Album Review: Amorphis - Tales From The Thousand Lakes (Live At Tavastia)
Reviewed by Patrick O'Reilly
I was first introduced to the magical music of Amorphis way back in the 1990s when tape trading with a French pen pal. She had sent me a cassette of Amorphis’ debut album ‘The Karelian Isthmus’ and I very quickly became a fan. I remember picking up ‘Tales from the Thousand Lakes’ when it came out and immediately thought it was a huge improvement on their debut. This album to me was a monumental release in death metal history, combining the basic tenets of death metal with elements of folk music, psychedelia and prog rock. With songs based upon classic Finnish national epic poem the Kalevala it also had atmosphere in spades and all of these aspects combined to make a classic album.
This release is a live album, with the band playing in their home turf and is also available as a live video recording on Blu ray. The band cover the entire album in chronological order then throw in a couple of really tasty bonus tracks.
Anyone familiar with this album will know exactly what they are getting, although like me they will probably be, like I was, astounded by the quality of the audio on these recordings. The sound is crystal clear; each instrument thrives and sounds great and overall sounds great. Special mention must go to the keyboards which on this recording sound more vibrant and electric than ever, adding a real buzz to the album and breathing new life into these songs.
Visually the Blu Ray is equally as entertaining, the band so comfortable on stage and playing these songs with such passion and respect. The stage show is fairly basic but it is the music that makes it a great watch, seeing these classic riffs, solos and keyboard solos being played is thrilling, in particular it was an absolute joy to watch lead guitarist Esa Holopainen in action, his effortless riffing and soloing truly masterful.
Highlights of the set include the anthemic ‘Black Winter Day’ with its keyboard solo harking back to the 1970s and the likes of Yes and ELP, the bonkers ‘Magic and Mayhem’ that climaxes in a crescendo of keyboard and guitar to the backing of almost dance music style drumming and the doom laden ‘into Hiding’ which thrills with heavy riffs and keyboard outro.
For fans of Amorphis this is a must buy, I’ve never heard this material sound so good and it's great to be able to watch the band play through this material too with the Blu Ray. For fans of melodic death metal, prog or psychedelic metal then this is well worth a listen to also and an excellent gateway into this truly legendary band.
