I don’t often do reviews of live albums but every now and then a marvelous live performance appears that deserves to be shared with others. One of those exemplary live albums is Amorphis’s An Evening With Friends.
Amorphis made a name for themselves decades ago when the band became one of the best melodeath artists out there. Sadly, starting with Am Universum the quality of the music started to fade, sinking completely with the release of Far From The Sun. The album wasn’t bad by itself, but compared to previous offerings it was just subpar.
Once Eclipse came out and with the addition of the new vocalist Tomi Joutsen, the band started to shine again, releasing one gem after another, with the latest one, Under The Red Cloud, becoming the best record the band has released ‘till date. The album reviewed today is a kind of thank you from the band to the fans, taking the best songs from various releases and playing them with slightly different arrangements, focusing on acoustic guitars and marvelous saxophone lines.
There are nine songs in total coming from Far From the Sun (the eponymous title track), Silent Waters (Silent Waters, Her Alone, Enigma), Skyforger (Sampo, Silver Bride), Circle (The Wanderer), Elegy (My Kantele), and Am Universum (Alone). The tracklist isn’t perfect, nor does it include songs from all albums, but on its own, it is a more than solid selection containing songs from the band’s whole career.
The first part of the record is acoustic oriented, dominated by Tomi’s enchanting voice, serene acoustic guitars, and intoxicating saxophone fitting perfectly with the music. The vocal performance is exemplary, again proving that Tomi is one of the most capable vocalists in today’s metal scene. The guy can sing, and he can put his entire being into the songs, becoming one with compositions, putting so much emotion into every verse it sounds too good to be true.
The second part is more of a classic Amorphis – hard riffs, guttural growls, seductive keyboards, and again that sexy saxophone. It is a shame the band used saxophone on just two records since the instrument fits perfectly with the rest of the soundscape. It would be cool to hear it again sometime in the future, on some future studio record.
For the end, the band played Her Alone along with the guest vocals done by Anneke Van Giersbergen, former vocalist of The Gathering. Anneke did an excellent job, giving Her Alone a breadth of fresh air, making the song to sound renewed and young again. For all fans of the band, get this record. It is a near-perfect live performance that should be listened times and times again, at least until the band decides to make our lives better with a new studio record.
