Elegy

I was a huge fan of Amorphis' first two albums, The Karelian Isthmus and Tales from the Thousand Lakes. The latter has widely been hailed as one of the best Death Metal albums ever.What I particulary enjoyed with Amorphis, on top of their "Nordic sounding" melodies, is the way in which heavy riffs would mix with guitar melodies and death metal vocals.On Elegy, Amorphis decided to change the recipee: they hired full time a clean voice singer to sing on the album, with death metal vocals appearing only on few of the songs. Also, the album sounds lighter (as opposed to dark, not heavy). That's why I do not agree with the label 'doom metal' album that some people put on it.Personnally I prefered the death metal approach.Also, building on the sucess of "Thousand Lakes", this album sounds actually quite clean, with the keyboards becoming an ever more important part of the band.Still, this is a great album, which rocks. The energy of the band is still there. Songs like Better Unborn and Against Widows are classics, and more melodic songs like Elegy and My Kantelele work very well.Later on Amorphis would abandon death metal altogether (for 10 years). Elegy captures the band at a crossroads, going for success but maintaining their energy without selling out.

Elegy is the perfect midpoint between Amorphis' early days, which were very death metal oriented, to their recent works, which are more progressive-influenced. The vocals switch between punishing, deep growling death vocals and clean, clear melodic singing which creates a perfect, polished contrast unlike any of their other albums. Guitar playing is top notch with amazing, memorable, brilliant riffs and the use of Sitar and folksy elements to make you think you are visiting Finnish scenery. This album doesn't use a lot of acoustic guitars but still has such a Scandinavian outdoor nature feeling.A standout is the title track "Elegy", with its long, epic feeling piano intro leading into those vocals with just the most perfect melody and music underneath. Suddenly all the nice melodies are abandoned for an intensely deep, adrenaline-pumping growling part, to be abandoned again by that amazing, epic outro. It seems like the perfect ending to the album, but there are 2 more songs after it (which is good, of course).The lyrics are excellent and borrowed from a book of ancient Finnish literature.This album is one of the classics of the Scandinavian Metal genre. It isn't quite as renowned as "Tales from the Thousand Lakes," and may be much lighter and melodic than that album, but I think many fans consider it their second best (if not their best). I'd say a metal collection is very empty without it.

As a lifelong metal fan, I can say that this is one of the top five greatest metal albums of all time. When I say metal fan, I don't mean douchey cookie-cut Warped Tour metal, I mean real music. Going on about how awesome it is is moot; just listen to a couple tracks on Youtube and decide if it's for you. I recommend Against Widows, Cares, Weeper on the Shore, and the eponymous Elegy.

A melodic magic carpet ride - showcasing. Finnish folklore and cultural identity with distinctive metal harmonies. It reign s in a class of its own. A true masterpiece!

A+++

One of Amorphis best album

Yes. Easily the best album from early Amorphis (imho).

OYYYYY ENJOY

another great album but pasi koskinen is no match for tomi on vocals

Llego a tiempo y perfectas condiciones, el album es doble y trae algunos temas en vivo en el lado d, el sonido excelente, la presentacion gatefold del album incluye las letras y el tema del folklor finlandes en los kanteler o historias como base lirica del album.

awesome well packaged amazing .

Erstaunlich gut für die alte Scheibe!!

Good job