Finnish stalwarts and one of the most accessible bands on the mega-mixed-tape, Amorphis kick off the top 10. Way back in the early 90s, Amorphis started off as a member of the Finnish arm of the raw and early Swedish Melodic death metal scene. It didn't take long for them to start tacking on other influences, starting with doom metal, then folk music, then progressive and even pop rock. I first discovered them thanks to BNR Metal around 1998 or 99. The recommendation was their third album, Elegy, which was released in 1996, and what a recommendation it was. The songs are based on Finnish folk poems from the 1840 collection Kanteletar, and the music is clearly composed to suit the subject material, making heavy use of folk melody and cadence. Elegy offsets the growled vocals of their previous two albums with the cleans of then new vocalist Pasi Koskinen to great effect, complimenting the folky compound meters, pronounced keyboards, occasional traditional instruments and driving rock on one solid offering after another. Honestly, Elegy is a truly an excellent album, and if you've not given it a spin, I highly encourage it. Even those who don't like metal can find a lot to like in it.
As great an album as Elegy is (and it IS great), I think I'm one of a small minority of fans who even prefers 2001's Am Universum, which eschews the growled vocals entirely for a uniquely layered progressive rock approach. The album is wholly listenable, seamlessly merging and blending genres without ever coming across as pretentious, forced or overblown. I'm including the opening track, "Alone", here, whose layered opening and pop rock groove just work fantastically well together.
Koskinen left the band a couple years and one album after Am Universum and was replaced by Tomi Joutsen in 2005. Losing their distinct vocal sound could have been catastrophic for the band, but they didn't miss a step while returning to their contrasting use of growled and sung vocals, for which Joutsen proved to be the perfect deliverer. Since then, the band has released a string of seven solid albums featuring their unique blend of melodic death, folk and progressive metal, including Magic & Mayhem, a rearranging and recording of a dozen of their early hits from the first three albums. Below is a 2010 performance of one of those great songs from Elegy, "My Kantele", performed in Oulu, Finland in support of that release. It gives a taste of their more recent (as in the last 10 years) sound and live performance, and I hope you enjoy it.
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