Amorphis

Amorphis is a Finnish metal band started by Jan Rechberger, Tomi Koivusaari, and Esa Holopainen in 1990. Initially, the band was a straightforward death metal act, but on later albums they evolved into playing other types of genres. Noteworthy is their frequent use of the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, as a source for their lyrics.

Formation and early years

In 1989, Jan Rechberger and Esa Holopainen played in a speed metal band called Violent Solution, which Tomi Koivusaari had left the previous year to form the death metal band Abhorrence. Violent Solution slowly dissolved as the musicians involved became interested in other pursuits and styles of music. At this point, Jan Rechberger and Esa Holopainen had the idea of putting together a death metal band. In early 1990, Tomi Koivusaari was asked to be the vocalist and Oppu Laine to be their bassist.

During that time, the band asked Tomi to pick up the slot of rhythm guitarist as well as singing, which led to the band dumping all original compositions and starting all over again. With the band starting to move along, Tomi's other band, Abhorrence, split up and he found himself with much more time to put into Amorphis. A demo tape, Disment of Soul, was recorded in 1991 by Timo Tolkki at TTT studios.