Yay for the world of the internet, and boo for the short attention span of the average MySpace visitor!!
First, it has come to my attention that Amorphis, the venerable and excellent Finnish band that is madly in love with the Kalevale have, in fact, uploaded their entire new album to their MySpace. I just want to say for the record that I think this is totally cool of them as I have been craaaaving a new Amorphis record since the last one came out. These guys are so good, and so much better than they have been arguably since their creation back in the olden days. This is not to say that their old stuff wasn’t good, but they’ve really gotten into their style and they’re kicking major ass up-and-down throughout Europe and the USA. I hope that they continue kicking this much ass, because it’s like watching a new band with a ton of energy pumping out amazing records. Think: Maiden in the early days, or Amon Amarth.. just pumping out excellent record after excellent record with practically no break. That’s when you see a band at their stride: and wow, is Amorphis ever hitting their stride.
That said, the album sounds pretty awesome and I’ll post a more official review later, but I just want to point out that I’m so incredibly disappointed by the average myspace user. Seriously, give a damn band a chance. As of this instant (9:58 AM, GMT +1), 40,962 people have listened to the first track, whereas only 25,705 have listened to the next track. By the time you get to what I think is easily the best track, those numbers fall off. Now granted, the band still has over 15,000 people listening to the whole album, but that’s pretty fucking weak. Since when do metalheads have the attention-span of small children? I thought people who dug metal had gotten there through being willing to give things that other people automatically turn off a chance. Is it that Amorphis isn’t EXTREEEEEME!!!!!!! enough anymore? Or, what the shit?
Anyway, total props to Amorphis for the third totally kick ass record in a row. Also, for the kick ass cover art. That said, kiddies, Skyforger is out on the 27th (i.e., today) in Finland (lucky bastards), the 29th (i.e., Friday–woo hoo!) in the rest of Europe and you suckers in the States have to suffer through to the 16th of June to appreciate the glories of Skyforger. Poor guys.
