Band:	Amorphis
Album:	The Karelian Isthmus
Style:	Death metal
Release date:	November 1992

01. Karelia
02. The Gathering
03. Grails Mysteries
04. Warriors Trail
05. Black Embrace
06. Exile Of The Sons Of Uisliu
07. The Lost Name Of God
08. The Pilgrimage
09. Misery Path
10. Sign From The North Side
11. Vulgar Necrolatry [Abhorrence cover] [bonus]

The 45 seconds of traditional melody of "Karelia," capturing pristine nature with blue rivers and green forests, maybe isn't an attractive intro for an album in a genre like death metal in the early '90s, but when this cool introductory wind is replaced by the long and insidious solo of "The Gathering," we find ourselves standing on an isthmus under the dark side of the moon; a swift sword sprays the smell of blood and iron over this canvas, combining with this watery grassland until the end of a frightening battle that now rests on another clean landscape under the light side of the moon.

Even without considering these long and wonderful solos that make this album one of the classics of folkish death metal and create a dark and deadly space in each track almost like a narrator, we must know that the coordination of lead and rhythm guitars on this album is very good for a band's debut; the rhythms work with classic death metal riffs to create a heavy structure and an elastic, harmonious sound. All of those leads and rhythms come together to create a space that is heavy, doomy, and traumatic; though the tracks are usually only three or four minutes long, they make for a classic doomy death metal album.

The trebly guitar tone over mid-frequency bass lines maybe doesn't hit very loud or fast like things that exist in the death metal genre today, but this simple playing turned into a great result for this atmosphere. Along with the drums, which work on playing the main beats and trying to fill in the blanks with single-beat cymbals and two-beat hi-hats, focused on tuning the speed and intensity of the playing, this simplicity seems successful in controlling and holding together the players at a time when advanced mixing and mastering capabilities and other studio facilities were not available. This is a serious problem of the album, but another thing to cover up the gaps in this heavy armor is the keyboards, which also provide more coverage for each melody line and fill the vacuous space between layers of sound and shifting parts.

At the front, Tomi Koivusaari's vocals aren't as excellent a performance as we have generally come to expect from death metal, but his short, harsh growls, in contrast to a louder, more liberated vocal tonality, help create a more terrible and grimy atmosphere on the album. The lyrics, dealing with Finnish mythology, come up from the ancient ruins of the North's traditions with a scent of folkloric religions, making this album special.

Finally, I think that after the hiatus in the '90s of Abhorrence, with whom Koivusaari in his early days released one EP and one demo, he went on to create with his new friends in Amorphis what was maybe not the best death metal album ever but without a doubt one of the classic albums in the genre's history that created a big impression on other bands and from which much has been derived. Although 28 years have passed since the release of The Karelian Isthmus, it can still be heard and enjoyed.