Amorphis - Tales From The Thousand Lakes (Live at Tavastia) (2024)

As one of our favorite albums of all time, “Tales From The Thousand Lakes” was the release that turned us more into Melodic Death Metal and the use of keyboards in Metal music. Fast-forward 30 years, yes, it has been that long, Amorphis has decided to release a live version of this release, recorded at the legendary Tavastia club in Helsinki, Finland. While not just a carbon copy of the original release, this version has some subtle enhancements and also features Tomi Joutsen handling the vocal duties.

Starting from “Thousand Lakes” and “Into Hiding”, we quickly noticed some slight differences in the keyboards. Santeri Kallio has come a long way and his style has evolved and some of this seeps into the older songs. Our all-time favorite track, “Black Winter Day” is flawlessly delivered, luckily we have seen the band play the track here and there in the live setting, but it is still nice to have it on disc with a very crisp and clear mix.

The classics, “Drowned Maid”, “Forgotten Sunrise”, and “Magic and Mayhem” are songs that the band has featured at some point, and during their North American tours in their live show, so we are also aware of how they sound with Tomi Joutsen on vocals. The biggest surprise has to be the inclusion of the Abhorrence cover “Vulgar Necrolatry” and “My Kantele” from their “Elegy” album, a nice addition to an already action packed live release.

Overall, “Tales From The Thousand Lakes (Live at Tavastia)” like last year’s live release of “Queen of Time” is a very nice addition to any die-hard Amorphis fan’s collection. We are getting our own copy for sure. For those on the fence, the band delivers a very high quality recording with some subtle ‘additions/improvements’ to already legendary songs with probably their best line-up of all-time, so make sure to not miss out on it.

Label: Reigning Phoenix Music

Release: July 12th, 2024

Genre: Melodic Death Metal

Country: Finland