AMORPHIS Vocalist TOMI JOUTSEN Speaks To KAAOS TV (Video)

Kaaos TV conducted an interview with vocalist Tomi Joutsen of Finnish melancholic dark metal forerunners AMORPHIS before the band's February 21 show at Hullu Pullo in Vaasa, Finland. You can now watch the chat below (in Finnish, with English subtitles; click on "CC").

AMORPHIS will perform a special concert at the Olavinlinna Castle, a stone fortress built in 1475, on July 13 during the Savonlinna Opera Festival's 2014 season in Savonlinna, Finland.

The idea of inviting AMORPHIS along to Savonlinna was, according to the festival’s artistic director Jorma Silvasti, born out of the opera called "Kullervo" by Finnish composer Aulis Sallinen. "I asked myself what other front-line Finnish music views the male soulscape through the eyes of 'The Kalevala' [19th-century work of epic poetry]," Silvasti said. "I wanted something to offer an audience that may never before have visited Savonlinna during the Opera Festival."

The program for the AMORPHIS concert will include material from the band's most recent album, "Circle", as well as tracks from the "Eclipse" CD retelling the story of Kullervo. The lyrics, which were based on texts by Paavo Haavikko with translations by Anselm Hollo, helped propel AMORPHIS to the ranks of the Finnish metal elite.

AMORPHIS' albums draw on the Finnish national epic "The Kalevala", and the ancient folk poetry of "The Kanteletar" have influenced the band's signature sound and won the group fans all around the world. AMORPHIS could, in fact, be called the heavy ambassador for Finnish mythology.

AMORPHIS' eleventh album, "Circle", was released on April 19, 2013 via Nuclear Blast Records. Production and mixing duties for the follow-up to 2011's "The Beginning Of Times" were 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. The recordings took place at Petrax Studio (NIGHTWISH, CHILDREN OF BODOM, KORPIKLAANI) in Hollola and 5K Studios in Helsinki. The cover artwork was created by Tom Bates (BLEED FROM WITHIN, DEVIL SOLD HIS SOUL).