The Finnish figureheads AMORPHIS have returned with their fourteenth studio album "Halo", released February 11th, 2022.
A heartfelt piece that still is heavy, aggressive in the finnish melancholic way.
Lyricist Pekka Kainulainen about "The Moon": "I have done several drawings and paintings on this subject over the years. Now I complementary wrote some heavy metal lyrics... This is a song of love."
Guitarist Esa Holopainen adds: "It's a very atmospheric and catchy song that represents what AMORPHIS sound like in 2021 well."
The Artwork by Valnoir, the album was recorded, produced and mixed Jens Bogren (Fascination Street Studios)
Mastered by Tony Lindgren
Today's tune "The Moon" from their new album "Halo", Video directed by Patric Ullaeus (rEvolver Film | www.rEvolver.se) enjoy!
Monday, new week, time to introduce "Record Of The Week".
"Verkligheten" (Swedish for "Reality"), SOILWORKs 11th album, released January 11, 2019. It is the first album to feature drummer Bastian Thusgaard as the replacement of longtime member Dirk Verbeuren. The album's release also marks the longest gap between SOILWORK studio albums to date, with their previous album, "The Ride Majestic", having been released nearly three and a half years earlier.
That SOILWORK is known for is well crafted tunes and with the latest release "Verkligheten" they have once again showed how to make great tunes that is easy to grasp even though there is a complexity in their creation and their way to blend aggression and grandeur. It's very easy to shake your legs to their music, it's very melodic, hard and extremely well played with a great swing and punch that just tickling the ear canals with lovely sounds.
The album opens up with the title tune "Verkligheten", a beautiful instrumental intro before the album second tune "Arrival" explodes with freaking guitar riffs signed David Andersson and Sylvain Coudret, mean bass licks by Taylor Nordberg, thunderous blast beats by Bastian Thusgaard, along with a superb harsh and soft vocals by the main man Björn Strid. "Full Moon Shoals", is a real beauty, melodic, harsh and very progressive. "The Nurturing Glance" opens up with a neatly intro before it erupts into a heavy melodic mayhem, catchy with a great swing. "When The Universe Spoke" and "Needles and Kin" (featuring Tomi Joutsen from AMORPHIS) are two highlights, both with deadly blastbeats with a superb riffing and hooks to die for. The electromagnet beauty "Stålfågel"(featuring Alissa White-Gluz ARCH ENEMY) is another killer tune with big catchy choruses that force you to squeeze the volume even more. Screamadelic tunes like "Bleeder Despoiler" and "The Wolves Are Back in Town" are some neat tunes. "The Ageless Whisper" have some catchy hooks, riffing and magic middle play. The half paced tune "You Aquiver" (featuring Dave Sheldon) with it's immensely hummable hooks ends this strong album, nice to see that you guys are back and that it sounds so good after 20 years, well done.
Sum: This is a top-notch melodic death metal album and a superb way to start the new year.
Today's tune "Full Moon Shoals", taken from "Verkligheten", enjoy!
JINJER is a Ukrainian female fronted band which plays a mixture of progressive metalcore and groove metal, with some inlays of funk, reggae and jazz, though on their second LP the band shifted a bit to death metal of the European school.
JINJER was formed in 2010 when Tatiana Shmailyuk joined the guys as a vocalist. In 2013, the band were acknowledged as the best metal band of the year in Ukraine.
JINJER have been working frantically on a mind-blowing soundscape only they can do justice for and one that shatters all comparisons. Their third album "King of Everything" catapulted this Ukrainian juggernaut into the collective consciousness of the Metal universe and their new EP "Micro" undoubtedly cements itself as another milestone in the history of JINJER. The first single ‘Ape‘ is nothing short of a groove-laden kick in the guts wake up call, full of flickering sonic fury and melodic flashes, while the Micro EP in itself is an emotionally charged trip ranging from caressing to traumatizing and loaded with world-class grooves that can only leave you wanting more.
JINJER consists of:
Tatiana Shmailyuk - vocals
Roman Ibramkhalilov - guitars
Eugene Kostyuk - bass
Vladislav Ulasevish - drums
JINJER is out touring atm with AMORPHIS and SOILWORK.
Today's tune "Perennial" taken from the brand new EP “Micro”, released via Napalm Records on January 11th 2019, enjoy.
Monday, time to see what's got played during normal categories during the "Hardrock Evening" that when off at the Twelfth Night, 5th of January.
The Bonus tune we played yesterday, to they we dust of the first one. 1. A Band That Should Have Been Bigger:
2. Highfaluting
3. Best Right Now:
4. Twin Guitars:
5. Best Textstrophe:
6. It Swings:
7. After Party:
8. Bonus
This was pretty hard one to set, what preferences should I choose. Well my first idea was to pick something fresh, a newcomer that have everything in the way to become that rising star that everyone dreams off. But during the time i changed my mind and went through the record collection to see what I could find. Quite immediately I found the Canadian thrash metal band ANNIHILATOR, they were founded in 1984, has released sixteen studio albums and not been given the attention and respect as they should have been. An excellent chose for category 1. "A Band That Should Have Been Bigger". I choosed "Alison Hell" taken from the debut album "Alice in Hell", released April 17, 1989.
VLTIMAS "Praevalidus" - Chief Rebel (Never heard this one before, cool)
TESTAMENT "Jun-Jun" - Holm (Hard and heavy, they should be bigger)
NEVERMORE "This Godless Endeavor" - P.Öbrink (Hell yeah)
AMORPHIS "Winters Sleep" - Hellan (Great choice, they should be bigger)
CARACH ANGREN "When Crows Tick On Windows" - M. Öbrink (Cool band with great Videos)
TRIVIUM "The Wretchedness Inside" - Eriksdotter ((Hell yeah) AMORPHIS "The Four Wise Ones" - Sandström (Great choice, they should be bigger)
HATEWORK "In The Hands Of Deamons" - Jens (Great choice, support your locals)
ANNIHILATOR "Alison Hell" - Stones
So over this week I'll present all the categories in the order of recording, Today = "Bands That Should Have Been Bigger", Tuesday = "Highfaluting", did one extra for yesterday as the "Bonus" tune, that got added. The rest of this week I will mix mine with the other participant's choices, so here we go.
Today we pick the pretty obvious band on the category 1. "A Band That Should Have Been Bigger", 2 votes on the Finnish heavy metal band AMORPHIS, so true, they really deserve it.
Today's tune "The Four Wise Ones" is taken from the twelfth studio album "Under the Red Cloud", released worldwide on 4 September 2015 through Nuclear Blast. The album was produced by Jens Bogren, who was described as "just the right person" by keyboardist Santeri Kallio. This would be the band's last album with longtime bassist Niklas Etelävuori who left in 2017.
The band is starting their tour with Swedish SOILWORK on the January 11th and on January 15th they play here in Stockholm at Fryshuset, see all the dates below.
Upcoming tourdates:
Fri, JAN 11 Turbinenhalle 2 Oberhausen, Germany
Sat, JAN 12 Doornroosje Nijmegen, Netherlands
Sun, JAN 13 Markthalle Hamburg, Germany
Mon, JAN 14 Amager Bio Copenhagen, Denmark Tue, JAN 15 Fryshuset Stockholm, Sweden
Wed, JAN 16 Rockefeller Oslo, Norway
Fri, JAN 18 Capitol Hanover, Germany
Sat, JAN 19 Hellraiser Leipzig, Germany
Sun, JAN 20 Kwadrat Krakowiany, Poland
Tue, JAN 22 Arenele Romane Bucharest, Romania
Wed, JAN 23 Universiada Hall Sofia, Bulgaria
Fri, JAN 25 Barba Negra Budapest, Hungary
Sat, JAN 26 Ottakringer Brauerei Vienna, Austria
Sun, JAN 27 Masters Of Rock Cafe Zlin, Czech Republic
Mon, JAN 28 Majestic Music Club Bratislava, Slovakia
Tue, JAN 29 Kesselhaus Berlin, Germany
Wed, JAN 30 Backstage Werk Munich, Germany
Fri, FEB 01 Music Hall Geiselwind, Germany
Sat, FEB 02 Essigfabrik Cologne, Germany
Sun, FEB 03 Trix Antwerp, Belgium
Mon, FEB 04 Electric Ballroom London, United Kingdom
Wed, FEB 06 Cabaret Sauvage Paris, France
Thu, FEB 07 Bikini Toulouse, France
Fri, FEB 08 Mon Madrid, Spain
Sat, FEB 09 Salamandra Barcelona, Spain
Sun, FEB 10 Transbordeur Lyon, France
Tue, FEB 12 Live Club Milan, Italy
Wed, FEB 13 Schlachthof Wiesbaden, Germany
Thu, FEB 14 Garage Saarbrücken, Germany
Fri, FEB 15 LKA Longhorn Stuttgart, Germany
Sat, FEB 16 Z7 Pratteln, Switzerland
Tue, MAR 05 Bingo Kyiv, Ukraine
Wed, MAR 06 RE:PUBLIC Minsk, Belarus
Fri, MAR 08 Luna Khabarovsk, Russia
Sat, MAR 09 Sanremo Vladivostok, Russia
Mon, MAR 11 Podzemka Novosibirsk, Russia
Wed, MAR 13 Tele-Club Yekaterinburg, Russia
Thu, MAR 14 Zvezda Samara, Russia
Fri, MAR 15 GLAVCLUB GREEN CONCERT Moskva, Russia
Sat, MAR 16 Club Zal St Petersburg, Russia
Fri, APR 12 Abril Pro Rock Recife, Brazil
Sun, APR 14 Espaço 555 São Paulo, Brazil
Tue, APR 16 Estudio Mirage Limeira, Brazil
Thu, APR 18 Club Blondie Santiago, Chile
Fri, APR 19 Inti Palace II La Paz, Bolivia
Sat, APR 20 Ex-carnivale Cochabamba, Bolivia
Tue, APR 23 Ace Of Spades Club Bogotá, Colombia
Wed, APR 24 Centro Internacional de Ferias y Convenciones San Salvador, El Salvador
Fri, APR 26 Escena Academy Monterrey, Mexico
Sat, APR 27 C3 Stage Guadalajara, Mexico
Sun, APR 28 Auditorio BlackBerry México D.f., Mexico
Sat, JUN 01 Fortarock Nijmegen, Netherlands
Thu, JUN 27 Provinssi Seinäjoki, Finland
Fri, JUN 28 Tuska Festival Helsinki, Finland
Sat, JUN 29 Full Force Gräfenhainichen, Germany
Thu, JUL 18 John Smith Rock Festival Laukaa, Finland
Fri, JUL 19 Rock am Stück Fritzlar, Germany
Fri, AUG 02 Porispere Pori, Finland
Fri, AUG 23 NOAF (Neuborn Open Air Festival) Wörrstadt, Germany
Thu, SEP 19 Theatre of Living Arts Philadelphia, PA
Fri, SEP 20 Irving Plaza New York, NY
Sat, SEP 21 Palladium Worcester, MA
Sun, SEP 22 Upstate Concert Hall Saratoga County, NY
Mon, SEP 23 Club Soda Montreal, Canada
Tue, SEP 24 Mavericks Ottawa, Canada
Wed, SEP 25 Salle Multi Québec, Canada
Thu, SEP 26 The Opera House Toronto, Canada
Fri, SEP 27 Agora Theater & Ballroom Cleveland, OH
Sat, SEP 28 The Forge Joliet, IL
Sun, SEP 29 Turner Hall Ballroom Milwaukee, WI
Mon, SEP 30 The Cabooze Minneapolis, MN
Wed, OCT 02 Dickens Calgary, Canada
Thu, OCT 03 Starlite Room Edmonton, Canada
Sat, OCT 05 Venue Nightclub Vancouver, Canada
Sun, OCT 06 El Corazon Seattle, WA
Tue, OCT 08 Ace Of Spades Sacramento, CA
Wed, OCT 09 Slim's San Francisco, CA
Thu, OCT 10 The Roxy Theatre Los Angeles, CA
Fri, OCT 11 City National Grove Of Anaheim Anaheim, CA
Sat, OCT 12 Marquee Theatre Tempe, AZ
Mon, OCT 14 Gothic Theatre Englewood, CO
Tue, OCT 15 The Truman Kansas City, MO
Wed, OCT 16 Trees - DIN Productions Dallas, TX
Thu, OCT 17 Scout Bar Houston, TX
Sat, OCT 19 The Orpheum Tampa, FL
Sun, OCT 20 The Masquerade Atlanta, GA
Mon, OCT 21 Baltimore Soundstage Baltimore, MD More info @
Monday, new week, time to introduce "Record Of The Week"
"Queen Of Time" is the thirteenth studio album from the metal icons AMORPHIS, one of Finland’s biggest musical export alongside NIGHTWISH.
"Queen Of Time" is a collection of epic songs, well carved with an impressive musical creation, sound fresh and familiar. It's very progressive with death folk techniques, big atmospheric soundscape, amazing chemistry, clever melody with sharp riffing by Esa Holopainen and Tomi Koivusaari, rhythm section by Santeri Kallio who handles the key together with the drummer Jan Rechberger does a excellent work, tastefully vocals in both the clean and the harsh delivery by Tomi Joutsen and I guess the original bassist Olli-Pekka Laine return after a 17-year absence has made some impact in the creation of the album. The album has got a great treat in the production, by Jens Bogren. "Queen Of Time" was released May 18, 2018 on Nuclear Blast.
"Queen Of Time" opens up with the strong tune "The Bee", chants, powerful keys harmony, heavy harsh vocals mixed with clean singing. Follows up with a more folkier rocker "Message in the Amber", a more progressive and softer piece. Next in line is "Daughter Of Hate", a tune that follows the more traditional AMORPHIS standard, catchy rocker with Jørgen Munkeby extraordinarily in-demand saxophone and a native spoken word that makes a nice spice to the tune. "The Golden Elk" is a great piece with an atmospheric layout, powerful vocals and beautiful riffing. "Wrong Direction" is more straightforward tune with pure clean vocals and catchy melody. "Heart Of The Giant" and "We Accursed" follows the folkish line with harsh vocals and powerful melody, a more standard AMORPHIS tune. "Grain Of Sand" is a deep and sorrowful piece, Mideast folky harmony, deep riffing and keys. "Amongst Stars" with Anneke van Giersbergen as guest vocal, great piece, see the video below. The album closes with the beautiful "Pyres On The Coast", a monstrous piece with amazing harmony. The two bonus tunes "As Mountains Crumble" and "Brothers And Sisters" follows the AMORPHIS standard with a lot of keys in an atmospheric landscape in a very high standard.
Sum: AMORPHIS did it again, "Queen Of Time" is an epic piece of music.
Today's tune "Amongst Stars" taken from "Queen Of Time", enjoy!
Monday, New week, time to introduce "Record Of The Week"
“One has to go to extremes to be able to get inside yourself. One must break constraints to know your abilities. One has to be independent to earn followers. You have to be strong to be able to keep promises.”
That speaks Ruoja, the front figure of AJATTARA, often called as the "most dangerous black metal band to emerge from Finland". These Six Finnish Santanic raiders make their way back towards rugged landscape of darkness after being adrift for six years in hiatus, they released their ninth full-length "Lupaus", on Svart Records on May 12th, 2017, a record that get the chance to be "Record Of The Week".
AJATTARA combine elements of black metal, death metal that play a style of melodic blackended metal not dissimilar to ROTTING CHRIST and to a lesser extent SAMAEL. The combined use of synthesisers and heavy guitar sounds give AJATTARA a distinct "grimey" sound. The lyrical themes usually deal with death, evil and paganism.
"Lupaus" lyrics are written entirely in his mother tongue, Finnish. The album starts of "Saatanan Sinetti", vicious drumming, furious squealing riffs, screaming vocals, a milling almost completely unstoppable wrath that sets the frame of mind for the album. "Ristinkirot" slows down the streaming flow of evil, groovy tune with a wall of drumming harmony.
"Suru" is a catchy piece with chanting choruses, clean vocals mixed up with gurgling screams and heavy and evil half paced riffs. "Sinä" here you will sink into the darkness where the way out no longer exists. Until they burst out in a vicious onslaught in "Amen" that follows by the pure evil tune "Ave Satana”, still catchy in all it's evilness. "Uhrilahja" goes with a more blackended rock, still with screaming vocals, evilness hides in the dark corners. The title tune "Lupaus" is a epic piece, where they use all the instruments and their musical creativity, progressive with catchy hooks. The album ends with the doomish melancholic "Machete".
Sum: Nothing is harder and cuts deeper than the Finnish language.
"My Mistake", a brand new song from HALLATAR, which features guest vocals by DRACONIAN's Heike Langhans, is taken from HALLATAR's debut album, "No Stars Upon the Bridge", which is based on the lyrics and poems of Aleah Starbridge and it was released on October 20 via Svart Records.
Although a brand new name, HALLATAR features in its ranks SWALLOW THE SUN and TREES OF ETERNITY guitarist Juha Raivio, AMORPHIS vocalist Tomi Joutsen and former HIM drummer Gas Lipstick.
Juha Raivio hails his former bandmember and partner from TREES OF ETERNITY, Aleah Starbridge, who sadly passed away last year after loosing his battle against cancer.
Today's tune "My Mistake" (with Heike Langhans), taken from "No Stars Upon the Bridge". Directed by Aapo Lahtela, Cinematography by Vesa Ranta & Aapo Lahtela, Edited by Aapo Lahtela & Vesa Ranta, enjoy.
Do you have kids?
One or more little rascals that you love sometimes and that can drive you completely insane other times?
I do.
And as we are going to discuss something very important today, you'll have to either imagine that you have kids, or take everything that is written from now on in this post with a bit of patience (obviously depending on the answer you gave to the initial question).
Yes, we are going to discuss the musical education of the kids.
Or, as I've called it in a column at my own blog, "The Highway To Hell".
It is a long post that stakes the way from "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to the extremest of metal, and I actually once posted it on Facebook.
Big mistake.
Should not have done that.
Swedes - or, at least, the acquaintances I have on Facebook - seemed to take everything deadly serious, and have had comments regarding my unwillingness to let my children choose their own path.
Come on - I love my kids, and even though it sometimes feels that the worst things they could put me through is join the church and become politically active, I would support them no matter what!
However.
I would like them to become rockers, and I'll admit straight away: I try to influence them, and make it so.
I even have a plan. A 6 step way to drag them with me to hell (by the way, don't you just love the first picture, the top one? It's by Soul on Deviant Art, a great place to find everything art related you need!).
I'll not go into them in depth, but the steps are, in short:
1) Basic rytm and singing. This is the baby months, and include all the known children tunes like "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".
2) Rock'n'Roll and Metal basics. Easy classics that can make any child dance and want to sing along. AC/DC, IRON MAIDEN and the likes.
3) Faster, Dirtier. The next phase of metal, introducing METALLICA and their brethren...
4) Growl. Learning how to enjoy metal with vocals that are not clean is a big step, and to help me with that I will call upon the likes of IN FLAMES and AMORPHIS.
5) ...The madness is spreading. Once accepting growl, a landscape of more extreme metal opens up. this landscape is inhabited by BEHEMOTH, BOLT THROWER and black metal acts like WATAIN and MARDUK.
6) Beyond the realms of sanity. After realising that the acts mentioned in step 5 are really not the most extreme metal there is, you'll want to look further, and into the eyes of acts like NASUM, FUNERAL MIST and others.
So.
A crash-course in how to became a metal head.
I have two boys. One is turning 5 soon enough, and the other is 2.
Even though they were both headbanging to THE SWORD the other day, I'd say that they are really at stage one and two.
This is the most popular rockalbum/son so far:
They are officially called VAN HALEN, but the housename from my kids are "THE BABIES", obviously due to the brilliant cover.
The song, of course, is "Jump".
Yes, it has been played over and over. In the radio, on parties, karaoke nights and dance floors, and it is a song that you might be a bit fed up with...but there is no denying that this song has that quality that makes it a classic that can really lure kids into rock'n'roll.
So, todays tune is something completelly different.
It is a song from the level were I feel comfortable myself - after all, the path takes a lifetime to walk...
This is BEHEMOTH, with the tune "Slaves Shall Serve". It is taken from the album "Demigod", a small master-piece if you ask me. Nowadays, the band has fought off religious madness in their homeland Poland, frontman Nergals leukemia and turned into one the bands with the fanciest video productions of all metal bands (surch YouTube for videos to "Ov Fire And The Void" or "Alas, The Lord Is Upon Me" and ypu'll see what I mean).
This is also a kind of music were I am at comfortable.
I listen to more aggressive, challenging and extreme metal as well, but that still takes a toll on me and I have to focus to appriciate a band like NAPALM DEATH in their grindy moments.
So.
I am evil, devious and a parent with a plan.
I want to share rock'n'roll concerts with my kids, and be able to give them an education within the records of rock'n'roll and metal.
Don't try and say that you are so different, even though your hopes might not be for them to become full-blown metal heads with their ears filled with semi-satanic music....
More info @
The Rebel Angel Ramblings Blog
Official Behemoth Web
Listen to ”Behemoth - Slaves Shall Serve" on Spotify here!
Here are some pictures and a short recap from Sweden Rock Festival:
10 CC
Old guys but still rockin!
10 CC
Adrenaline Mob
The band did a pretty decent performance!
Mike Orlando
Amorphis
Better than i thought it would be live, Amorphis rocked.
Axel Rudi Pell
A man who has plenty of his own material plays covers, wtf, really boring.
Danko Jones
Good live as always, never get disappointed on these guys.
Danko Jones "JC"
Dimmu Borgir
Mmm sounded really good.
Gamma Ray
Well, i prefer Helloween.
Graveyard
This was prolly the 5,11th time i have seen Graveyard live, good oh yes.
Little Angels
Nice meeting with this guys, got swing live.
Mastodon
Great, great, great.
Michael Schenker Group
Well, could have been more fun.
Pentagram - Bobby Liebling
This is a really cool dude, chatted with him at the hotel, to bad that i missed the gig.
Rival Sons
Oh, never can get enough of this live.
Sebastian Bach & Dee Snider
Kinda cool live, nice mix when Dee arrived.
Sepultura
Heavy, but that's about it.
Steel Panther
Hmm, not really my cup of tea. But a lot of sex, tits and pussy.
Steel Panther
Soundgarden was the main act on Thursday night. With a sneaking intro, great lighting and an ok sound, do the guys step on stage. Sounds great, but feels dark, slightly depressive vibe I get. But really fun to experience them live, I'm happy. Do not watch the entire show because I had other things to do, more on that tomorrow.
Soundgarden is an American grunge band formed in Seattle, Washington in 1984 by singer Chris Cornell, lead guitarist Kim Thayil, and bassist Hiro Yamamoto. Matt Cameron became the band's full time drummer in 1986, while bassist Ben Shepherd became a permanent replacement for Yamamoto in 1990.
Todays tune "Spoonman" is a song written by frontman Chris Cornell, "Spoonman" was released on February 15, 1994 as the first single from the band's fourth studio album, Superunknown (1994). "Spoonman" is often credited as one of the songs that launched Soundgarden's career into the mainstream.
Amorphis is a Finnish melodic Death Metal/Folk Metal band, they started up in 1990 and were a death act, but somehow they changed and here we are what they are today. They frequently use the Kalevala the Epic Poem of Finland, as a source for their lyrics.
On January 24, 2011, the band released an update which revealed
recording was almost finished, except for vocals which would be
completed at the home of producer Marco Hietala. The album was called "The Beginning Of Times" and was released in may 2011.
Current members:
Tomi Joutsen on harsh & clean vocals
Esa Holopainen on lead guitar
Tomi Koivusaari on rhythm guitar
Niclas Etelävuori on bass & backing vocals
Santeri Kallie on keyboards
Jan Rechenberger on drums
Tour:
June
04.06. Sonisphere, Helsinki, (FI)
08.06. Swedenrock, Sölvesborg, (SE)
15.06. Provinssirock, Seinäjoki, (FI)
23.06. Vekeri Festival, Debrecen, (HU) July
20.07. Costa De Fuego, Benicasim, (E)
21.07. Devil Side Festival, Oberhausen, (DE)
26.07. Lieksan Vaskiviikot, Lieksa, (FI) August
03.08. Myötätuulirock, Vantaa, (FI)
04.08. Porispere, Pori, (FI) October
12.10. Metal Invasion, Straubing, (DE)
Stones wanted me to tell you all that He´s having a ball at Sweden Rock and this week record will be postponed to next week, I do hope its okey with ya all :D
Folks, This is Amorphis!
Cheers, Thetania
Listen to ”Amorphis - You I Need" on Spotify here!
Listen to ”Behemoth - Slaves Shall Serve" on Spotify 
