AMORPHIS — Magic & Mayhem: Tales From The Early Years (review)

AMORPHIS — Magic & Mayhem: Tales From The Early Years album cover Boxset / Compilation · 2010 · Melodic Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
2.5/5 ·
UMUR
"Magic & Mayhem: Tales From The Early Years" is a 20th anniversary celebration compilation album by Finnish melodic doom/death/progressive metal act Amorphis. The compilation was released through Nuclear Blast Records in September 2010. "Magic & Mayhem: Tales From The Early Years" is not a "regular" best of compilation. The release features 12 (13 if you count the bonus track) re-recorded tracks from the band´s first three full-length studio albums "The Karelian Isthmus (1992)", "Tales From the Thousand Lakes (1994)" and "Elegy (1996)". The band explain in the booklet that they´ve been playing these tracks more and more in recent years after the inclusion of lead vocalist Tomi Joutsen. They wanted to capture the atmosphere of how the songs are played live with the current lineup. It´s emphasized that keyboard player Santeri Kallio and bassist Niclas Etelävuori also contributed with original input to the re-recordings.

The music on the compilation is melodic doom/death metal with some touches of progressive metal. The tracks from "The Karelian Isthmus (1992)" are old school scandinavian death metal, the tracks from "Tales From the Thousand Lakes (1994)" added an ethnic touch and loads of lead guitar themes while the tracks from "Elegy (1996)" feature an added progressive touch. The re-recorded versions pretty much stick to the originals in terms of structure but as the production is much cleaner, the keyboards sound more synthetic, and Tomi Joutsen´s vocals sound quite different from the vocals on the original tracks, you end up with a quite different end result. That´s of course the purpose of the whole thing and in that respect Amorphis succeed in their mission.

However there´s always a danger in re-recording what some people might consider untouchable classics. So how do the band pull it off? Well...I´m sure it depends on your history with the band´s music. Almost all the right ingredients are here to create a good compilation album. Decent production, excellent musicianship, and some "classic" doom/ death tracks in re-recorded versions. Yet the compilation leaves me completely cold. I guess I feel the original versions of the tracks didn´t need a make-over and that the re-recorded versions lack the unique organic spirit of those originals. The addition of synthetic sounding keyboards is probably the worst offense to my ears, but the sound production (while professional sounding from a technical point of view) is also too polished. I miss the raw and unpolished sound of the original tracks. So I´ll be a bit harsh here and scream...blasphemy. A 2 - 2.5 star (45%) rating is warranted. I´ll recommend leaving this one alone and go out and purchase the three original albums instead.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

The Goblin Sessions Heavy Metal
THEM
Buy this album from MMA partners
Tormenta De Arena Metalcore
VORAGO
Buy this album from MMA partners
Infinite Metalcore
FUTURE GHOST
Buy this album from MMA partners
Heretic Melodic Death Metal
SUNCINDER
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Skull Burned Wearing Hell Like A Life Vest As The Night Wept Mathcore
FRONTIERER
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

OPETH`S Epic Headline Show at Bloodstock 2024 | YouTube Premiere | Full Set | August 9th, 2024
OPETH
666sharon666· 110 minutes ago
Opeth '§4' Visualizer/Lyrics Video
OPETH
666sharon666· 110 minutes ago
Future Ghost - Wolves (Official Music Video)
FUTURE GHOST
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Future Ghost - Nemesis Game (Official Music Video)
FUTURE GHOST
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Harrowed TwentyTenVideo
HARROWED
Bosh66· 3 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed