Amoral are a Finnish band who I first heard about almost two years ago through my internet pen pal fireangel of the Night Elves. They released their fifth album, Beneath, in 2011, but they recently announced that they’ve completed a new one entitled Fallen Leaves & Dead Sparrows that will be released next year. Today they began streaming the first advance track from the album, a song called “If Not Here, Where?”
I gather from some info that fireangel sent me in the past that Amoral’s sound began to change following the addition of new vocalist Ari Koivunen before the recording of the fourth album — more melodic songs with big choruses, more clean vocals, a drift toward more “classic” metal, with even some glam overtones. You can probably guess why I didn’t dive right into Beneath. I did post a video for one of the songs from that album (“Wrapped In Barbwire”), because it was such a catchy motherfucker, with groovy riffs and a repeatable chorus — but the vocals still weren’t my kind of thing.
The new song, on the other hand, has hooked me — and not just because the clean vocals are balanced by jagged howls. At more than 9 minutes, it’s an ambitious undertaking, one that begins with an extended, primarily acoustic overture and Koivunen’s power-metal-styled tenor in the spotlight. For some reason, I thought I was about to hear a previously unreleased Journey or Yes song. And then the heavy riffing began, and the song grew progressively more interesting as it grew more . . .progressive.
The melodies are memorable (and carry a dark undertone), and Koivunen’s impassioned vocals have grown on me as I’ve listened to the song a few more times. And I really like the instrumental performances, especially the guitar solo — and the tremolo-picking and drum blasting at the end, which were a welcome surprise.
I guess it’s still a kind of power metal, but it’s pretty cheese-free and I’m finding it hard to resist.
https://www.facebook.com/amoralweb
7 Responses to “AMORAL: “IF NOT HERE, WHERE?””
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Nice! I loved Beneath, so hoping this will be good.
Yep, that was awesome. Definately a step in the right direction! Somehow reminds me of In Mourning, and that is never a bad thing.
Fun fact: Ari Koivunen is not only the singer for Amoral – He’s also the winner of the Finnish version of Idols several years back. Which, per se, is pretty awesome in retrospect: having a guy win something that is so horribly iconic with todays pop culture and then becoming the frontman of an actual metal band.
jeimssi: That´s true, it is an awesome achievement. But maybe we’d have to mention that in almost each of the “Idols”shows, he covered a metal-song 😉 So he brought metal into “Idols” and that worked.
I included Ari here in this guest post on NCS, too:
https://www.nocleansinging.com/2012/12/27/new-finnish-to-old-songs/
and have been following his career also since the year 2007 (unfortunately did not know about him before he started with Idols).
For anyone interested:
Ari in Idols:
The Evil That Men Do (Iron Maiden)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGr7RCMsHWM
Perfect Strangers (Deep Purple)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgDdWh9P4es
Here I Go Again (Whitesnake)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_c5vRJ9Pic
Hunting High And Low (Stratovarius)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eMD4iHSQcc
and and early and admittedly bit messy vid of singing Ensiferum’s Lai Lai Hei (before Idols), but just close your eyes and you get the idea ;D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_GAJ16arTQ
🙂
In Mourning are great, too 🙂
Fabulous piece of work. It was carefully crafted and written to make Ari’s voice stand out perfectly. Love the guitars too!