Revisiting Tales From the Thousand Lakes by Amorphis: An All-Time Death Metal Classic

This album is a masterclass in how to write excellent death metal music

Photo by Robert Lukeman on Unsplash

Track Listing for Tales From the Thousand Lakes (Japanese version) Note: the regular version of the album has 10 songs

1. Thousand Lakes (instrumental)

2. Into Hiding

3. The Castaway

4. First Doom

5. Black Winter Day

6. Drowned Maid

7. In the Beginning

8. Forgotten Sunrise

9. To Father’s Cabin

10. Magic and Mayhem

11. Folk of the North

12. Moon and Sun

13. Moon and Sun Part 2: North’s Sun

Introducing This Classic Album by One of Finland’s Best Metal Bands

Tales From the Thousand Lakes is the second full length album by Finnish metal band Amorphis. It was released in 1994 and remains especially for me an all-time classic! Yes, there are many albums in the genre with death metal style vocals but they are not as impressive as this one. The album is considered to be a very influential for the doom and death metal genres. I as well as many of the heavy metal fans in the world are super grateful for this album and any of the other albums that Amorphis has released since. The Japanese version of the album has three tracks which are from the Black Winter Day extended play album.

Band lineup

Tomi Koivusaari: Rhythm guitar and death metal vocals

Esa Holopainen: guitars

Olli-Pekka Laine: bass guitars

Jan Rechberger: drums

Kaspar Martenson: keyboards

Analyzing Tales From the Thousand Lakes

This album is described as a concept album. The lyrical themes are based on the Kalevala. This is the Finnish national epic or to put it more simply, it is a huge volume of epic poetry that has been described as giving the Finns a very important identity. Recording for the album began in September 1993 and it was finally released in July 1994. There are some who say that Tales From the Thousand Lakes is the best album in the career of Amorphis and I could not disagree with that sentiment. The album is another example of the early style of death metal that was present at the time which would be roughly from 1988 through 1994 give or take.

The beginning of the album has the instrumental song called Thousand Lakes. It is two minutes of some of the most beautiful piano music you will ever hear! Now, this is one of the best ways to begin an album like this — the listener doesn’t get introduced to heavy riffs right away, allowing themselves to relax for a few minutes and just breathe.

Into Hiding is an excellent song that I feel contains a bit of the Middle Eastern influence in the guitar playing and Tomi can be heard growling in the beginning of the song. The song would be performed and covered by Finnish melodic folk metal band Ensiferum on their Dragon Heads EP in 2006. More of the exotic style of guitar playing can be heard in the song “The Castaway.” The song is about a bird that flies out of Lapland (an area in Northern Finland near the Arctic Circle). As it is flying around, it notices that there is a man that is lost at sea trying to find his way. First Doom is a doom and death metal song that is slow and heavy in nature. But then, the song speeds up with the guitar picking taking over for a while.

Another one of the highlights of this album is the song called Drowned Maid. It is about a hen that went inside the water to wash itself and to cleanse itself of illness and calamity. It unfortunately meets its untimely death. In the Beginning is another outstanding song that has a really catchy riff! To Father’s Cabin has an excellent riff in the start that lets you know this is going to be a special song.

Final Thoughts About Tales From the Thousand Lakes

Is Tales From the Thousand Lakes the band’s best album? If you enjoy a great mix of doom and death metal, then it may be their best album to date. I consider this album to be one of the most iconic and memorable death metal releases of all time because it is an album that has structure, cohesion, and a balance that not all death metal albums have. Also, this album doesn’t try to be flashy or overwhelm you with speed. It is also not despondent sounding, meaning that listening to this album will likely not cause you to start getting emotional. Tomi Koivusaari’s growling vocal style also fits this album. Given all these factors, I give Tales From the Thousand Lakes a perfect one hundred points out of one hundred. It would take a lot of things to change in my perspective for this Amorphis album to not remain their best work. I have also come to find out that our opinions of albums can change over time.

If there is another Amorphis studio album that becomes one of their best for me later on equal to this one, that is a feeling that I will accept.