Amorphis – ‘Tales from the Thousand Lakes’ CD

‘Tales from the Thousand Lakes’ is the second full-length album by the gothic doom metal band Amorphis. It is a concept album, the lyrics are based on the Finnish national epic, Kalevala.

While still predominantly melodic death metal and gothic metal compared to the band’s death metal debut, alongside this more melodic sound, the album is noted to have more progressive instrumentation. The album also introduced synthesizers and clean vocals to the band’s sound, though the latter was used sparingly.

This is the first Amorphis release to have an official keyboardist, Kasper Mårtenson, as any previous of the band’s releases had the band’s own drummer, Jan Rechberger, provide the empty keyboardist role until the band decided to have a keyboardist and also to find one being Mårtenson. With Mårtenson in the band, it is the first time the band’s original lineup changed by having an additional member. Jan Rechberger would leave the band after this album but rejoin the band for 2003’s ‘Far from the Sun.’

The album was an influential release in the development of the melodic death metal genre.