Amorphis napovedujejo prihod Kraljice Časa

Amorphis pripravljajo nov album. (foto: TeamRock)

Melanholični finski progresivci, Amorphis, končno napovedujejo izid njihove srečne trinajstice – albuma ‘Queen Of Time‘.

Poslušalci so na nov album čakali vse od 2015 izdanega ‘Under The Red Cloud‘, 18. maja pa naj bi uradno izšel dolgo pričakovani novi album. ‘Queen Of Time’ prinaša vse – od pihalnih do orkestralnih vložkov, zborovskega petja in celo nagovora njihovega tekstopisca, znanega finskega vsestranskega umetnika Pekka Kainulainena.

Album je bil ponovno ustvarjen pod produkcijsko taktirsko Jensa Borgena (Opeth, Amon Amarth, Kreator), ki je znan po tem, da med snemanjem glasbenike porine vse do njihovih skrajnosti in s tem še nadgradi njihovo vizijo.

Kitarist Esa Holopainen je album napovedal takole:

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 Jens worked really well. As a person, he is very similar to us — we share the same kind of weird humor and we all like to work hard.

Tudi pri vizualni podobi albuma so svoje sodelovanje nadaljevali s že preverjenim receptom za upodabljanje njihovega duha, francoskim risarjem Jeanom ‘Valnoir’ Simoulinom. Ujemajoč se z Kainulainenovo vizijo, bo rdeča nit albuma zelo izrazna –

Velike kulture nastanejo, doživijo zlato dobo, nato pa za vedno izginejo v toku zgodovine. Vloga malega človeka je še bolj neznatna – je zgodba o iskanju, dosegu smisla in nato večni pozabi njegovega obstoja. A še tako majhna misel majhnega posameznika lahko zaneti velike spremembe – in nastanke celotnih novih kultur.”

                                                   Amorphis – Queen Of Time

Besedila prihajajočih skladb povzemajo davne odmeve pozabljenih življenj, ter hkrati narave, ki ostaja večna. Njene kozmične sile uravnavajo rojstvo in smrt, nastanek in pogubo. Zelo spiritualno, kajne?

‘Queen Of Time’ bo poseben tudi zaradi vrnitve novega-starega basista, Ollia-Pekka “Oppu” Lainea, ki sledi lanskoletnemu odhodu Niclasa Etelävuoria. Oppu je bil eden izmed ustanovnih članov Amorphis leta 1990, in je z njimi posnel prvih sedem albumov, do odhoda spomladi leta 2000.

To be honest, ‘Oppu’ was the only guy we could imagine being in Amorphis. It was funny — when we started to play our first shows together again last summer, it all felt so familiar. He was involved with arranging songs and he also even brought some new songs to the table… really good ones, too! Even though the last year with Amorphis has been exciting, nostalgic and fun, it’s also been truly comfortable to be with the guys again. As a clichéd expression, it’s been like returning home from a lengthy odyssey. After 18 years, it feels like we are picking up where we left off from the good ol’ days! I’m really looking forward for the upcoming tour. The new album itself is a really strong package, the only hard thing will be picking which songs to play live! It’s safe to say we are set to pull off some killer shows over the next few years. After that, I’m predicting a long and fruitful career for the band in its current form…”

Bomo videli, kako se bodo Esejeve besede prenesle v realnost. Amorphis smo nazadnje slišali leta 2014 na tolminskem Metaldays, kjer je bilo očitno, da jih slovenska publika rada podpre. Kraljice časa se torej veselimo.