UMUR "Tales From the Thousand Lakes" is the second full-length studio album by Finnish death metal act Amorphis. The album was released through Spinefarm Records in Finland, through Relapse Records in the US, and through Nuclear Blast Records in Europe in September 1994. It´s the successor to "The Karelian Isthmus" from 1992 and there´s been one lineup change since the predecessor as keyboard player Kasper Mårtenson has been added to the ranks, making Amorphis a quintet on this release. "Tales From the Thousand Lakes" proved to be a huge commercial success for the band and the label, and it kickstarted Amorphis international career.

While "The Karelian Isthmus (1992)" certainly is a decent quality Scandinavian styled death metal album, it´s not an album which stands out much on the scene, and had Amorphis continued down that path it´s doubtful they would have been able to make such a long and successful career from playing music. Stylistically "Tales From the Thousand Lakes" may retain some of the Scandinavian old school death metal elements of its predecessor, but Amorphis add a great deal of melody, ethnic folk atmosphere (the lyrics are inspired by the great epic book of national Finnish folklore "Kalevala"), vintage keyboards (Moog, organ), and more moderne keyboards/synths, clean vocals, and traditional heavy rock/metal influenced riff and rhythms, to their sound, which ultimately makes "Tales From the Thousand Lakes" a very different sounding album to "The Karelian Isthmus (1992)", and maybe more importantly it also sounds quite different from any other contemporary release. Other contemporary artists playing similar styles like Paradise Lost, Tiamat, Sentenced, and Cemetary, only share the heaviness and the melancholic leads and gloomy atmosphere of their music with Amorphis. Other than those features they are completely different sounding artists.

The most death metal oriented feature on "Tales From the Thousand Lakes" is arguably the growling vocals by guitarist/lead vocalist Tomi Koivusaari and even in that department there have been some changes as Amorphis have enlisted Leningrad Cowboys vocalist Ville Tuomi to sing clean vocal parts on the album. The clean vocals are not a dominant feature on "Tales From the Thousand Lakes", but they make quite an impact when they appear...maybe as a result of them appearing relatively sparsely. The use of keyboards/synths is quite dominant though and one of the defining elements of the music. The opening instrumental "Thousand Lakes" showcases this immediately, but a track like "Black Winter Day" also features dominant use of synth (moog) and on closing track "Magic and Mayhem" there´s even an electronic and psychedelic tinged techno influence. It´s a pretty interesting track when those influences are combined with the dark heavy rocking doomy death metal core sound of Amorphis.

"Tales From the Thousand Lakes" features an organic, powerful, and well sounding production, which suits the material well, and upon conclusion it´s a high quality album release by Amorphis. It´s not just a step forward for Amorphis, it´s a giant leap and a significant change of their core sound, and they really did create something unique here, which their audience clearly embraced considering the fact that the album sold a large number of copies and became Amorphis international breakthrough release. A 4 - 4.5 star (85%) rating is deserved.

Warthur It took me more than the usual number of listens before I really felt I grasped what Amorphis were doing here, but Tales From the Thousand Lakes has really grown on me. Amorphis offer up here an interesting blend of death metal with folky passages and occasional outbursts of progressive rock. What really stood out to me was that, to my ears at least, it sounded like the particular brand of prog they were dabbling in here is in the vein of classic-period Jethro Tull - an unusual choice for a prog metal band, but one which I think pays strong dividends here. In the early tracks the band risk straying into cheesy territory, but over the course of the album the brutal death metal aspects of their sound gradually assert dominance, until by the end they have pushed nearly everything else out - a clever way of depicting a situation of escalating violence and desperation. On the whole, a very successful album which demands - and rewards - repeated hearings before it unlocks its secrets.

poslednijat_colobar Classic death metal album with multiple incorporated different genres into it. This classic album by finnish death metal godfathers Amorphis will probably remain my best metal album forever! And the reason won't be just sentimental. It's musical as well! Takes from the Thousand Lakes is not just perfect, but it could be described as an encyclopedia of metal music as whole. It incorporate a lot of genres and contains "thousand lakes" of ideas and rhythms. TFTTL is blend of melodic death, doom/death, folk and progressive metal with well-arranged structure and without weak moments. It's real reference to some hard rock and heavy metal tunes, too. The album is real inspiration for all of above genres. The sound is very compact and complete. I shan't mention any songs, because each song is classic by itself. The other thing I would like to talk about is the age of the musicians. Almost all of them were teenagers at the time of the release. It's an incredible feet for that young band and reveals the potential and talent of the band at that time. Metal masterpiece and a must for all metal collections. Absolute 5 stars!

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