Customer Reviews

Tales From the Thousand Lakes (Reis)

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Amorphis is an extraordinary band. For the new fans they have gained with their recent releases let me tell you that Amorphis was at first a melodic death metal band. A style which they have gradually moved from, however leaving us with amazing albums, that I have been listening to for years now and everytime their genius seems to astonish me all over again.

Their previous works to this album, including their first full release "The Karelian Isthmus" could by no means be described as relaxed, melodic, beautiful, and soul-filling. In fact the brutality in their previous releases is definitely present. The step from that to this album (their second full release), is indeed a great one, but the band has leaped from one style to another with every release and even though it might shock you , let it not bother you as Amorphis is a band in a category of its own.

"Tales From The Thousand Lakes" is very well titled. The album is evolved around ancient Finnish Poems which dwellers of the land of Karelia (West Finland and Russia) sang and have passed on orally from generation to generation until collected and released to us in a book called "The Kalevala". Finland is also known as the land of a thousand lakes, hence the title of this amazing album.

The album, unlike its predecessor is slower and the intensity of the songs is low. It is a very melodic album. It starts off with an instrumental song "Thousand Lakes" which sets the mood to the album. Now, all the songs in this album are brilliant. Any heavy metal musician would agree with me by saying that every song possesses amazing riffs which with melancholy guitar leads give us an amazing journey into the history of every day lives of the Kalelian people.

"Into Hiding" is a really good opener. From the beginning you will realize that these are really talented musicians. One if the album's best track as is the next song "The Castaway". One cannot begin to comprehend the genius in these songs just by reading this review. They seem to enter your soul and inflict you with peace and tranquility. A quality very rare in this kind of music. "Black Winter Day" is the most famous song here, a beautiful tune that only makes you yearn for more of this perfect music. "Drowned Maid" is another outstanding song and my favourite. Pure emotion is embedded in this song. What can I say it is a masterpiece of an album this one. "In The Beginning" and "To Father's Cabin" are so good that you will ask yourself, how can such a beautiful album full of godly music be present and available to us mortals.

This album is that good. A journey that is only carried on by the next album "Elegy". These two albums have made such an impact in my life. They are truly beautiful.

I don't want to recommend you to listen to this album as well as "Elegy" because after you hear this there is no turning back, you would realize how pitiful everything else you had been listening to is. So it's up to you, you listen to it, you will be exposed to something not meant for this world, you will dwell on cloud nine (if they still say that) and everything else you are bound to listen to on the radio or anywhere else will fill you with anger and resentment. Indeed we are damned.

AMORPHIS - Tales of a Thousand Lakes
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This is album is an essential corner stone of Melodic Death Metal... But Amorphis added strong elements of Rock and Folk. Which they further expanded later on down the road.
As you can see by all the other positive reviews this CD is essential piece of Art to come of the 90's Scandinavian Metal Scene. Every song is well crafted and well executed. Blending dozens of styles and influences in each and every song their famous song `Black Winter Day' is up there with `Moonshield' by In Flames as one of the genres best songs.

The musicianship is great... The guitar playing is exceptional, the drumming is precise and well executed, the keys provide an excellent atmosphere to the music and actually do some great leads, the bass playing seems fitting and mostly provides a suitable wall of sound for the other instruments, and the vocals are well varied between traditional growls and a nice higher octave singing range.

If you like In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, Soilwork, or any of the other Melodic Death... You need, to hear this album! Top notch creativity, writing and musicianship if you don't have this GET IT!

Favorite Songs: Black Winter Day, The Castaway, Forgotten Sunrise and In the Beginning.
-5 Stars.

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Why do I always end up reviewing after Sunshine The Werewolf? Anyways...
As most of us know, this is a major centerpiece in the Melodic Death Metal universe. While the Holy Trinity between In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, and At The Gates was forming over in Sweden, Amorphis had already reached perfection with -Tales From The Thousand Lakes- in Finland. Months ago this album caught my eye with its glorious cover. I knew that these guys had immense potential, but at the time I didn't know and was too lazy to listen.

Vocalist/guitarist Tomi Koivusaari, my favorite member of Amorphis, does the growls/cookie monster vocals, which I think mixes very well with the music. Amorphis hired Ville Tuomi to play the clean vocals for a sense of variety and so that Tomi's doesn't get dull. Anyways this was my introduction to Amorphis and their greatness. They have their own style I see, which massively changes with -Elegy-, the next album. This would be their last step as a Melodic Death band, as they would go on to achieve musical greatness while having more folksy, rock-oriented riffs and less aggressiveness. My theory behind the appeal that this album holds to so many people is the atmosphere it creates when you let it fully absorb you. I do find the production to be rusty on some tracks more than others, especially when compared to -Elegy-. Though we should be thankful such sound was produced.

All the songs are their own art. -Elegy- does put light on things, but the mood and vibe of this record pours out with each one you hear. The monster vocals are easy to take in, but the clean singing at first will appear shallow, which is probably the reason why they hired Pasi to handle them on later records. Songs like "Into Hiding" and "Black Winter Day" will have memorable passages that will automatically hook you. You know just as much as I do that the tune on "Black Winter Day" is unforgettable.

My personal favorites will always be "In The Beginning" and "Magic And Mayhem" because they are majestic in all aspects. The former starts out with a solid riff and a duet between Ville and Tomi which ends with a slower riff and Esa letting loose a beautiful passage. Here...is where it becomes the best song on the album along with "Black Winter Day", or in my opinion even better. Esa unleashes the perfect guitar solo that sounds so epic it makes Lord Of The Ring look like going to the grocery store. This part alone is worth the purchase of this legend.

The latter begins with a melodic instrumental passage that you would expect from a track under an album cover like this. After roughly over a minute, it starts to chug its way into your head with a pounding riff atop Tomi's beastly vocals. A very sweet riff starts at 2:30, just before picking up the pace. No clean vocals make this one a pleaser. After this short pick up, it goes back into an instrumental passage with electronic beeps, that is, before actually having electronic beats and tunes flash everywhere. Tomi and the gang break it up with their powers and end the record superbly.

Of course the battle will always rage between this and -Elegy-. It is really a hard decision, but I truly find -Tales From The Thousand Lakes- reigning supreme in my book. As for this, pick it up, one way or another. The Karelian is waiting for you.

except WIDELY varied. When I first bought this album I had heard "Black Winter Day", which in itself is a fantastic song. Synth, guitar work, percussion, everything is great. Well, that only continues throughout the whole album. Now since I just got this the other day (Thursday night), i'm still really enjoying "With Teeth" by NIN(a masterpiece), but anyway, I will try and review this the best I can with the things I have heard from it now.

Amorphis start this album off with a fantastic opener, a nice piano ballad, which then transcends into another great song, this one feauturing Amorphis's trademark goth vocals and heavy guitars. Speaking of which, I don't know what to call Amorphis? Their ever changing style makes them harder and harder to classify as years go by. I love it actually, and lately they are becoming very progressive in the way that they write music. However, in this album they focus very much on the melodic/death/black/goth styles of music, incorporating a little bit of every genre in this album. This type of variedness comes at full force in their other effort "Elegy", which I haven't heard much of.

This album is well written and shows the band's terrific musicianship. My favorite track being the last one(sorry I can't remember the name, something about Moon and Sun pt. 2) but for some reason I am completely hooked on this one. The keyboard and main guitar riff are completely excellent together. I also love the constant middle eastern influence throughout this album. My only complaint about this is the track called something like "Father's old Cabin" or something of that sort. The vocals in this track are absolutely horrible, and the lyrics? Well let me ask you this, what do you think of these? "Oh old man, good god, blah blah blah." It's even worse when he's singing this.... "Oh old man".... "Gooooooood god!" I'm sorry, but it just sounds rediculous and childish beyond belief. But hey, that's ok, everyone makes mistakes, even Amorphis.

At the risk of sounding like this album's detractors, let me start by saying that this album is really not that heavy at all. It is melodic and very VERY accessible. It is NOT death metal, but rather a doom-death hybrid (though it does NOT sound anything like Anathema, My Dying Bride, and bands of such ilk). Nor is it very fast or evil. Being a black metal fan, that usually disqualifies a metal release for me. But this album is one of the greatest metal CDs ever recorded.

Amorphis have done something very unique here, and I for one have not heard anything like it in my thirteen years of listening to metal. Beautiful, VERY catchy melodies, lots of rock sounding riffs and rhythm structures, low, guttural death metal vocals, and an overall gloomy depressing mood. For some reason, it works really really well. It basically feels like what the cover art looks like.

I will say again, this is not heavy death metal, so don't expect that. But coming from someone who loves fast and furious almost all the time, I can say that if I'm going to listen to something catchy and melodic, this is going to be it. It's beautiful, it gets in your head, and it works. Buy it, you shan't be disappointed.

P.S. Not all Amorphis albums sounds like this; they have opted for clean vocals exclusively on later releases and from what I have heard of them they are really not that good.

Amorphis bust out a classic with this one. They slow down the death, add some prog keyboards, some depressive Pink Floyd influence, and a lot of gloomy, doomy ambience to fashion this huge mountain of sobbing, grey heaviness. This album definitely evokes the frozen north from which this band comes from, sounding like a lonely trek through a stormy tundra. The melodic keyboards and lead guitar work are excellent. The vocals are still mostly extreme deep throat growls, but the music flows so fluidly, that you barely notice. Lyrics are provided by some centuries-old Finnish folk text, and they are appropriately mystic and melancholy.

When you want the type of album that is not very long and something that sound's like NATURE then this is always the trick!! I must have listened to this album a million time's!!

The follow up to the GODLY ''Karelian..'' AMORPHIS kept the DEATH grunt's..but put much more of a ''rock'' style in the song's this time, we even get some opera like vocal's, not many though!!

BLACK WINTER DAY!!! now this is one of my all time FAVE METAL song's...few song's are this moving and full of a depressing atmosphere!! MOVING!!

The ''Black winter Day'' ep is included on here as well, just adding to the PERFECTION!!

THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST ALBUM's EVER MADE!!!! TAKE MY WORD!!! !! FLOW's TOGETHER LIKE NO OTHER!!!remember a time when Amorphis were Pagan's..not Pink Floyd wannabe's!!

BEYOND MANDATORY FOR THE DOOM FAN!!!!!

''THIS IS HOW THE LUCKY FEEL..''

From the throngs of death-metal comes this Finnish act with a melodic edge. Having released two mercilessly powerful albums beforehand, Privilege of Evil and The Karelian Isthmus, Amorphis released the ground-breaking Tales From the Thousand Lakes in 1994, a perfect union between death-metal's trademark aggression and progressive melody.

The album begins with a piano/keyboard introduction, "Thousand Lakes", the ying to "Forgotten Sunset"s more powerful yang. At this time, few bands were incorporating keyboards in such a melodic fashion. Songs like "Black Winter Day" and "To Father's Cabin" are perfect examples of the substantial contribution of which keyboardist Amorphis McAmorphison is capable. Inspired by and based on the Finnish collection of poems, the Kalevala, the lyrics are thoughtful (if not badly translated) - not your everyday death-metal lore. The production is not as crisp as it was to be on their next release, but nevertheless clean enough to be quite enjoyable.

The album was a very impressive step forward for this band - not once in its 40-minute running time does it ever become too intense or heavy. This is surprising having heard their two previous albums. Singer Hoobity McBoobity's death-metal grunts do add to the album's power, but never bring the album to unbearable volumes. Despite the fact that the percussion is never rapid (it is perhaps at its fastest on the album's best track, the memorable and violent "Drowned Maid"), it does not make the album slow or monotonous.

Amorphis would later change their sound many times more, but in the sound spectrum through which the band would travel, Tales From the Thousand Lakes was the vital starting point. Two thumbs up.

See also: Amorphis - Elegy, Opeth - Morningrise, Vanitas - Das Leben ein Traum

Depending on how your tastes run, you will probably find either "Tales from the Thousand Lakes" to be your favorite Amorphis disc, or "Elegy." I will take "Tales" any day.

While the British doomdeath movement was well underway by the time Amorphis put out this album, this outshone all that came before and compares favorably with another 1994 doom release, "Turn Loose the Swans" (My Dying Bride's high point). The music is moody and entrancing--though I am not generally a fan of digital keyboards they work well here in carrying the atmosphere and harmonizing with the guitar leads.

No less than three of the best metal riffs of all time, in this writer's opinion, can be found on this CD, in the songs "The Castaway," "Black Winter Day," and "Forgotten Sunrise."

In sum, this album is a must for all metal fans, except those who are truly repelled by gruff vocals, and it will earn a special place in the hearts of those who have a space reserved for quality melancholic doom metal.

The first exposure I got to Amorphis was Tuonela. I liked it but did not love it. Next I bought Elegy. I thought Elegy was great but it was still lacking something. Then I finally got "Tales..." and found what I was looking for. Even if you are not a death metal fan, you will like this album. If you like In Flames,Dark Tranquility, Sentenced, then you will like this album. Even though you can't understand the vocals, it is still a magical album that deserves to be in everyone's metal collection.