rich textures, you crave to listen and discover hidden details.

Regarding the performances, Esa Holopainen is the obvious standout. In fact, Tuonela must be Esa’s most ambitious and unique guitar performance to date; there’s just so much detailed work on his sound and phrasing, anything ranging from clean arpeggios to melodies and solos. Esa must be one of the most underappreciated, well-rounded musicians in metal.

Another standout is, of course, Pasi Koskinen, who is not a technical singer; he might not even have a proper range, but the color of his voice is just beautiful. His personality really separated Amorphis from the rest during that period. Finally, I should not forget to mention Santeri Kallio, who moves between the Hammond and dreamy, almost ambient keys so creatively without a single cheesy moment. Beautiful stuff that was only repeated on the follow-up album Am Universum.

The story of Amorphis after the departure of Pasi has been an interesting one. They indeed released a plethora of high-quality albums with the amazing Tomi Joutsen, but their sound was stripped down of the rich layers and textures. Their production also agreed more with conventional metal aesthetics. Sonically, they stopped evolving. Who knows, maybe they figured out that meritocracy does not exist while safe albums are of low risk and high reward.

So when I saw Amorphis live in 2023, it was expected of them to neglect both Tuonela and its sister album Am Universum. Those albums are maybe too complex to reproduce live, or the band has a huge catalog with Tomi to cover anyway. It was an amazing show nonetheless that showcased the professionalism, talent, and uniqueness of this band.

Still, Amorphis deserves more.

Tuonela deserves more love.