Finnish progressive metal veterans Amorphis are 15 albums into a career like few others. Explaining latest release Borderland, bassist Olli-Pekka Laine tells Prog that the nexus of death metal and neo-prog is a truly strange place to be.
As anyone who has been to Finland will tell you, there’s no other country quite like it. Its native language has little in common with that of its neighbours Sweden and Russia; its topography is bizarre, with more than 180,000 lakes to fall into after too much liquorice vodka; and it’s the most heavy metal country per capita in the world.
“Why are we so metal? I’ve thought about this a lot,” says Olli-Pekka Laine, bassist with the Helsinki-based prog-metal sextet Amorphis. “I think it’s because most pop and rock bands never came here in the 70s and 80s. We’re a ferry trip away from Stockholm and it was time-consuming to come over to play here. But it didn’t bother the metal bands – they always came here, whether it was Iron Maiden or Kiss or Metallica, so there were lots of metal shows in Finland back then.”
He adds: “The other thing is that people always connect metal with darkness and depression, and it’s true that there’s probably a little bit more depression in Finland than in more sunny countries. It’s strange to connect metal with depression; I don’t see it that way. I think metal is joyful music, and so is prog.”
Ah, the P-word. By any definition Amorphis are a prog band these days, loading unusual time signatures, virtuoso melodic passages and cosmic themes into latest album Borderland. Like their last few records, the new one takes the bloodthirsty death metal riffs and gargles with which they debuted on The Karelian Isthmus (1992) and adds a ton of progressive elements.
The result is just as heavy and just as texturally rich as any equivalent act such as, say, Opeth. There’s a lot to enjoy in the new songs, with Tempest a pastoral acoustic ballad, The Lantern a cinematic epic with Vangelis-style synth warbles, and Despair a beautiful, melancholy anthem.
There’s also a jaunty pop-rock tune called Dancing Shadow, which sticks out a bit because it’s so cheerful, at least by Amorphis’ standards. Are they aiming at the charts with this one? “No, it’s more to do with the general open-mindedness of the band,” Laine says. “It’s not that we want to flirt with the mainstream; although if that leads to some kind of success, of course, we don’t have anything against it. We still have the death metal vocals in our music, after all, and those put a lot of people off.”
This multilateral songwriting formula has reaped dividends for the band – currently Laine plus vocalist Tomi Joutsen, guitarists Esa Holopainen and Tomi Koivusaari, keyboardist Santeri Kallio and drummer Jan Rechberger – for three decades and counting. Their fans come from numerous demographics, including your regular headbangers in Slayer battle jackets, of course, but also a more select crew of followers of the Pink Floyd and Yes schools. Mention this to Laine and he’s off to the races.
“Prog is my main source of inspiration, absolutely! Pink Floyd are really important to me, especially their 70s stuff, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s Trilogy is one of my favourite records ever. Also King Crimson’s albums, until Red or thereabouts. When I first heard In The Court Of The Crimson King, it changed my life because it was such mind-blowing stuff. It was catchy, it was beautiful, and it was still really complicated.”
He gets even more into the subject when we ask him to recommend some Finnish prog. “First, Wigwam,” he says. “That’s one of the most important bands in Finland, because they did some great albums in the 70s. They started out really proggy, but they turned to soft prog in 1975, when Nuclear Nightclub came out, which is one of the most important albums for me, ever.
“Then there’s Piirpauke, a folk-rock band: their first five albums are really important for every Amorphis member. Their saxophonist, Sakari Kukko, played on our albums Tuonela [1999] and Am Universum [2001].”
Laine is on a proper prog roll now as he continues: “The Royals were a power trio of really good players in the 70s. They had a guy called Pave Maijanen, who was a sort of multitasking person in the Finnish music scene. He produced Wigwam’s Nuclear Nightclub.
Morbid Angel were huge for me, but I wasn’t just headbanging to them. I consider them more progressive than Dream Theater
“Then there’s Tasavallan Presidentti, who played on The Old Grey Whistle Test, and Wigwam’s bass player Pekka Pohjola, who had an album called Keesojen Lehto [1977, aka The Mathematician’s Air Display], which was co-produced by Mike Oldfield. And don’t forget a band from the 90s called Kingston Wall, which was really important for Amorphis: you can hear influences in our music.”
How does a bunch of death metal musicians get so deeply into prog? The answer is that the music they were listening to as teenagers was already progressive. “Morbid Angel were huge for me,” says Laine, “but in a progressive kind of way – I wasn’t just headbanging to them. I was listening to the riffs and thinking, ‘Fuck, these parts are so complex and weird!’ Especially on their second album, Blessed Are The Sick, from 1991. That album is incredibly proggy: they did really great experimental stuff in the studio, and with the production. I consider Morbid Angel more progressive than, for example, Dream Theater.”
After ingesting these extreme influences in their formative years, the members of Amorphis all underwent a similar evolution. “We started getting into different music when we’d had enough of death metal,” Laine said. “In the 90s, when we were young, our musical tastes changed every few months. We listened to speed metal, then thrash metal then death metal. After that, everything completely changed and we started listening to the Pixies and Tool and alternative rock and grunge, like Alice In Chains and Soundgarden and Nirvana.”
All this, plus the classic prog, pretty much guaranteed a vivid musical trajectory for Amorphis. “We were already using prog elements on The Karelian Isthmus,” Laine explains, “but I think our second album, Tales From The Thousand Lakes [1994], was where we really came up with strong melodies that took a long time, like four bars for each. That was kind of complicated at that time, considering we were a death metal band – but that’s where we found our sound, and we’ve been using that method ever since.”
We’re not like Lady Gaga or Taylor Swift, but we manage to live off our music
So, does prog metal actually pay the bills, we cheekily inquire? “I think we’re a successful band, although it depends on your perspective. We’re not like Lady Gaga or Taylor Swift, but we manage to live off our music and we draw really good audiences in Europe. Every now and then we go to North and South America and maybe Australia or Japan, even though those continents don’t pay as well. I’m very happy with our situation. I have nothing to complain about.”
Not even the state of the charts? “Well,” he ponders, “if you look at the Top 40 nowadays, you could easily say that there’s nothing interesting in the music world any more – but if you look more deeply, you’ll find there are some really great bands nowadays. Keep an open mind!”
Borderland is on sale now via Reigning Phoenix Music.
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