AMORPHIS — Halo (review)

Album · 2022 · Progressive Metal

3.5/5 · 2022-03-12
siLLy puPPy

AMORPHIS is one of those bands that has certainly earned its place in metal history as one of Finland’s most successful bands that has consistently cranked out albums for the last 30 years beginning with its death doom debut “The Karelian Isthmus.” Probably most famous for its popularizing of folk death metal with its lauded “Tales From The Thousand Lakes,” AMORPHIS was not one to rest on those laurels alone and boldly reinvented itself with the following “Elegy” where the band established itself as a major force in the world of progressive metal with death metal ties. After a series of less fruitful experiments the band once again latched onto a stylistic approach in 2006 with “Eclipse” which provided the blueprint that seemed to work so well and therefore AMORPHIS has been pretty much crafting variations on this style ever since.

Existing somewhere between the world of progressive rock, melo-death and folk metal, AMORPHIS returns in 2022 with HALO its 15th overall studio album and the third installation of the trilogy that includes “Under The Cloud” and the previous album par excellence “Queen of Time.” With a stable lineup since 2006’s “Eclipse,” AMORPHIS has morphed into a true power house of melo-metal and continues to release epic sounding albums that although may be a bit too commercial in nature for many diehard metalheads, nevertheless delivers in a consistency unparalleled in the vast metal universe. While HALO fails in reinventing the band’s long established stylistic approach, it certainly delivers the goods for true fans who long for that clever mix of melo-death guttural growls mixed with clean vocal melodies, catchy pop infused hooks and a clash between abrasive brutality and slick production values. Oh and the production value with nice backing vocal sections is slickly satisfying.

In some ways, HALO harkens back to the “Tales From The Thousand Lakes” era with more deathened guttural growls that add a bit of contrast to the otherwise oft syrupy melodic approaches that the band has pretty much always dished out in great abundance. While a direct successor of “Queen of Time,” this time around the emphasis seems to be to craft a more abrupt contrast between the instantly accessibly melodic constructs with the extreme nature of death metal. Calculated? Yeah, a bit but AMORPHIS has a propensity of bringing it all together in a way only these Finns can. With 11 tracks that near the 56 minute mark, AMORPHIS may not reinvent the wheel but offer yet another interesting variation in their well establish theme. This time around in addition to the plethora of guitars, bass, drums and keyboards, some of which have mined the psychedelic world of 1970s progressive rock, there are also moments of sitar sounds and other unexpected treats.

AMORPHIS has never been a top dog in my metal world. Just a little too comfy in that playing it safe zone for my tastes but i cannot deny that this band is exceptional when it comes to walking that middle ground between extremely nauseatingly commercial and exhilaratingly edgy. The formula has propelled these Finns to the top of the metal universe’s superstar status and that is no small feat indeed. I’m certainly not adverse to commercial sounds even in the styles of extreme metal that are best left to the unabashed extremists who spit in the face of accessibility but i have to admit that i do find the smoothed out sounds of AMORPHIS to be intriguing as this band really knows the art of balance in how it walks these tightrope acts. Given the similarities between any AMORPHIS album since “Eclipse,” it has become more difficult to distinguish albums but for some reason i don’t enjoy this one as much as i did with “Queen of Time.”

It wouldn’t surprise me if AMORPHIS is around another decade or two repeating this formula with similar praise and contempt heaped upon it for its resolute dedication to its stylist approach that it’s loathe to alienate however in the year 2022 it is starting to sound a bit dated and perhaps the band should consider a slight upgrade in its comfort zone. All in all HALO is yet another consistent release that will neither offend or surprise but continues the AMORPHIS proggy melo-death sound in all its predictability. Although this is not a favorite band by any means, AMORPHIS certainly garners a lot of respect in its business model for sure. Biggest complaint of this album is the formula runs dry after about 2/3 of the album and then yawn.