AMORPHIS are currently finishing up work on material which will appear on the band’s upcoming album. They are scheduled to enter Sonic Pump Studios in Helsinki, Finland on July 1st with new vocalist Tomi Joutsen. Guitarist Esa Holopainen provides more details in his latest posting on the amorphis.net:

“Dear All.

“We’ve been rehearsing intensively past two months now and the songs start to get their final shape. There’s still couple tracks which need to be rehearsed but basically the songs are ready and the band is more motivated than ever. Tomi Joutsen has brought so much new energy for us and the tour we did in US on March united us a a real AMORPHIS 2005. We were really happy to see how people welcomed Tomi as a new AMORPHIS singer, he was a “bit” nervous before the tour but the reaction and support we got helped him to make AMORPHIS sound like a never before.

“So, the recordings will take place at 1st of July at Sonic Pump Studios in Helsinki and takes time till somewhere in August. Mikko Karmila is starting the mixing at September 1st at Finnvox. Let’s see if guys get their studio ready till the 1st of July as it still looks like a construction area. New Sonic Pump is going to be really cool. It can’t be bad studio if you have sea view and sauna.

“As said we’ve been working hard with new songs and with their arrangements. The songs have a good atmosphere and feeling, it’s hard to say at this point whether they are pop or heavy as some people will anyway categorize us as a pop band. I remember when Tales… was released some kept us as a pop band which has sold themselves. The sound in my point of view is still very organic and someway primitive. There’s different measures which make some tracks more ‘progressive’ (horrible word, but couldn’t find decent synonym). There’s acoustic and heavy stuff and that’s pretty much how I can describe the stuff at the moment. In general we’ve been working much harder with everything so that we don’t have to waste time in studio to reherase or jam.

“For us it feels like new beginning or rather as a new page on AMORPHIS career, something which is this shapeless as this band can’t never die. We keep you posted how things are moving ahead. Shine on!”