(Live Review) AMORPHIS + DARK TRANQUILITY - Joliet, IL (9/29/24)

By

The Beard & Little Johnny

Greetings friends, fans, and followers, it is your favorite reviewing duo the Beard & Little Johnny. Tonight, we are at The Forge in Joliet, Illinois for show #61 and bands #207-209 of our 2024 season. We cover Finland’s longtime progressive death/doom act Amorphis, with support from Dark Tranquility and Fires in the Distance.

This was a well-attended show for a Sunday night and both the upper level seated and lower-level general admission areas were packed when we arrived. Little Johnny headed over to the merchandise section to check out what was new, while yours truly ascended to the seated area in section “I” and settled in.

FIRES IN THE DISTANCE

First up, were Connecticut’s Fires in the Distance.

Fires in the Distance were a death/doom act possessing the rough guttural style vocals of a Swallow the Sun or even a Novembers Doom style act. These guys also had a melodic sound with some synth key bass lines that were reminiscent of a slower Nachmystium.

Their songs were lengthy and seemed to have parts or stages to them as the band would pause and throw the horns before crashing into the next part of a number.

Johnny asked if I thought that meant they were fans of ours since they kept giving the “Horns Up” symbol. “Pretty sure that’s not the way it works little dude.”  I liked the music of Fires in the Distance and my only knock on their set was that it lacked presentation.Admittedly, an opener is going to have to set up in front of the headliners gear and generally will not receive much in the way of lights and effects which limits them, but I didn’t think these guys showed any real passion in their set.

Now, I get it, death/doom is somber and not meant to be presented with a skip and a smile, but whether they were performing songs from their newest album Air Not Meant For Us or from their other release 2020’s Echo’s from Deep November, I just wanted a little more energy from them. That said, Fires from Within did put on a solid opening set, and since I personally enjoyed the music, I will go a bit higher with a grade of 83/100.

What did you think from up front Johnny? “You sure they aren’t our fans Beard? Cause I would sign autographs if they bought me a beer.”

“Let it go little dude,”

DARK TRANQUILITY

Next up, from Gothenburg, Sweden it was the melodic death metal of long time act Dark Tranquility.

Dark Tranquility were touring behind their 13th full length release, Endtime Signals (2024). This six-piece band brought the melodic death metal, with a more practiced presentation born of thirty years of touring. Although the smaller Forge stage was cramped for this six-man crew, they worked it as best they could.

As usual, Dark Tranquility had a big following and the Forge crowd was ready to rock with vocalist Mikael Stanne and the band. Although the Beard is somewhat unfamiliar with their material, “Unforgivable” (from the new album) certainly generated the main floors first full-on pit and with a very full house it was pretty wild down there.

Following “Unforgivable” with the title track of 2016’s “Atoma” was a good choice, and Dark Tranquility nicely mixed old and new material, often pulling from 2007’s Fiction release, while performing around five numbers from the newest album. I did think the overall sound was at times too muddy, but Dark Tranquility had their own mixing board and engineer, so I must assume that was how they wanted it to sound, and the crowd stayed hot throughout, so maybe my ears are broken. (Ed: That would be all of those non-metal shows you attend, Beard!)

After Fires in the Distance, I have to say Dark Tranquility provided an energetic set, and Johnny was a fan as he moshed through most of it. They were the bigger, more polished, and certainly more established act, but personally I liked their songs less than I did Fires in the Distance. That personal view aside, neither Little Johnny nor the fans seemed to share my opinion, so I will defer a bit and offer up an 82/100 for a good crowd responsive set.

AMORPHIS

From Finland, Amorphis has been around for 35 years and have released fifteen full length albums, the last being 2022’s Halo.

Amorphis have progressed from their earliest death doom sound to their current and more melodic metal/rock kind of thing. Lead guitarist (and original member since 1990) Resa Holopainen is talented and takes a no-nonsense approach seldom smiling or posturing in that all too familiar “rock god” style. Resa just plays the song and lets the music do the talking like melodic death metals answer to Eric Clapton. (Ed: Who?)

Antics and crowd manipulation was more aptly handled by Tomi Joutsen, who has performed the lead vocalist duties since 2006’s Eclipse release, although the band's other Tomi (Koivusaari - who handled vocals from 1990-97) still does the backing and rhythm vocals, along with the rhythm guitar. His performance in both areas allow Amorphis that extra depth and fullness necessary to boost them to the upper echelon of their sub-genre.

Amorphis were at times reminiscent of a more melodic Amon Amarth, and at others seemed a heavier more metal version of Paradise Lost or Katatonia. In either case, the crowd was firmly with them and although their first seven numbers stuck with either tracks from their latest Halo release or 2009’s Skyforger album, Amorphis did play tracks from four other albums over the set's second half, giving a nice career retrospective before allowing the crowd their big participation moment with "House of Sleep" which was without question or debate the loudest the crowd got all night. The fans knew the lyrics and wanted to sing them with the fervor of a WWE crowd cheering on their favorite wrestler’s entrance. I thought the Judas Priest crowd was loud on "Breaking the Law" a few weeks ago, but the Amorphis fans topped them on "House of Sleep".

The band did come back for an encore, performing “The Bee” from Queen of Time, but that "House of Sleep" number was the “real” high point audience wise. Afterwards Amorphis did the requisite pose, camera shots, bows, and guitar pick tosses before waving and heading offstage. This was my fourth time seeing them and each time they really do give a ham and egger like performance. They are solid and always just below the 90 plus mark. Tonight was no different and I am giving them an 87/100.

This wraps up another show and a few more bands on what has now become well over five hundred acts in the last two years. Keep tuning in every Wednesday for the latest in our live concert reviews brought to you by The Mighty Decibel,, keep checking out our TikTok page @thebeard0728 for videos of all the bands we review, and remember to friend or follow Mark McQueen on Facebook for all the non-metal reviews. Currently we are on episode #46 and counting. With the Beard and Little Johnny, there is always something new and cool to read, see or review, so from the IPA imp and your own “Santa Claus bearded,” “old man band loving” reviewer this is the Beard & Little Johnny saying Live Life, Stay Heavy and Horns Up.