We’ve partnered with our good friends at Nuclear Blast to share a discussion with Amorphis ahead of the release of their new album Queen Of Time. In it, the Finns discuss today’s music industry as they lament Finnish metal’s “past” glory days and the tougher times the genre is currently experiencing in their home country.
You can pre-order the Limited Edition format + signed insert at this location. You can also pre-save the album via Topsify, here.
Esa comments on the album: “I guess Queen Of Time turned out as a massive surprise to all of us. During the rehearsing and pre-production we didn’t have any idea that Jens had this huge picture inside of his head about the landscape of the album. It’s a very natural continuation to Under The Red Cloud, but with steroids. The songs are more aggressive but there’s more dynamics, harmonies and orchestral arrangements present. The result is Amorphis as something you’ve never heard before! Essentially, working with [the producer] Jens [Bogren – Opeth, Amon Amarth, Kreator] worked really well. As a person he is very similar to us – we share the same kind of weird humour and we all like to work hard.”
With lyricist’s Pekka Kainulainen’s words, the lyrical theme is universal: “Cultures rise, flourish, and are destroyed. The story of man is the story of searching, finding, and forgetting. A single spark can set the world afire, a single idea can give birth to a new culture. The greatest can stagnate into insignificance, the smallest can hold the power for change. The lyrics on this album are distant echoes of ancient forest peoples, from a time when meaning was proportioned by the cosmic forces that govern birth and death. If the connection was lost, they sought for a strand of knowledge, found a new direction, and a new age began.”
Queen Of Time is released on 18 May 2018, and if you haven’t already seen, the band released a stunning video for the track ‘Wrong Direction’. The band shot their parts in a cave, whilst the rest of the storyline features long-time lyricist Pekka Kainulainen trekking across some stunning scenery. You can watch it below:
Full Queen Of Time tracklist:
01. The Bee
02. Message In The Amber
03. Daughter Of Hate
04. The Golden Elk
05. Wrong Direction
06. Heart Of The Giant
07. We Accursed
08. Grain Of Sand
09. Amongst Stars
10. Pyres On The Coast
Bonus Tracks (DIGI, 2LP, and MAIL ORDER EDITION only)
11. As Mountains Crumble
12. Brother And Sister
You can also listen to the opening track ‘The Bee’, right here:
