Finland’s Amorphis have been standard bearers for Nordic metal since the final decade of the 20th century. Originally conceived as a death metal band, they transcended the genre limitation early on as 1994’s Tales From The Thousand Lakes began incorporating elements of folk, Viking, and progressive metal into their sound. 2001’s keyboards-and-saxophone-drenched Am Universum went further, threading psychedelia into their sonic quilt. 2009’s globally celebrated Skyforger showcased riff driven melodic death balanced with hooky progressive tenets. 2015’s Under The Red Cloud took that sound as far as it could go to became a global bestseller. Founding guitarist Esa Holopainen described the band’s m.o. this way: “We’ll change our style only if we manage to create something ourselves.” 2018’s Queen of Time managed just that with a meld of prog, psych and driving hard rock; its single “The Bee,” climbed international streaming charts. 2022’s saw the release of Halo, whose songs utilized shifting time signatures, intricate melodies, choirs, and ever changing dynamics to underscore the band’s unique, unrivaled folk-cum-melodic death metal fusion. See you at REF2026!