Review: Amorphis, Fleece

Here in the UK, the government mugs disabled people to give tax breaks to the rich. The Finns take a different view of public spending, pouring cash into a tuition fee-free education system that’s the envy of the world, with the arts – especially music – at its core. It can be no coincidence that Finland is also the heavy metal capital of the world, with dozens of hugely accomplished homegrown bands and a national album chart that’s frequently stuffed with metal goodness. Increasingly, they’re rampaging across Europe and into Blighty, pillaging our music venues, drinking our beer, stealing our women, and so on. Audiences are seemingly powerless to resist and many of our own bands struggle to compete.

Amorphis are the third Finnish metal band to play Bristol this month, with the extraordinary Von Hertzen Brothers due in town next week (seriously – don’t miss this one). It’s their first-ever gig round these parts, but with 12 albums and more than 20 years of history to draw on, the sextet have come well prepared. The soaring title track of recent album Under the Red Cloud is as strong an opener as you could wish for, dislodging the fluttering leftovers from Fleshgod Apocalypse‘s confetti bomb that have been stuck in the Fleece’s rafters for the last 48 hours.

It must be particularly gratifying that this newer material goes down better than much of the old stuff, with the pummelling Bad Blood a clear audience favourite. That’s because …Red Cloud and The Circle, in particular, both mark a clear progression in their music from the very early, rather generic death metal. But even when they delve back as far as Drowned Maid from the 1994 Kalevala-inspired Tales from the Thousand Lakes album (every Finnish metal band has to write at least one Kalevala-inspired song – it’s the law), there’s a strong melodic undercurrent to their music, which also draws on doom and folk influences while resisting the temptation to be sucked in and defined by any one genre.

Recently shorn of his trademark waist-length dreadlocks and wielding a distinctive two-handed steampunk microphone contraption that appears to be fashioned in part from a pair of toilet handles, frontman Tomi Joutsen is one of only a handful of singers who trade in both harsh and clean vocals. The latter work very much in Amorphis’s favour, Joutsen’s sonorous tones further elevating the super-heavy and catchy-as-hell likes of House of Sleep and Hopeless Days. Much of the credit must also go to founding guitarist Esa Holopainen, who’s guided the band’s musical development and plays up an absolute storm tonight, albeit in an unflashy kinda way.

The rousing, well-chosen encore triptych of Death of a King, Silver Bride and The Smoke provides a suitably crowd-pleasing conclusion to this most welcome of cultural invasions. Come back soon, Finnish fellas.

All pix by Mike Evans