AMORPHIS Guitarist Discusses Upcoming Album

Finnish melancholic dark metal forerunners AMORPHIS will enter the studio in September to record their as-yet-untitled 11th album for a March/April 2013 release via Nuclear Blast Records. Production and mixing duties for the follow-up to 2011's "The Beginning Of Times" will be handled by HYPOCRISY and PAIN mastermind Peter Tägtgren, who has previously worked with such bands as CHILDREN OF BODOM, CELTIC FROST, IMMORTAL and DIMMU BORGIR.

Commented AMORPHIS guitarist and founding member Esa Holopainen: "We had to face the fact that if we want to develop our music and sound, we need a producer who has a vision and whom we can accept as an authority, for I know that we're not the most flexible guys when it comes to letting outsiders into our camp for telling us how to do things.

"We spent one evening at our management office, talking about the right producer and the recording sessions in general. As usual, the best decisions are not far to seek.

"We've been talking to Peter about him producing AMORPHIS for ages — I think the first time we spoke about this was when we met first at the Nuclear Blast festival tour in 1994 and it was in Helsinki around a year ago when we last speculated about the idea.

"We've been following Peter's career — he's developed as a musician and especially as a producer over the years. Plus he's one of the true survivors from the '90s death metal scene who is still around just like us, so we share kind of an 'old-school' mental level."

The recordings for the new AMORPHIS CD will take place at Petrax Studio (NIGHTWISH, CHILDREN OF BODOM, KORPIKLAANI) in Hollola and 5K Studios in Helsinki.

Added Esa: "We've decided to record in Finland, so that Peter can come here to escape to Petrax in the countryside together with us in order to record all the drums plus some additional lines. Later on, we'll continue in Helsinki at 5K Studios to lay down the rest of the material. The mixing will be done with Peter in the Swedish Abyss Studios."

Regarding the direction of the new AMORPHIS material, Esa said, "Over the last couple of weeks we've had some really intense rehearsing for the forthcoming album. Originally we laid down around 20 new songs as demos, now we are proceeding with 14 tracks.

"I'm really thrilled about the idea to take a major step away from the so-called routines that we've had with our last records.

"While promoting 'The Beginning Of Times', we started to feel that we were giving the same explanations over and over again when people asked about the studio process and how the songs came about. Even though the music was very strong, the making process didn't offer any surprises and appeared to be quite secured. Now the addition of a new dimension to the developing process has inspired us to focus on our material even more. The songs are extremely strong, bombastic and skull-pummelling.

"Though it's too early for a statement like this, I'd already love to say that we've created the best AMORPHIS album ever. We'll do our best!"

"The Beginning Of Times" entered the German Media Control chart at position No. 16 — the best chart position ever scored by an AMORPHIS album in that country. The CD also landed at position No. 1 on the Finnish chart.

Released on May 27, 2011 via Nuclear Blast Records, "The Beginning Of Times" was described as "the most challenging AMORPHIS album so far in terms of both music and lyrics." Its central character is the iconic hero of Finnish mythology, Väinämöinen, whose tale has been masterfully retold by lyricist Pekka Kainulainen.

"The Beginning Of Times" was produced by the band; vocals were recorded under the guidance of Marco Hietala (NIGHTWISH, TAROT) in his home studio in Kuopio. Like its predecessors, the album was mixed by Mikko Karmila. Its cover artwork shows Travis Smith's magnificent interpretation of the mythological birth of the world from a goldeneye's egg.