''Elegy'' is the third studio album by Finnish metal band

Amorphis Amorphis is a Finnish heavy metal band founded by Jan Rechberger, Tomi Koivusaari, and Esa Holopainen in 1990. Initially, the band was a death metal act, but on later albums they evolved into playing other genres, including progressive metal, an ...

. It is their first to feature a majority of clean vocals, sung by new vocalist

Pasi Koskinen Pasi Koskinen (born January 1972) is a Finnish metal vocalist and musician, currently the vocalist and guitarist of the band Datura Nemesis (2013–), but he is perhaps best known as the vocalist of the band Amorphis (1995–2004). Koskinen wa ...

. This also marks the first album with drummer Pekka Kasari who replaced Jan Rechberger and the only album with keyboardist Kim Rantala. The music and lyrics are inspired by the traditional Finnish ballads and poems compiled in the ''

Kanteletar ''Kanteletar'' is a collection of Finnish folk poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot. It is considered to be a sister collection to the Finnish national epic ''Kalevala''. The poems of ''Kanteletar'' are based on the trochaic tetrameter, generally ...

'' by

Elias Lönnrot Elias Lönnrot (; 9 April 1802 – 19 March 1884) was a Finnish physician, philologist and collector of traditional Finnish oral poetry. He is best known for creating the Finnish national epic, ''Kalevala'', (1835, enlarged 1849), from short b ...

in 1840. The primary genre of the album is

progressive metal Progressive metal (sometimes shortened to prog metal) is a broad :Fusion music genres, fusion music genre melding heavy metal music, heavy metal and progressive rock, combining the loud "aggression" and amplified electric guitar, guitar-driven s ...

, with strong

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fol ...

influence, as well as elements of

melodic death metal Melodic death metal (also referred to as melodeath) is a subgenre of death metal that employs highly melodic guitar riffs, often borrowing from traditional heavy metal (including New Wave of British Heavy Metal). The genre features the heavines ...

and heavy metal. Many of the album's tracks, e.g. "Against Widows", have become fan favorites and have been performed in concerts since ''Elegys release. In 2004,

Relapse Records Relapse Records is an American independent record label based in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. It was founded by Matthew F. Jacobson in 1990. The label features many grindcore, death metal, metalcore and sludge metal artists. History The label was ...

reissued ''Elegy'' as a

digipak Optical disc packaging is the packaging that accompanies CDs, DVDs, and other formats of optical discs. Most packaging is rigid or semi-rigid and designed to protect the media from scratches and other types of exposure damage. Jewel case A ...

, featuring four live bonus tracks. The songs "Against Widows", "On Rich and Poor", "My Kantele", and "Song of the Troubled One" were all re-recorded on '' Magic & Mayhem – Tales from the Early Years''. "My Kantele" was

covered Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of co ...

on ''Live & Acoustic'' by

Thurisaz The rune is called Thurs (Old Norse '' Þurs'', a type of entity, from a reconstructed Common Germanic ') in the Icelandic and Norwegian rune poems. In the Anglo-Saxon rune poem it is called thorn, whence the name of the letter þ derived. It ...

Track listing

Bonus CDs

Notes

# Songs recorded live at

Ilosaarirock The Ilosaarirock Festival is an annual rock festival held on the second weekend of July in Joensuu, Eastern Finland. Founded in 1971, Ilosaarirock is the second oldest rock festival in Finland still active, and one of the oldest in Europe. In 2 ...

, Finland, on 12 July 1997.

Personnel

Amorphis

– clean/lead vocals (1–6, 8, 9, 11), occasional

growling Growling is a low, guttural vocalization produced by animals as an aggressive warning but can also be found in other contexts such as playful behaviors or mating. Different animals will use growling in specific contexts as a form of communicati ...

(2, 6) *

Esa Holopainen Esa Holopainen (born 1 October 1972) is a Finnish musician, currently the main songwriter, occasional lyricist, founding member and lead guitarist of the Finnish metal band Amorphis. He is one out the two longest standing members of the band (t ...

– lead guitar *

Tomi Koivusaari Tomi Koivusaari (born 11 April 1973) is the current rhythm guitarist and former vocalist of the Finland, Finnish metal band Amorphis. He started playing at the age of 12, his first band was Violent Solution formed in 1987, with him on guitars and ...

– rhythm guitar, co-vocal/death growl (1, 2, 4–9);

tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though ...

Olli-Pekka Laine Olli-Pekka Laine is a Finnish musician, currently as a bassist in Finnish metal bands Amorphis (1990-2000, 2017-) and Barren Earth (2008-). He was also formerly in other Finnish metal bands, ''Nuxvomica'' (1990), ''Rytmihäiriö'' (1991-1992), ...

– bass *Kim Rantala – keyboards *Pekka Kasari – drums

Additional personnel

* Mixed at Parr Street Studios, Liverpool, England * Engineer: Pete Coleman * Assistant engineer: Dave Buchanan * Mastered by Dave Shirk at SAE Mastering * Produced by Amorphis and

Hiili Hiilesmaa Kai "Hiili" Hiilesmaa (born December 1966) is a Finnish record producer and musician. He is the vocalist of the rock music, rock band The Skreppers, former drummer of the doom metal band KYPCK and former keyboardist of the rock band Daniel Lione ...

. * Executive producers: William J. Yurkiewicz Jr. and Matthew F. Jacobson * Cover art: Kristian Wahlin

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elegy Amorphis albums 1996 albums Relapse Records albums Albums with cover art by Kristian Wåhlin