May 2023 Feature Release - The Infinite Edition

So just like that we find that a new month is upon us which of course means that we’ll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we’re asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We’re really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don’t be shy.

This month's feature release for The Infinite, nominated by me (Shadowdoom9 (Andi)), is the 2015 12th album from Finnish progressive metal heroes Amorphis, Under the Red Cloud. I can definitely understand this band being one of the most well-praised in all of metal. They've made very solid albums throughout their discography, and Under the Red Cloud is the best one of the 2010s era, 20 years after their two powerful mid-90s gems. If anyone wants to start their Amorphis journey with one of their newer albums, this is the perfect place to start.

https://metal.academy/releases/2474

I was well onboard with everything Amorphis did up until their 1996 third album "Elegy" but then let them go completely after that for some reason, even though I really like "Elegy". I think the only record I've heard from them since is the 2010 re-recording album "Magic & Mayhem: Tales From the Early Years" so I'm actually quite curious to hear this one. I've just added this release to my May playlist.

I've ended up quite liking "Under The Red Cloud", perhaps even more than Amorphis' classic 1994 "Tales From The Thousand Lakes" sophomore album which I reviewed only recently. It's a beautifully composed & executed effort that enjoys a lovely production job & is comprised of three main components with an overarching progressive metal philosophy being countered by elements of melodic death metal & folk metal. I really enjoy the first two of those three sounds but unsurprisingly struggle a bit with the latter, even though Amorphis admittedly do it much better than most. I've actually been really surprised that Amorphis still offer most of the things that made them so popular in the first place though as I saw them play live on the tour for their previous album "Circle" in 2013 & remember finding their modern sound to be a little flat. It's been refreshing to hear it presented in such an attractive format here & I'm wondering whether I've been a touch hasty in ignoring them for so many years.

3.5/5

Under The Red Cloud is actually a pretty big album for me since it was another stepping stone in finding out what kind of Metal I liked back when I was listening to almost purely Tool, Dream Theater, and Opeth with some others thrown in there. The CD still lives in my car to this day and I used the opening track as the backing to my radio show ad/bumper and it was the first Amorphis album I had heard at the time. For better or worse, Amorphis have been doing the same thing very well ever since their 2006 release Eclipse. I haven't gotten through all their albums, but Under The Red Cloud remains one of their strongest for me, especially compared to their more recent material. Skyforger gets close, but I always end up coming back to this album rather than that one. Maybe it's because I've heard the same thing from them for a bit too long that I've become jaded with their new stuff, but it just doesn't have the punch, excitement, and memorability that I think this album has. 

Amorphis have always occupied this middling space where it feels like they're not exactly sure what they want to be but, as Daniel alluded to, they're some of the best at incorporating all these elements into a package that manages to just make sense at the end of it all. "Under the Red Cloud", "Bad Blood", "Death of a King", and "Enemy at the Gates" are all killer tracks and through listening to it for so long, all the other tracks aren't too far behind either. It's just a solid package from start to finish that has fallen off a bit from its original 4.5 rating since I don't think that it offers anything truly spectacular all things considered. The combination of Melodic Death and Folk is obviously something that I'm more predisposed towards, but I guess I'm just surprised that this album out of all of them has stood the test time against all the rest of their material, considering they have quite a few albums now. I think that their early days with Tales From the Thousand Lakes and Elegy are more interesting listens, but Under The Red Cloud is most likely the most genuine modern Amorphis sound that they'll be able to craft. They're an incredibly consistent band that I think I've started to be a little harsh on, but I guess that's what happens when you listen to a band a lot. 

4/5, used to be a 4.5/5.

I did my review, here's its summary:

Amorphis has remained consistently excellent throughout their career, but it's their 12th album Under the Red Cloud that marks the band's rise back up to the total perfection of their mid-90s gems. I can listen to this masterpiece anytime with headphones while working. It's the perfect peak of the Tomi Joutsen era! Under the Red Cloud summarizes all the band has done so far with Joutsen, including his unique blend of deep growls and baritone cleans. Of course, the full band has to back him up for the full atmosphere that he creates for his voice to shine amongst them. As a result, the songs flawlessly flow, each to the next, all to savor the atmosphere. That's something essential from their mid-90s era that didn't make its full return until this incredible gem. Alongside Joutsen's incredible vocals, all of the instruments (keyboards, guitars, bass, drums) are performed together to get the listeners headbanging non-stop. Several guests tag along to enhance this glorious experience, including folky flute performed by Eluveitie founder Chrigel Glanzmann, serene yet eerie singing by late Trees of Eternity vocalist Aleah Stanbridge (RIP), and the spiritual lyrics penned by Kalevala writer Pekka Kainulainen. Under the Red Cloud can very well be the best album of 2015 for me. It's a journey you gotta feel in your heart!

5/5

Recommended tracks: "The Four Wise Ones", "Bad Blood", "Death of a King", "Dark Path", "White Night", "The Wind", "Winter's Sleep"

For fans of: Opeth, Disillusion, Eluveitie

By sheer coincidence two of this month's feature releases are from a couple of the first new bands I got into after returning to the bosom of metal brotherhood following a hiatus for most of the Nineties. One was Fear Factory and the other was Amorphis. I heard Black Winter Day somewhere (probably on a Metal Hammer cover disc) and was impressed by it's combination of death metal sensibilities and folky atmosphere. I obtained copies of Thousand Lakes, Elegy and Tuonela and they were all on regular rotation back in Sonnyville. 2001's Am Universum was a bit of a damp squib for me, however and eventually my love for Amorphis waned as I dived further down the extreme metal rabbit hole and I haven't listened to them a whole lot since the mid-2000s other than the odd track from Thousand Lakes, so this review will be a bit like catching up with an old friend and finding out what they have been up to since last we met.

Well, it would be wrong to say they haven't changed a bit, but I would have to admit that they have aged very well. I thought that by 2015 they would have become more technical and progressive than they actually were and I suspected that they wouldn't appeal to me that much, but I actually found Under the Red Cloud to be a very enjoyable and accessible slab of metal. Melodic death and folk metal are combined in an alchemical formula that shouldn't appeal to me in the slightest, but in the Finns' capable hands become an exceedingly palatable cocktail. I don't think I can praise the songwriting highly enough, for them to be able to combine genres I normally run a mile from into such an addictive release is testament to their songwriting skill. The folk metal element is quite prominent, but even so it never even hints at the cheesiness that so dogs the genre in other, less skilled hands, but makes complete sense in the context of this album and it is hard to imagine how it could exist without it. There are a couple of tracks where this element really transforms the melodic death metal skeleton of the tracks into something special, the oriental-flavoured Death of A King and Enemy At the Gates with it's exotic Middle-Eastern atmospherics and brilliant keyboard work. One track that made me smile was Tree of Ages, not because of any inherent cheesiness, but because the irish whistle featured sounds a lot like that featured in Aussie punk's The Rumjack's An Irish Pub Song - a track I love for it's vitality and catchy Irish theme. Amorphis have always been skilled performers and their performances on Under the Red Cloud are terrific, Tomi Joutsen's superb death growl / clean dual vocal attack, Esa Holopainen and Tomi Koivusaari's riffing and excellent leads, the layering of Santeri Kallio's keyboards and the faultless rhythms laid down by drummer Jan Rechberger and bassist Niclas Etelävuori underpinning everything the band does, are all absolutely top-notch.

There are several guest musicians featured on Under the Red Cloud, all of whom's contributions add a sheen that raises the album above the crowd, not least the much-lamented Aleah Stanbridge who contributes female vocals to three tracks, most noticeably official album closer, White Night. The Österäng Symphonic Orchestra are also featured and I don't think their contributions can be underestimated either, lending the album a sumptuousness that lifts it above the mundane.

All-in-all I loved Under the Red Cloud and it just seems to get better with each subsequent listen. I'm really glad Andi nominated it for this month's feature (thanks Andi) as it has allowed me to catch up with an old friend and to realise that I have actually missed them over the intervening years. I'll have to backtrack over their discography now and see what other marvels they have produced over the last twenty years or so.

4.5/5