Band:	Amorphis
Album:	Tales From The Thousand Lakes
Style:	Melodic death metal, Folk metal, Progressive metal
Release date:	July 12, 1994
Guest review by:	Bragi

01. Thousand Lakes
02. Into Hiding
03. The Castaway
04. First Doom
05. Black Winter Day
06. Drowned Maid
07. In The Beginning
08. Forgotten Sunrise
09. To Fathers Cabin
10. Magic And Mayhem
11. Folk Of The North [2000 re-release bonus]
12. Moon And Sun [2000 re-release bonus]
13. Moon And Sun Part II: North's Son [2000 re-release bonus]
14. Light My Fire [The Doors cover] [bonus] [2000 re-release bonus]

Amorphis have changed. That's a fact. But in their early days they played death metal of the finest kind. Tales from the Thousand Lakes is THE groundbreaking masterpiece for the Finnish melodic death metal scene. This album had a great influence on bands like Kalmah, Children of Bodom and Norther. It's very atmospheric ? the scenic cover, the apt title, the extraordinary lyrics, and finally, the doomful, melodic, sometimes melancholic music. The guitar parts on this album belong to the best in the genre.

The album's lyrics are based on the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala. This book is in fact a collection of ancient songs, combined and adapted by Elias Lonnrot in 1835. Most of these songs were found in Karelia, a part of Finland/Russia which is bordered in the East by the White Sea. The name of this area also served as the name for Amorphis? first album ?The Karelian Isthmus?.
?First Doom? and ?Forgotten Sunrise? are the two exceptions of the record. Esa Holopainen wrote them, and it's detectable that they were written by him and therefore are not a part of the Kalevala, though they might were inspired by it.

Amorphis? musical influences lie in Finnish folk music, progressive rock of the seventies, and heavy metal. ?Thousand Lakes?, a purely instrumental song, introduces the listener to the band's new, more on keyboards focused, sound.

Three songs from the ?Tales From The Thousand Lakes? made it on Amorphis? new Greatest Hits record ?Chapters?. These are ?The Castaway?, ?Black Winter Day?, and ?Drowned Maid?. The Pink Floyd influenced ?The Castaway? is situated in mid-tempo, like the rest of the album. The murmuring sea at the end of ?Drowned Maid? perfectly matches the theme of the song and reveals the band's strong connection to nature.
The best-known song from the album probably is ?Black Winter Day?, the only single release from ?Tales From The Thousand Lakes?. Ville Tuomi lends this song his clean vocals.

?Forgotten Sunrise? and ?To Fathers Cabin? are two Iron Maiden inspired pieces concerning the guitar sound. The latter one is the only piece on the record that works just with Ville's clean vocals, though this sounds a bit weird, which could be because he speaks his lines and they added a reverberation to it.

Two more songs contain clean vocals ? ?Into Hiding? and ?In the Beginning?. They are one of the most melodic pieces on the disc.

?Tales From The Thousand Lakes? is an almost perfect album, so lean back, enjoy the music, and listen... when Amorphis tell you some tales from the land of the thousand lakes.