There is power in a name, as ancient wisdom claims. And sometimes a prophecy. It was a moment of rare foresight when guitarist Esa Holopainen came up with a name for his new band: Amorphis. Derived from "amorphous" (without determinate form, shapeless), the choice would subsequently prove more apt than anyone could have imagined at the time. It was the fall of 1990, and the band's two founding members, Esa and drummer Jan Rechberger, had recently joined forces with guitarist/vocalist Tomi Koivusaari and bassist Olli-Pekka "Oppu" Laine to leave their mark on the emerging Finnish death metal scene, only to transcend it by far and set their sights on new horizons before that scene even reached the surface of public awareness. From the outset, Amorphis were determined to follow no vision but their own. Asked a few months after the band's conception whether Amorphis would ever change style if some new trend came along, Esa answered: "We'll change our style only if we manage to create something ourselves." A programmatic statement for a band that would go on to reinvent itself with every new album, continuously challenge listeners to forget all their preconceptions about music, and, through all ups and downs, never bow to compromise.