{"id":12606,"date":"2013-04-19T00:00:28","date_gmt":"2013-04-19T00:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=12606"},"modified":"2013-06-19T14:10:56","modified_gmt":"2013-06-19T14:10:56","slug":"album-review-amorphis-circle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-amorphis-circle\/","title":{"rendered":"AMORPHIS – Circle (2013) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

AMORPHIS
Circle<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nNuclear Blast (2013)<\/span>
Rating: 7.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Finland\u2019s Amorphis return with their 11th studio album, Circle<\/em>. Recorded by Peter T\u00e4gtgren (of Hypocrisy and Pain), the album is tied together by a story penned by lyricist Pekka Kainulainen. Whereas, The Beginning Of Times<\/em> (2011) had flashes of brilliance that were debilitated by it being so long in the tooth, Circle<\/em> is a much more fluid album. Initially, it comes off as very straightforward, but repeated listens reveal it to be a solid beast. <\/p>\n

The album opens with the thick, twisted, carnival-organ riddled sound of the growly \u2018Shades Of Gray\u2019. The band\u2019s death metal roots shine here but the addition of singing parts makes it feel more well-rounded than many of the band\u2019s songs.<\/p>\n

\u2018Nightbird\u2019s Song\u2019 is a similar affair, with a bit more of a progressive edge. The band let their progressive edge shine with a number of big anthems that remind me of the victorious sound of Skyforger<\/em> (2009) and Silent Waters<\/em> (2007) musically. \u2018Mission\u2019 is one of the tracks that sticks with you right from the start for this very reason. It\u2019s got a huge sound with blazing guitars, moving rhythms, some well-laid piano riffing, and a solid vocal delivery. The breakdown three-fourths of the way through the song is so thick that it\u2019s almost Kansas-esque in its complexity (but obviously much heavier). <\/p>\n

Another highlight is certainly the more dynamic \u2018Hopeless Days\u2019. The vocals here are truly wonderful, staying mostly in the high range and entirely sung, taking the song up a notch and making it a massively solid slab of progressive (yet accessible) heaviness. The near power ballad bravado of \u2018A New Day\u2019 brings a victorious close to the album \/ story, while leaving the door open for its continuance, as all good stories do. <\/p>\n

The vocals are still the weak point, as they always come off more limited in range than the music does, but we do get a couple of tracks where the band really gels perfectly. Don\u2019t get me wrong, the vocals are \u201cfine\u201d or \u201csolid\u201d, or whatever you want to call it. They just don\u2019t wholly encapsulate the music in my opinion. As with the band\u2019s last few releases, the music remains a step ahead of the vocal work. <\/p>\n

Overall, Amorphis get really deep here. Circle<\/em> is surprisingly bright in musical texture and extremely thought-provoking lyrically. At this point in their storied career, Amorphis basically do what they do and each album captures that essence to varying degrees. Circle<\/em> is one of their better moments for sure. <\/p>\n

Mark Fisher<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AMORPHISCircle Nuclear Blast (2013)Rating: 7.5\/10 Finland\u2019s Amorphis return with their 11th studio album, Circle. Recorded by Peter T\u00e4gtgren (of Hypocrisy and Pain), the album is tied together by a story penned by lyricist Pekka Kainulainen. Whereas, The Beginning Of Times (2011) had flashes of brilliance that were debilitated by it being so long in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,608],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-amorphis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12606"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12609,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12606\/revisions\/12609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}