Halo, the highly-anticipated, upcoming opus from Finnish melancholic progressive metal unit AMORPHIS, will hit the shelves on February 11th via Atomic Fire Records. In advance of its release, today the group has shared the second installment of their accompanying studio documentary.
View the trailer to follow Santeri Kallio’s tracking journey that even made him stop at the Church of Paavali for organ recordings below.
Kallio comments, “There’s a couple of opinions from [producer] Jens [Bogren]’s side that it’s more melodic, but for me it’s also much heavier than previous AMORPHIS albums, at least a few. It’s definitely more guitar-driven; the guitars are in a main role on this album. There’s a few songs where the keyboards are more present, like ‘The Moon’ and ‘Halo,’ but mostly it’s super massive!”
Halo — which features artwork by Valnoir (Alcest, Paradise Lost) — was recorded, produced, and mixed by Jens Bogren (Fascination Street Studios) while mastering duties were handled by Tony Lindgren.
Halo will be available on CD, vinyl, and digital formats. Preorder the album physically, presave it, or preorder it digitally to receive “The Moon” instantly now HERE. Preorder AMORPHIS’ soon-to-be-released On The Dark Waters 7″ (out January 28th) HERE.
The vibrant, lively, and touching beauty that is Halo highlights their musical and storytelling mastership on a once again soaring level: It’s a progressive, melodic, and quintessentially melancholic heavy metal masterwork plucked from the fickle void of inspiration by original guitarists Esa Holopainen and Tomi Koivusaari, bassist Olli-Pekka Laine, drummer Jan Rechberger, longtime keyboardist Santeri Kallio, vocalist Tomi Joutsen, the band’s long-standing lyrical consciousness, Pekka Kainulainen, and a selected group of world class audio professionals led by renowned Swedish producer Jens Bogren. Considering the band’s prolonged journey in the forefront of innovative metal music, it’s difficult to grasp how AMORPHIS manages to raise the proverbial bar time and time again, presenting a more than worthy finale to the trilogy begun with 2015’s Under The Red Cloud followed by 2018’s Queen Of Time.
Thirty-one years after their inception, with uncounted global tours under their belt and fourteen albums deep in their career, AMORPHIS still proves to be the musical fountain of youth, an extraordinary band constantly reinventing itself without abandoning its mystical roots. With Halo, they deliver an astonishing album that deserves to be played everywhere, transcending the realms of metal and rock by its sheer profoundness and musicality.
