For more than thirty years, Finnish figureheads AMORPHIS have done their best to carve their very own niche in heartfelt yet aggressive, melancholic yet soothing tunes. On HALO, their staggering fourteenth studio effort, the Finns underline their trailblazing status as one of the most original, culturally relevant and rewarding acts ever to emerge from the land of the thousand lakes.
We talk to guitarist Tomi Koivusaari about the latest album Halo and what it feels like to still be doing Amorphis after more than 3 decades.
On how the band feels about the new album Halo:
Tomi: Every time when you are about to release a new album it feels fresh and of course it feels like your best album so we’re very satisfied. I think it’s continuing from the last two albums I guess but it’s maybe a little more complex than Queen Of Time. Obviously we had more time composing and studio time but normally we do it in like two months every day and then it’s finished but this time we had almost half a year to make it little by little.
On cutting more than 30 songs which didn’t make it on the album:
Tomi: Yeah we had something like over 30 songs but that’s normal for us because we have so many song writers in the band so that’s never been a problem. This time as well we put all the songs to Jens Bogren (producer) and he was deciding which songs we’re going to record, so that’s the easiest way for us instead of arguing.
On the possibility of releasing some of these unreleased material:
Tomi: It would be interesting some day to gather all the demo tapes somewhere from the hard drives and put it out in some box but there’s a lot of songs of course that never made it to go.
On still being able to do Amorphis after more than 30 years:
Tomi: To us it’s always important that we’re still trying to do the best album every time and not that we have to put something out. It becomes more pleasing every year to make new stuff. That we’re still doing this, that’s the highlight I think because none of of us believed when we started at age 16 or something that this would be our full time job or what we would do after 30 years, if somebody had said that to me back then I would not have believed them.
Check out the full interview
Watch on Youtube: https://youtu.be/ZWY6Tu6_xvw
Listen on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3KiSax1
Get Halo: https://music.atomicfire-records.com/halo
