Amorphis - Circle - review
Amorphis - Circle - review
Tracklist
01. Shades Of Gray02. 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 [Box set bonus] [American Deluxe Edition Bonus]
11. New Song [Japanese bonus]
12. My Future [vinyl bonus]
13. Illusion [box set bonus]
14. His Story
[American Deluxe Edition Bonus DVD]
01. The Making Of "Circle"
02. Nightbird's Song [video]
A review by
Dream Taster June 16, 2013
As usual their music is a nice convergence of styles, which encompasses elements of folk, doom, black, you name it. But despite borrowing from diversified sources, the core of their sound remains heavy metal. In a world that is all shades of grey, the band followed a narrow path to success. The mission was to not fall into the abyss of oblivion. If you ask me, mission accomplished. Sure, these songs are essentially more pumped-up versions of what Amorphis has been putting out there for the last few years. They harbor darker melodies and overall more growls than we are used to from Tomi Joutsen. However the rest is pretty much more of the same.
But when all is said and done, Circle is a more rounded album than both its predecessors. It feels more like the proud inheritor of Silent Waters without being its twin. The killer songs nicely fall into place right in the middle of the album, which manage to give the whole experience a second life when one thinks nothing more exciting is going to happen.
Now the various editions available are confusing as hell in terms of bonus tracks. My favorite one is "Illusion", which features a nice hint of a throwback to the 70s tone not dissimilar to what Spiritual Beggars have been bringing to the table.
Circle is not that much different from what Amorphis have being doing for the last decade or so. Yet even after the original excitement has waned, I still find myself going back to this album for more. It is definitely a step in the right direction they managed to take without overhauling their sound.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 8 |
| Songwriting: | 9 |
| Originality: | 8 |
| Production: | 9 |
Written on 16.06.2013 by
Written on 16.06.2013 by
Bringing you reviews of quality music and interesting questions such as:"A picture is worth a thousand words. How many words is a song worth?"
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Comments
Comments:
17
Visited by
490 users
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Posts: 105  |
Posts: 105
Huh. I have like the opposite feeling of this album. When I'm listening to the album, everything sounds great, but once it's done I have no desire to return to it. This is the first Joutsen-era album that doesn't make me scream with fangirl glee, to be honest. Well written review, though.
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Posts: 92  |
Posts: 92
Well written and as close to what I would say about this album as it gets.
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Posts: 240  |
Posts: 240
Ok, nice review, but when the fuck Amorphis played thrash??? Death/doom yes, but thrash?
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 Posts: 40071 |
Posts: 40071 Written by ravendeath on 16.06.2013 at 17:18 my reaction as well. WTF? thrash? never. That remark about them being thrash in the early 90s left me gasping for air for a couple of hours 
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
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Posts: 240 |
Posts: 240 Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 16.06.2013 at 17:29 Yep, that must be corrected, such misinformations shouldn't be allowed in such a website.
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Posts: 2504
I suspect the reviewer needs to relisten to the old Amorphis classics!
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 Posts: 756 |
Posts: 756
I feel this album is very.. generic. It has some REALLY GOOD songs, but most of the songs are very tame and "meh", in my opinion
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 Posts: 1703 |
Posts: 1703
Havent listened since Silent Waters and I think I'll give this a shot.
---- Coldgrits
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| !J.O.O.E.!
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!J.O.O.E.!
Account deleted Written by SilentScream on 16.06.2013 at 23:23 I assuming the reviewer's confusion comes from their doom / death debut. If he thinks 'Tales...' is thrash then he needs a serious talking to 
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| Posts: 40071 |
Posts: 40071 Written by [user id=4365] on 17.06.2013 at 03:10 also if he thinks the debut is thrash
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996
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| !J.O.O.E.!
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!J.O.O.E.!
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 Posts: 1358 |
Posts: 1358
Yeaaah agree with everyone else here about the Thrash thing. There is nothing Thrashy about early Amorphis. haha Reviewer must be listening to the wrong band! About the album, I like it a lot.  The Bonus tracks are also killer, if you can find them. I bought the album but downloaded the bonus tracks off of youtube since they didn't come with my version. : /
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| kalmah999
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| Posts: 1342 |
Posts: 1342
Thrash? Did I write Thrash? I guess I did  Better change that now!
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Posts: 1  |
Posts: 1
The Great song in this album is absouletly Nightbird's Song. The riff which is comin' after intro is awesome and madly! And this song have a classic "Amorphis enstrumental break/change" . Can't you hear that flute and mystic melody?! This is not a Great Album but there are good songs in this album.
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Posts: 108  |
Posts: 108
I can but agree with the review (now the Trash bit has been corrected  ). My fav track is 'Enchanted by the moon': great melody + Tomy showing the versatility of his voice .
---- ---------------------------------------------------------- Cthulhu for President! Why settle for the lesser evil?
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Posts: 241  |
Posts: 241
Thanks for putting up the review, I'd lost track of Amorphis... seems like Beginning of Times was just out yesterday! On that note, Circle is a better album. Still not as good as Skyforger, but almost. It is better paced. Plenty of memorable songs and those awesome melodies I love so much.
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