A couple days before the gig, Amorphis has been posting on social media about some very exclusive merchandise that you can only get on the Finnish tour. As soon as I enter Pakkahuone, I head for the merch stand to check it out. There are wooden sauna thermometers with the old or new logo, which I think is a great idea and I would like to own one, but unfortunately I don’t have a sauna. There’s also Amorphis soap, and Amorphis-themed handcrafted earrings, besides the regular albums and t-shirts. I would love to buy everything the merch stand has to offer, but head to a nice spot in the front row instead. Sometimes you have to make difficult choices.

There is no support band, so as soon as the lights go out, it’s time for Amorphis’ intro. The band starts with three songs from the Halo album. The lighting works perfectly with the songs, it’s dark and mysterious, and probably in some parts hell for the press photographers who can only take photos during the first three songs.

As usual with this band, most of the band members don’t move around a lot, but they seem at ease and there is plenty to see nonetheless. For instance, there are five vertical screens visible in front of the backdrop. They display all kinds of things during the show, from abstract, colorful changing shapes to the face of guest-singer Petronella Nettermalm during the ballad My Name Is Night. Speaking of singers: I’ve never seen any other metal singer than Tomi Joutsen perform heavy growls, only to pick up a tambourine or a set of maracas a second later. It’s a nice contrast and works well in those songs he is using them in. He also has a very diverse voice and switches effortlessly between a warm, clean singing voice and deep, heavy growls. Both guitar player Tomi Koivusaari and bass player Olli-Pekka Laine help out with the vocals every now and then.

The set continues with some older songs. My personal highlight is the band playing three songs in a row from the Tales From The Thousand Lakes album: The Castaway, Magic & Mayhem and Black Winter Day. I just have a weak spot for this album, as it’s the one that introduced me to Amorphis in the mid-nineties. After this, we venture back to some more recent songs. Two of these, The Wolf and Brother and Sister, had their live-debut only two shows ago. We then get a small acoustic set of two songs, and especially the aforementioned My Name is Night is beautifully performed and deeply touching.

Just before the end of the show, the whole band is introduced to the audience, and they all get to play solo for a bit. Surprisingly, the song House Of Sleep is no longer the last one of the set, as it has been for years. After the last song The Bee is played, the band takes a picture with the audience. It’s always fun to look back at and hopefully find yourself in it! If you are in the front row, there is also the hope to catch one of the ‘I-was-in-the-front-row’-stickers Tomi Joutsen hands out, but alas, no luck this time around. I head back to the merchandise stand to get a copy of Tomi Koivusaari’s newly released solo project BJØRKØ – Heartrot. You should always try to support your favorite artists!