From the Heaven of My Heart

Amorphis has been releasing a single or two from every Joutsen era album, and From the Heaven of My Heart is probably the most redundant of them all so far. All the other singles have had something extra on them, usually a track that wasn't on the regular edition of the album, and only included on the japanese or digipack pressing, or possibly a video or something. This particular single has nothing like that. Just two tracks off Skyforger, and one of them in two different versions, the shorter "edit" version probably meant for radio stations in our hectic world with short attention spans and need for more air time for the commercials. Redundant, in other words, a fan of the band basically has no reason to buy this in addition to Skyforger.

That's not say that the single is bad, though. The music is good, as usual for the post-Koskinen Amorphis, and unless the player has repeat function on, even the repetition of the title track doesn't bother too much. Putting this single in a 100-CD changer with 99 other singles and hitting "shuffle" would work like a charm. The songs are rather standard fares for Amorphis these days, with that specific, almost trademarked, pseudo-folk-y-ish kind of Amorphis guitar thingy setting the mood, and very good vocal work by Joutsen, once again. The songs may perhaps be on the softer end of the current era Amorphis envelope, but they are good tunes nonetheless.

It might be a good idea if Amorphis changed their formula just a little on their possible future albums. While the whole selection from Eclipse onwards has been a very successful and enjoyable reheated version of the style they found in a can in the very back of the fridge from the times of Tuonela, it could use some new spices in the near future. Amorphis still is a mighty live band, and the last three albums are all excellent pieces of work, but even the finest beer will turn boring if you drink nothing else for years. The time for renewal is at hand, lest they turn into a Nile soon.

Yup, in the end, the only thing From the Heaven of My Heart stumbles on is the redundancy. Get it if you don't have Skyforger and want to sample the offerings on the full-length, leave it in the store if you already own the album. This is for radio stations and completists only, and obviously a nice but lamentably redundant single.