14-12-2019 Amorphis – Queen of Time Tour

Location: Ankara, TR

Finnish Folk Heavy Metal giants Amorphis visited Turkey exactly after 9 years, the last time they were here was in 2010´s Rock Off Fest in Istanbul. However, between 2010 and 2019 I caught them once more in Finland in 2017. So this was gonna be my 3rd time seeing them live. I was especially excited for seeing them because this time around in Turkey, Amorphis added 2 first timer cities besides Istanbul in their tour program. They rocked Izmir, Ankara and Istanbul respectively. I was lucky to be at the Ankara leg of the Turkish tour. The band flew to Turkey directly after their Israel shows but they carried no signs of tiredness at all which was to the joy of us, the audience!

So we knew the setlist was mostly going to be made up of last year´s release “Queen of Time” but the band pleased their crowd with their best selected tunes from their legendary albums such as “Tales from The Thousand Lakes“, “Skyforger”,“Elegy”, “Eclipse” and their modern classic “Under the Red Cloud”. As for the venue´Milyon Performance Hall`, this time around I could only say positive things. Luckily for us, it wasn’t as crammed as the last time I was there for the Apocalyptica gig, so we got to actually enjoy the venue as much as we could. It has a great balcony that gave us the chance to see the stage clearly and rock out peacefully 🙂

The stage production and artwork was amazing, and once the show kickstarted you have no choice but to be amazed by the lightwork that syndicated with the themes of the songs (for example; during The Golden Elk, lights were golden color) and the rhythms and beats of the drums.

The setlist kicked off with The Bee, which is also the opener of “Queen of Time“. So it was only suitable to stoke the crowd. Of course as a fan, I checked previous gigs`setlists online, I liked what I saw but honestly I was expecting to hear my personal pearls from the legends such as; Alone, Silent Waters, and Dark Path. After a mild spoilt-brat-moment, I shook and reminded myself the fact that one of my favorite Finnish acts was about to rock the stage before me.

After The Bee, they went on with Heart of the Giant, The Golden Elk, Wrong Direction from their latest album and also blended their hits like Bad Blood and Four Wise Ones from the “Under The Red Cloud” album. And then the classics came blasting one after another. The crowd was clearly thrilled to hear Into Hiding, Sampo, My Kantele. Black Winter Day in the encore was definitely the highlight of the show, I must say. Finally the band closed the gig with their catchiest tune yet; House of Sleep with the crowd singing along every word of it.

It was a total banging show and for that I must thank the legends themselves for making their Turkish fans happy with this tour and the organization Vera Music for their hard work and keeping the metal spirit alive in Turkey.

Links: Amorphis FB: https://www.facebook.com/amorphis/ Metal Events In Turkey: https://www.facebook.com/veramuziktr/