Tales from the Thousand Lakes

Tales from the Thousand Lakes
Studio album by Amorphis
Released	12 July 1994
Recorded	September 1993
Genre	Melodic death metal Death-doom Progressive metal Folk metal
Length	39:53
Label	Relapse
Producer	Tomas Skogsberg and Amorphis
Amorphis chronology
Privilege of Evil (1993) Tales from the Thousand Lakes (1994) Elegy (1996)
Singles from Tales from the Thousand Lakes
"Black Winter Day" Released: 1994

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Tales from the Thousand Lakes is the second full-length album by metal band Amorphis. It is a concept album, the lyrics are based on the Finnish national epic, Kalevala. While still predominantly death metal, the album shows a greater influence of doom metal than the band's debut, along with more melodic, heavy metal-inspired riffing and elements of progressive rock and traditional Finnish folk music. 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.

The album was an influential release in the development of the melodic death metal and folk metal genres.

The original limited version (on digipack) had a cover of "Light My Fire" by The Doors added as a bonus track. It was later re-released in 2001 with most tracks from the Black Winter Day EP and the "Light My Fire" cover added as bonus tracks.

Track listing

No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Length
1.	"Thousand Lakes"	(instrumental)	K. Mårtenson	2:03
2.	"Into Hiding"	traditional	E. Holopainen, O.P. Laine	3:42
3.	"The Castaway"	traditional	T. Koivusaari, E. Holopainen, O.P. Laine, K. Mårtenson	5:30
4.	"First Doom"	E. Holopainen	E. Holopainen	3:49
5.	"Black Winter Day"	traditional	K. Mårtenson	3:48
6.	"Drowned Maid"	traditional	T. Koivusaari, E. Holopainen, O.P. Laine	4:23
7.	"In the Beginning"	traditional	E. Holopainen, O.P. Laine	3:34
8.	"Forgotten Sunrise"	E. Holopainen	E. Holopainen	4:50
9.	"To Father's Cabin"	traditional	E. Holopainen, O.P. Laine	3:47
10.	"Magic and Mayhem"	traditional	E. Holopainen	4:27
Total length:				39:53

Bonus tracks

Tracks 11–13 added from the Black Winter Day EP; track 14 is a bonus track:

No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Length
11.	"Folk of the North"	(instrumental)	T. Koivusaari	1:17
12.	"Moon and Sun"	traditional	T. Koivusaari	3:36
13.	"Moon and Sun Part II: North's Son"	traditional	T. Koivusaari	5:10
14.	"Light My Fire" (The Doors cover)	The Doors	The Doors	2:53

Credits

Band members

• Tomi Koivusaari – vocals, rhythm guitar
• Esa Holopainen – lead guitar
• Olli-Pekka Laine – bass guitar
• Jan Rechberger – drums
• Kasper Mårtenson – keyboards

Additional musicians

• Ville Tuomi – clean vocals, speech