When heavy bands go mellow

[Ryeknow]

Not that amorphis were ripping heads off with their riffs, still a big stylistic change. What are some more?

[agony bagony]

chris cornell went the chilled-out route before the ein soundgarden reunion

[Ryeknow]

As much as I love Cornell and soundgarden, anything he had done outside of soundgarden just didn't do it for me unfortunately

[Ryeknow]

Except for that seasons song on singles

[Ryeknow]

Jesus christ its too early, of course I love temple of the dog, that album is one of my all time favorites. I was meaning his solo stuff and audioslave

[Corpsepyre]

There's Anathema and Katatonia.

[Mesarthim]

Not that amorphis were ripping heads off with their riffs, still a big stylistic change. What are some more?

always found it strange how Amorphis started to go down a path of Kingston Wall worship and then about-faced back into melodic death metal.

[shadowalk]

I've accepted the fact that all heavy/ultra-broots toots from the poops chutes bands out there will eventually get into a Load/ReLoad phase at some point. If they haven't done so, either they're still a relatively young band or they're one of those bands that no one has ever heard of and are idolised by kids trying to show off their knowledge of obscure, tr00 and kvlt bands.

[Ryeknow]

Facts yo

[jawn galliano]

Not that amorphis were ripping heads off with their riffs, still a big stylistic change. What are some more?

always found it strange how Amorphis started to go down a path of Kingston Wall worship and then about-faced back into melodic death metal.

i think they had pretty much exhausted that vein after am universam, but probably more decisive was the fact that after that came out, there was a pretty clear relationship between their sales numbers and their distancing from a more overtly metal sound. it turned around immediately once they pivoted back toward the heavy metal sound, even on far from the sun, which is without question the worst effort of their pre-joutsen albums.

also i had somehow never heard of kingston wall, despite having heard the cover from the kantele EP a zillion times. so i guess i will check them out

[Mesarthim]

yeah, no doubt about that - Far from the sun was weak sauce. I don't know if it was necessarily Pasi who was driving their mellow sound (none of the other bands he's involved in are mellow), but as soon as he left and Tomi came into the fold things changed for the better.

Kingston Wall is worth checking out of you dig psychedelic / acid rock at all - if they had been around in the 60's/70's they probably would have been huge.

[jawn galliano]

yeah, i don't think i'd necessarily credit him with the change in sound (that's just how things worked at the time, every significant european metal band that came to prominence in the late 80s/early gloryhole era underground was running away from their signature style by the mid-to-late point of the decade), he just happened to accompany it and was well suited for those albums. and obviously he was still present on FFTS, which was very much a part of their pivot back to metal! but he had clearly reached the limits of his clean vocal technique and was straining pretty badly in some places on that album. he had no issues with harsh vocals at all (illusion's play was released within a year or so of FFTS) but that style didn't really fit that slick, safe sound they were zeroing in on. which really isn't a dig, i think the groove they ultimately settled into is a mostly enjoyable one, just a bit too samey from album to album so i don't follow their releases as closely as i did when i was young.

[Ryeknow]

Their newer stuff just melds together, not bad but like you said samey. The last album that got me excited was eclipse because of course it was their return to their heavier stuff

[Mesarthim]

Queen of Time and Eclipse are solid from beginning to end. the rest of the Tomi albums have some solid singles but then are kind of just filler in between those songs.

[jawn galliano]

yeah i agree, i actually jammed QoT quite a bit a couple years back and that's the first one i gave repeat listens to since probably uhh, whatever was immediately after eclipse

still never going to forgive them for that amorphis covers album though, good god what an atrocity

[User]

demented ted never g00med