Tales from the Thousand Lakes |
September 24th, 2005
contributed by |
If you’ve read my previous posts, you know that I have a vulnerability for culturally inspired metal music. As Finland’s Amorphis sought more than just a boxed in metal career, they aligned their sound with ’70s progressive rock bands as they sailed into uncharted territories inspired by their Finnish heritage.
There are a limited amount of bands that I turn on and instantly love everything about. An instant understanding of what they’re trying to deliver combined with the overwhelming feeling of musical gratification. Amorphis did that for me and although I discovered them way late in the game (1997) it didn’t matter; I was just glad as hell that I had.
“Tales From The Thousand Lakes” incorporated lyrics from the Finnish national poem book ‘The Kalevala‘ written by Elias Lönnrot. It’s proven to be an inspiration for artists throughout some kickass musical ages. The band’s follow up, “Elegy“, featured poems that have been passed on by word of mouth from generation to generation (some being literally thousands of years old). The result is an album which is lyrically based on everyday life, including the Finnish people’s sorrows, joys and philosophical thoughts written in legendary verses.
Over the years, Amorphis has experimented with psychedelic guitar tones, lush keyboard atmospheres, and an array of vocal deliveries. An honourable mention goes to Tomi Koivusaari’s guttural vocals (some of the best I’ve ever heard) and the complementary melodic clean singing delivered by Pasi Koskinen. Later works saw the introduction of the Kantele and the Sitar (a venture outside of the signature Finnish sounds).
I tend to think of them as a provocative band with a passion for experimentation. This may sound normal to people who are just discovering them (I happily introduced 2 people to these records recently), so I ask newcomers to put this into the early 90’s context and the diehards to refresh your memory by remembering your first impressions. Care to share them here?
Tales of the Thousand Lakes was revolutionary and the foundation it provided is still the building block of modern day metal bands. It’s impact will continue sending reverberations for at least another generation of musicians to come.
Does anyone else feel that “Elegy” fully lived up to the Amorphis name? I’ve heard endless complaints, but I regard it as a near equal in quality. A nice heir to the majesty that was created on “Tales” making the back to back listen a strong experience from beginning to end. I finally had the chance to see them live earlier this year and was pleasantly surprised by the amount of backcatalog they played.
September 24th, 2005
at 12:51 pm
Drowned Maid was my all time favorite song when I was around 16 and this was my favorite album. This album was a central force in driving my early love for melodic death metal that expressed more than just aggression. Landmark album, no question.
September 24th, 2005
at 6:43 pm
Well, I was pretty young when I heard “The Privilege of Evil” EP at a friends house and got interested in the band since. I dunno why but it amazed me (today it doesn’t)! Perhaps because they were a refresh on the death metal genre (among what I had heard back then) few months later (2-3) I went into a local metal store and there was this brilliant piano intro which I thought was a new Vangelis song or something. A couple of minutes later, starts “Into Hiding” and I was totally blasted away! Curiously, I went into the store with the intent to buy Death’s “Individual Thought Patterns” and I ended up picking this one instead (since I already had death’s tape and I was sure I’d pick it up some later time). It was pretty good, the growls annoyed me a bit at first, but the guitar melodies and such…were brilliant! I bought every CD up until Tales, including Privilege of Evil and Black Winter Day EPs (having this last one, 2 brilliant songs that were probably outtakes from Tales but which I think would have added so much more the album if they were in it!)
September 26th, 2005
at 6:21 pm
I love(d) Elegy, but don’t really find myself listening to it much anymore. The older, more death-metal stuff sounds a bit dated, but I still dig it too. They kinda lost me in recent years by sounding too overproduced, but the good usually outweighs the bad.
October 1st, 2005
at 2:31 pm
If you like this then you need to have the Black Winter Day EP. There are 2 songs on there that I think are the best they ever wrote, Moon and Sun and Moon and Sun Part II: North’s Son.
I didn’t get into Amorphis until Tales. I wasn’t impressed by what I heard off of The Karelian Isthmus. Am I missing something here? But when I heard Drowned Maid for the first time, I absolutely loved it. I followed them until Am Universum which I have but never listen to. It just sounds like bland rock to me. Elegy was still good but the growled vocals didn’t fit the music as well as it did before. I actually like Tuonela better than Elegy.
Did you ever hear the cover they did of Light My Fire? They did it around the time of Tales. They did a good job with it but it’s kind of funny to hear the song with growled vocals.
October 2nd, 2005
at 6:08 pm
I heard the cover, I got the digipack version :-))
And I agree about the Black Winter Day EP, which I happily got too :-))
October 20th, 2006
at 5:41 am
For me tales is the best album ever made in metal. Not from a technical side of view but it has soul, like no other album I ever heard. Even thought the new amorphis do not atract me so much, they do have a few good songs.