SPOTLIGHT SERIES Presents: Esa Holopainen and Santeri Kallio of Amorphis

It’s an unseasonably, and frankly concerningly, hot day in Brooklyn – is this what Fall is now? – and I’m headed to the neighborhood metal bar and venue Lucky 13 Saloon. Located a modest 20-minute walk from my home, I throw on my headphones and take advantage of the commute in solitude by blasting Borderlands, the brand-new album from Finnish metal outfit Amorphis.

The band’s lead guitarist, Esa Holopainen, and keyboardist, Santeri Kallio, are in town to celebrate release day, and I was headed to Lucky 13 to have a sit-down chat with them about the album, as well as to take a few photos. And while the photos came out great and the conversation was a blast, the audio recording of the interview wasn’t so fortunate. That is to say, my resulting coverage is heavier on narration than quotes, but the story remains the same.

Amorphis have been on the scene for 35 years, which is no small feat. Members have come and gone and come back again, but Esa Holopainen has been a part of the band from the very beginning. Santeri Kallio has more than put in an impressive tenure too, joining the band in 1998 and bringing a new layer of musical electricity ever since. Borderlands is the band’s 15th studio album, and as the three of us sit down at one of Lucky 13’s outside tables, Holopainen and Kallio, beers in hand, are quick to acknowledge the relief of having the album officially out in the world. “We’ve been waiting for a few months so it’s nice to finally have it out,” Kallio says. “[Now we can] hear people’s reactions, because that’s the only thing that actually matters.”

Fan and critic reactions have been positive, and rightfully so. Borderlands is a fun album. The songs deliver on heaviness but still give you room to breathe. They’re introspective and thought-provoking, but not wrapped in political opinion. “Let’s leave the politics to the punk bands,” Kallio says. Amorphis has always been more about the canvas of the mind, after all.

“It’s one of the greatest things, the escape from reality,” says Holopainen of Amorphis’ music. No one has to wonder for a moment why an escape from reality is more than welcome these days, and Borderlands offers a musical journey of epic and cinematic proportions.

I challenged them to place one of the songs from the album as the new music for a movie or scene, and Kallio, noting our presence in New York City, assigned “The Lantern” to the 1979 classic The Warriors, and perhaps 1981’s Escape From New York as well. One listen to Kallio’s opening synths on that song will show you why his picks are spot on.

The strong presence of keyboards throughout the record is something that makes Kallio proud. “It’s not always been this way,” he reflected as we discussed the use of keyboards in metal. Kallio recounted an early experience bringing his keyboard into a recording session with his band and being relegated to a corner by the engineer who, with minimal effort, gave him a few quick takes before effectively moving on to focus on the “core” elements. In other words, the idea of keyboards having a prominent place in metal like they do today wasn’t something he’d have thought possible while crammed in the corner of that studio.

Kallio’s work shines throughout Borderlands, especially in his solos. The same can be said of Holopainen’s guitar work on the album. His riffs bring explosive power to every song, and his solos are equally commanding. The instrumentation is all killer, no filler – and that’s by design. Holopainen stressed the importance of intention when discussing the use of solos. Be it guitar or keys, he says, solos should have a deliberate place in order to propel the song forward, not just exist for the sake of traditional structure.

While always staying true to themselves, Amorphis have evolved with every album. For fans that discover the band via Borderlands, Holopainen is quick to recommend where to go next. “I would go backwards – Borderlands, then back to Halo, then back to Queen of Time and so on,” says Holopainen. “There’s a huge difference from the albums we did in the 90s to the album we just did,” he continues, referring to the band’s death metal roots. Amorphis’ discography is a journey worth taking, with a heavy-as-hell finish line.

Despite an extensive tour of Europe next month and into November, Amorphis have not announced a U.S. tour. As our conversation wound down, Kallio reflected on the challenges of touring in today’s landscape. Costs continue to rise across the board, and while bands like Amorphis remain committed to bringing their music to fans worldwide, the logistics of making it all happen are tougher than ever. Still, they remain determined to make a U.S. tour happen in the future. “We absolutely want to tour Borderlands here,” Holopainen says.

After our interview wrapped, Holopainen and Kallio were kind enough to allow me to shoot some portraits. We started outside with duo shots where I experimented with (and ultimately bailed on) double exposure. The resulting shots are nice, but my intention was for more equal exposure of the two rather than one being more dominant than the other.

Once we were inside, I played with shutter drag to give the duo shots more character and then put on my motion-blur lens filter for the individual portraits. I’m still getting the hang of using it, but I like the results I’m getting so far.

Having the opportunity to spend time with Esa Holopainen and Santeri Kallio on release day was both an honor and a warm experience. Their humility and passion shine just as brightly as their music, and Borderlands stands as proof that they’re still pushing boundaries and finding new ways to captivate.

I look forward to their return for a show in NYC, whenever that may be – until then, I’ll keep happily blasting Borderlands.