Amorphis announce brand new album Halo

(Image credit: Press)

Finnish prog metal sextet Amorphis have announced that they will release a brand new studio album, Halo, through the newly-formed Atomic Fire Records on February 11.

Produced by Jens Bogren, Halo is desribed as "progressive, melodic, and quintessentially melancholic heavy masterwork".

“It really is a great feeling that we can still produce very decent music as a band,” says guitarist and founding member Esa Holopainen. “Perhaps a certain kind of self-criticism and long experience culminate in these latest albums.” To the songwriter himself, Halo sounds both familiar and different. “It is thoroughly recognisable Amorphis from beginning to end but the general atmosphere is a little bit heavier and more progressive and also organic compared to its predecessor."

“To me, Halo sounds a little more stripped down compared to Queen Of Time and Under The Red Cloud," adds vocalist Tomi Joutsen. "However, don’t get me wrong: when a certain song needs to sound big, then it sounds very big.”

Renowned for their mythic story-telling, once again the lyrics have been supplied by lyricist and Kalevala expert Pekka Kainulainen.

“Halo is a loose themed record filled with adventurous tales about the mythical North tens of thousands of years ago,” he explains. “The lyrics tell of an ancient time when man wandered to these abandoned boreal frontiers after the ice age. While describing the revival of a seminal culture in a world of new opportunities, I also try to reach the sempiternal forces of the human mind.”

Amorphis: Halo
01. Northwards
02. On The Dark Waters
03. The Moon
04. Windmane
05. A New Land
06. When The Gods Came
07. Seven Roads Come Together
08. War
09. Halo
10. The Wolf
11. My Name Is Night

Writer and broadcaster Jerry Ewing is the Editor of Prog Magazine which he founded for Future Publishing in 2009. He grew up in Sydney and began his writing career in London for Metal Forces magazine in 1989. He has since written for Metal Hammer, Maxim, Vox, Stuff and Bizarre magazines, among others. He created and edited Classic Rock Magazine for Dennis Publishing in 1998 and is the author of a variety of books on both music and sport, including Wonderous Stories; A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock.