AMORPHIS — Tales From the Thousand Lakes (review)

AMORPHIS — Tales From the Thousand Lakes album cover Album · 1994 · Melodic Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
5/5 ·
Primeval Scum
This album is Amorphis' crowning achievement, their magnum opus. Tales From The Thousand Lakes might just be one of the best and most atmospheric melodeath albums of all time. They combine a lot of influences here (death metal, folk, doom metal, prog) that all unite to form a dark and rich atmosphere that grips you from the very beginning and never lets up.

There are no weak spots here. Every track has multiple melodic and insanely memorable riffs that are the epitome of Amorphis' trademark style of mixing folk and doom with death metal riffs. The growls are deep and resonant and greatly enhance the gloomy ambiance. The album artwork is beautiful and the lyrics are epic (inspired by the Finnish Kalevela). The keyboards are utilized tastefully, enough to enhance the atmosphere of the album without being overdone or tacky or upsetting fans of Amorphis' more traditional death metal approach in the prior album.

Every track is a journey, but the standouts are "The Castaway", the classic "Black Winter Day", "In The Beginning", and "Magic And Mayhem". The deluxe version of the album also includes multiple bonus tracks (Moon And Sun Pts. I & II) which are also excellent. I'm not sure why they weren't included on the album in the first place.

Kudos to Amorphis. I will be playing this album for a long, long time. 5/5
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