Where do I even start with this one? How about this - Elegy is one of the greatest metal albums of all time. I know that's a bold statement, but once you hear this album you'll probably agree with me. Amorphis began their career as a fairly straightforward death metal band. Sure, drawing inspiration from Finnish folk legends was an interesting touch, but the band wasn't really breaking new ground with their debut album the Karellian Isthmus. Their follow-up album, Tales from the Thousand Lakes, was a big step forward in that the band got a little more experimental, but it was still primarily a death metal album. With Elegy though, the band took a quantum leap forward and gave us a career-defining album nobody could have expected. Part of the change was bringing in Pasi Koskinen to provide a "clean" vocal counterpart to the death metal growling. This added a whole new dimension to Amorphis's music. The other major change is that instead of just releasing another death metal album, the band incorporated new sounds like powerful melodies and exotic instruments. The album draws on bands like Hawkwind and Pink Floyd as much as it does Death, and the result is a metal album that is aggressive, progressive, psychedelic, and gothic all at once. It's somewhere between Paradise Lost and Opeth, but Elegy is such a unique and innovative album that I really don't feel it has any peers. I could talk all day about this album and still never do it justice, so I'll close by recommending Elegy to every single metal fan. Seriously, there's something about this album that should appeal to virtually everyone that is into metal. NOTE: Elegy was reissued in 2004 with three live bonus tracks. There's also a version out there that includes the whole My Kantele EP as bonus tracks. Buy whichever version turns you on the most.Read full review
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Best Selling in CDs
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Save on CDs