AMORPHIS – Magic And Mayhem
- Posted on 16-10-2010
"Magic and Mayhem"? Tales From The Early Years? This whole re-recording thing, eh? What’s the point really? As far as this sorta thing goes I have to give credit to Amorphis and their slightly truer renditions.
Truer, how? Well, they haven’t just shoved their old classics into a horribly processed mush of clicks, kicks and pro tools as has been the case with similar ventures by other Metal veterans in the past….still, I have to wonder what the point is. Don’t you? They wanna show off their new vocalist? Couldn’t they just have done a song or two here or there as a bonus to a future album or tagged onto a single?
And please don’t give that line…you know the one about how they wanted to do the songs justice with proper sound using today’s advanced technology. Absolute horse tripe. Classics are classics for a reason, mainly because time has rendered fantastic songs so. Those rough edges the technology of yesteryear gave are usually an integral part of these classics. The raw enthusiasm afforded by youth and pimples is an factor impossible to replicate and the classics become less so when tampered with.
Exodus re-recording "Bonded By Blood" was beyond pathetic, no? Thankfully Amorphis have not quite disgraced themselves to the same degree. The songs generally sound quite ‘true’ to the originals, as much as this further begs questioning of "Why bother?", it is still a far sight better than defacing the good time oldies with digitised rape.
Tomi Joutsen is a fine, fine vocalist and whether it is directly due to his addition or not the band has enjoyed a resurgence both critically and commercially since he jumped onboard but it still doesn’t justify doing this recording as an artistic entity in itself. Wanna hear his talents? Go and listen to "Silent Waters" instead would be my advice.
Whatever reason is given for this venture I doubt it would be enough to make it fully credible but I think I’ve made my point. Overall…well, not bad. Like safe politics, middle of the road. Zero outta six because of what it is. Six outta six because it’s not the "Bonded By Blood" re-recording, so we are left with a nice neutral three outta six.
We’ll even overlook the silly "Light My Fire" that ends things on a low note. Jim Morrison must be turning in his bath tub.