Vapula

Secondhand Serenade -A Twist In My Story(2009)

The sophomore album titled A Twist In My Story by Secondhand Serenade will be released on February 19, 2008 on Glassnote Records. Secondhand Serenade consists of vocalist and guitarist John Vesely. I listened to A Twist In My Story in its entirety and I really enjoyed the album. In fact, I predict the album will not suffer from the sophomoric blues like other bands and musicians have suffered. A Twist In My Story commences with "Like a Knife" and concludes with "Goodbye." The songs...

Amorphis [Silent Waters]-2007

Who says you can't ever find your way home again? Finland's Amorphis started testing the veracity of that age-old maxim in 2005, when their Eclipse album interrupted years of ruthless genre-hopping evolution, took stock of a bevy of styles from all eras of the group's long career, and stewed them into a single, mostly satisfying mélange. Amorphis' peacemaking experiment with their past also coincided with the introduction of new vocalist Tomi Joutsen, leading some to speculate that the...

Amorphis [FAR FROM THE SUN]-2003

Listeners who found Am Universum too indulgent and jazzy will be happy to find that Far From the Sun is a streamlined rocker in comparison. At their best, Amorphishave carved great, twisting metallic riffs from the building blocks of Finnish folk melodies, and that continues here with standouts like "Planetary Misfortune," "Far From the Sun," and "Higher Ground." Yet as Amorphis drift further from their frenzied death metal roots and closer to mainstream hard rock, a trajectory they fully...

Amorphis [AM UNIVERSUM]-2001

If we focus primarily on the non-bastardized jazz elements, like keyboards, rhythm section, or especially the guitar, then the album is Amorphi' crown jewel for creative composition. The album kicks off with the gentle keys and happy harmonics we've come to expect from the band with "Alone." The song meanders through thick interchanges of sound and tasty vocal lines before hitting a wall of warm, overdone pop sax. Fear not, as "Goddess" blasts the listener with Pasi's endearing vocal harmonies...

Amorphis [Elegy]-1996

To stand out in a field where the obvious signifiers are the most common, and therefore the most clichéd, elements, one has to know when to try something different. Amorphis had already shown itself to be a more than competent end-of-the-century Scandinavian black metal outfit, but there were plenty of others equally able to say the same. The inspired turning point had two points of origin -- recruiting another lead vocalist, Pasi Koskinen, to sing with Tomi Koivusaari, and deciding to record...