Amorphis Under The Red Cloud

Release date:
June 17, 2022
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EN Founded in 1990 in Helsinki, Finland-based melancholic metal masters AMORPHIS wrote music history, incl. classic albums like f.e. their debut »The Karelian Isthmus« (1992), their breakthrough »Tales From The Thousand Lakes« (1994) and »Eclipse« (2006), their first album with the new vocalist Tomi Joutsen, which marked the beginning of a new era in the band‘s history. Regardless of their relentless touring schedule, they secretly returned to the studio to write and record their forthcoming, twelfth record with famous producer Jens Bogren (SOILWORK, KREATOR etc.) at his Fascination Street Studio in Örebro. The result of this two-month recording session is once again a heavy, melodic statement, called »Under The Red Cloud«. During the recordings, the sextet was joined by some famous guest musicians: Chrigel Glanzmann (ELUVEITIE) played flutes on 'The Four Wise Ones', 'Death Of A King' and 'Tree Of Ages', Martin Lopez (ex-OPETH drummer) played percussions on 'Death Of A King' and Aleah Stanbridge (TREES OF ETERNITY) sang guest vocals on 'The Four Wise Ones', 'Sacrifice' and 'White Night'. “It was a great honor to have such talented musicians appearing on »Under The Red Cloud«,“ guitar player and founding member Esa Holopainen comments. “Each one of them puts his/her personality and character in the very right spot.“ The whole recording process was a time full of extremely intense work for AMORPHIS. “It was the first time, that I woke up at 08.00am to start recordings. They went on until 06.00pm in the evening - every day! But the result was definitely worth it,“ the guitarist continues. “It was a great experience and Jens made us playing more aggressive and working really hard“, drummer Jan Rechberger adds. Jens Bogren also handled the mixing and mastering of »Under The Red Cloud«. A perfect example for the variety and feel is the first single 'Death Of A King'.It starts with an oriental melody & crashing drums, and has a lot of dynamics. The follow-up 'Sacrifice' is more upbeat and relies more on the soaring lead melody, like the opener 'Under The Red Cloud', which starts with a tension-creating piano intro. The title track flows over into the double bass-dominated and one of the most aggressive songs on the album - 'The Four Wise Ones'. Finally, the closing track 'White Night' marks a kind of summary of the album, because it contains some trademarks of other songs like an oriental feeling or driving double bass drumming at the end. So it’s a worthy last chapter of the story, AMORPHIS are telling us this time. DE 1990 in Helsinki gegründet, schrieben die aus Finnland stammenden Melancholic Metal-Meister AMORPHIS Musikgeschichte und veröffentlichten Klassiker-Alben wie z.B. ihr Debüt »The Karelian Isthmus« (1992), ihre Durchbruchsplatte »Tales From The Thousand Lakes« (1994) und »Eclipse« (2006), ihre ersten Scheibe mit dem neuen Sänger Tomi Joutsen, die den Beginn einer neuen Ära in der Bandgeschichte einläutete. Ihren erbarmungslosen Tournee-Plan unbeachtet, zogen sie sich heimlich ins Studio zurück, um ihr zwölftes Studioalbum zu schrieben und mit dem schwedischen Produzenten Jens Bogren (SOILWORK, KREATOR etc.) in dessen Fascination Street Studio in Örebro aufzunehmen. Das Ergebnis dieser zweimonatigen Aufnahmen ist einmal mehr ein hartes, melodisches Statement - »Under The Red Cloud«. Während der Einspielung wurde das Sextett von einigen bekannten Gast-Musikern unterstützt: Chrigel Glanzmann (ELUVEITIE) spielte bei 'The Four Wise Ones', 'Death Of A King' und 'Tree Of Ages' Flöte, Martin Lopez (ex-OPETH-Schlagzeuger) fungierte bei 'Death Of A King' als Perkussionist und Aleah Stanbridge (TREES OF ETERNITY) lieh 'The Four Wise Ones', 'Sacrifice' und 'White Night' ihre Stimme. „Es war eine große Ehre, solch talentierte Musiker auf »Under The Red Cloud« dabeizuhaben“, kommentiert Gitarrist und Gründungsmitglied Es