Reviews: Amorphis, Abkehr, Wytch, Acolyte (Reviews By Paul Hutchings, Paul Scoble, Simon Black & Matt Bladen)

Amorphis – Live At Helsinki Ice Hall (Nuclear Blast Records) [Paul Hutchings]

Founded in 1990 by Jan Rechberger, Esa Holopainen and Tomi Koivusaari, Amorphis have transitioned from their early death metal sound into a more melodic outfit who still retain their solid heaviness. Their last few albums have been excellent demonstrations of their quality. Indeed, it only seems like yesterday that Queen Of Time was released, although a quick check reveals it was actually 2018. How time flies!

On December 7th 2019, Amorphis took the stage in their hometown, to play a special show which has turned out to be one of their last before the pandemic (how fed up of typing that are we now?). For the band, playing a venue where they saw heroes like Deep Purple, Maiden and Metallica in the 1980s was a dream come true and it shows in this 90-minute best of show. As well as a selection of tracks from Queen Of Time, the set list features choice cuts from albums early in their career, Tales From The Thousand Lakes and Elegy, as well as more recent albums Under The Red Cloud and mid 2000 releases Skyforger and Eclipse. 

Like all live albums, much relies on the quality of the recording and there is nothing to complain about on this release. It’s a perfect demonstration of the band who after 30 years are still showing a level of quality that many others fail to match. Highlights are numerous, with the older songs sitting comfortably alongside the newer material. Vocalist Tomi Joutsen has been with the band since 2005 and can handle the growling and clean vocals with ease, backed on occasion by Koivusaari who carried the harsh vocals in the band’s early days. 

I have no idea about the between song banter as it’s all in Finnish, but the crowd are engaged and with the band from the start, responding as warmly to older tracks like Into Hiding (1994) as they do to more recent songs like The Golden Elk and The Four Wise Ones. Ultimately, like any live album, this is a release that is going to please the existing fan base most. However, if you are new to Amorphis, this is an ideal entry point. 8/10

Abkehr - In Blut (Vendetta Records) [Paul Scoble]

For the last six years Abkehr have been making nasty and hypnotic music. The band, which features H on drums and Raash on everything except drums, are based in Germany and In Blut is the bands third album. Abkehr released their first album, In Asche in 2017 and released the follow up, In Feuer 2 years later. In Blut shares the same song structure with the bands other 2 albums; it features four long songs entitled I, II, III, and IV. Abkehr’s style is a mix of Orthodox Black Metal and Depressive Black Metal, so; lots of Blast Beats, Tremolo Picked riffs and harsh, nasty vocals, but also tempered by some much slower, dissonant and meditative sections that fit in with the Depressive Black Metal style.

Opening track I has a dissonant start before some driving and dramatic drumming comes in (the drumming on this album is superb) at a slow, but purposeful tempo. This morphs into blasting Orthodox Black Metal riffs with some very tasty snare drum rolls. The track then goes into a depressive section which is slow and trance like. The track vacillates between those two feels for the rest of its run time, until it comes to an atmospheric ending with some keyboard parts. II is another mix of Orthodox and Depressive Black Metal. The fast blasting parts feel savage and bestial, while the depressive elements are dissonant and unsettling. Both styles of Black metal are tempered by keyboard parts, and the song has a soft atmospheric ending. 

III is all about the Depressive. The song has a slow but relentless tempo that is decidedly trance inducing, it’s not fast, but will have your head nodding in no time at all. The vocals feel malevolent and nasty. The album comes to an end with IV, which in many ways is the opposite of track III, as it is nearly all Orthodox Black Metal blasting. The blasting in question feels angry and unhinged, completely out of control, almost feral. There is a slower section, but it feels more like Orthodox black Metal taking a little breather, rather than Depressive Black Metal. As with the other songs on this album the track has a keyboard led, atmospheric ending. 

In Blut is a great album. It’s not the most complex album, but its simplicity is why it is so effective. Both styles, the Orthodox Blasting and the slower, more meditative Depressive style both have a hypnotic and trance inducing quality to it that needs a certain amount of repetition. This simplicity and repetition is why this is such a good, affecting album. 8/10     

Wytch – Exordium (Ripple Music) [Simon Black]

Despite having a name and album title combination that evokes some kind of Satanic Black Metal piece from the Frozen North of Europe, Sweden’s Wytch are something quite different…although they are from the frozen north of Europe… There is definitely a rising movement of female-fronted Hard Rock with a down and dirty feel and this piece feels very much like it’s picking up where The Pretty Reckless left off, or at least superficially. It’s definitely got a lot of the same influences, with a deep post-Grunge flavour in the Soundgarden mould, although in this case add a bucket load of Stoner vibe to go with it running deeply through the core of this piece. This is moodier and darker than their Californian counterparts, as well as having a more powerful musical technical depth to the playing. 

Johanna Lundberg has a crisp and clear voice when the song calls for it, one that can raise the rafters with long, high and emotionally hard notes when the song needs it, but then flips that and elegantly counterpoints that with a low dark, moody and thoroughly soulful timbre that send you down, baby down. The opener Black Hole, is the perfect example of this, as she pulls both tricks off within the same song. The three strings seems to also flow into one, so joined is the playing and the fact that Simon Lundström, Niklas Viklund and Mattias Marklund all add well woven and seamless backing vocals that make this feel like an incredibly cohesive unit musically. So joined up is the feel of this, that maybe they should have called themselves ‘The Lunds’…

Joking aside this is a really well-thought out and moody record, which although probably more Alternative than Metal in its appeal, definitely is a grower. 7/10

Acolyte - Entropy (Wild Thing Records/Blood Blast) [Matt Bladen]

We often talk about a record being theatrical and while so many bands use it to their advantage, there are few bands who a truly be called a theatrical band. Australian's Acolyte are certainly trying to take that mantle with their new album Entropy a dark, concept record that deals with the early stages of loss with musical influences drawn from Dream Theater, Leprous, Riverside and countrymen Karnivool. The band consider it to be a confrontational record, full of dark soundscapes "presented like diary entries", says frontwoman Morgan-Leigh Brown, all linked together by linking passages, whispers and some spoken word too. These all add to the theatrical, cinematic nature of the record, Morgan-Leigh's expressive vocals chronicling struggles with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome throughout the recording of the record. 

There's a balance between modern prog metal and the classic progressive rock sound, David Van Pelt's use of both analogue and digital synths, allowing there to be lots of Rush/Yes/Pink Floyd moments. For example the self titled track solls neatly from heavy riffing into more psychedelic passages with lots of rattling synth and underpinned by Jason Grondman's bass playing. As the record moves into Resentment there's a powerful Dream Theater quality especially in the drumming of Chris Cameron, he also is key to the powerful Clarity which builds into one of Brendon Cameron (who plays guitar on the album) best guitar solos, while also featuring guest vocals from Ben Rechter. 

As the album progresses the songs get much heavier as well as getting a much wider musical scope adding clarinet, double bass, oboe along with some Middle Eastern flavoured percussion on Idiosyncrasy which is Tool-meets-Orphaned Land, heavy trenches of riffs move into the more introspective sound of Recovery and Acceptance both full of gravitas and deftly progressive. Entropy is a brilliant progressive metal album from Acolyte, a second album that deals with difficult themes with a broad musical scope. 8/10