#come back to me you messy 90’s cannibals !!!

[patchodraws]

i miss lellowjackets 🥺👉👈

[thisaintascenereviews]

Album Review by Bradley Christenen Amorphis – Tales From The Thousand Lakes Record Label: Relapse Release Date: July 12 1994

There are many different sub-sub-genres of death metal out there, such as blackened death metal, melodic death metal, technical death metal, progressive death metal, death-doom, as well as a handful of others, but there are two main types of death metal that I’ve noticed, and all of these styles of death metal can fall into one of these types. Some bands even fall into both, depending on the song / album in question, but you have death metal bands are very cut and dry with their sound and presentation. These are what I call the “meat and potatoes” bands, because they have a sound that’s very reliable, old school, and something a lot of people have hear before, but it’s good. Whenever you have it, you’ll enjoy it, and that’s what a lot of a death metal is. These are bands that non-metalhehads would think of when they think of death metal, such as Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Deicide, or Obituary, just to name a few bands. There’s nothing wrong with them, but they’re very basic and straightforward with how they sound. They don’t take themselves too seriously, and if you’re looking for a very brutal, energetic, and heavy sound that you can headbang and mosh to, you’ll love these bands. You already do, most likely, but you know what I mean. The other kind of death metal that I’ve noticed is a bit more “intelligent,” for the lack of a better word, but it’s not that bands like Cannibal Corpse are stupid in comparison. These bands that have a bit more of a unique flavor to their sound, and they’ll give you some variety. These are mainly the other subsets of death metal, such as tech-death, melo-death, prog-death, and stuff like that. These are styles of death metal that make you think. I call it “thinking man’s death metal,” because it’s not quite as primal, dirty, gritty, or brutal as your meat and potatoes kind of stuff, but it’s still good, nonetheless. It’s just a bit more experimental, expansive, and unique.

These bands can have their primal and brutal moments, don’t get me wrong, but they’re more than your cut and dry death metal that first existed in the late 80s and early 90s, at least before every other sub-sub-genre of death metal came to fruition. Bands like At The Gates, Cryptopsy, In Flames, Dark Tranquility, Decrepit Birth, Gojira, Death (especially their last few albums; their first few albums are great, and influential beyond belief, but they weren’t as technical or progressive as their later albums), and Nile are good examples of these types of bands. Hell, even Necrophagist, one of the purveyors of tech-death, is more of a “thinking man’s death metal band,” just because of how technical they are, but they’re still awfully brutal and intense, so people that just want intense and brutal stuff can enjoy them just fine. You can admire the technical skill without needing to look that much into it, because you know it sounds killer. This type of death metal can be hit or miss for me. There are bands in this vein that I really love, because they do something more with death metal (some of my favorite death metal bands are ones that I just listed, honestly), but there are others that just don’t do a lot for me, and it could be for many reasons. I’ve talked about a couple of death-doom bands, especially Hooded Menace, and how their latest LP didn’t do a whole ton for me, just because of how much they put emphasis onto the doom metal aspect of their sound. It was cool, and definitely interesting, but I wanted more death metal. I got some of it, don’t get me wrong, but it was a bit too meandering for my tastes. As much as I like my death metal to be unique, I still want there to be some energy and brutality in it. That’s why I enjoy bands like Nile, Arsis, Necrophagist, and a lot of tech-death. Even a lot of melo-death bands I really like, such as The Black Dahlia Murder, At The Gates, and Dark Tranquility, because they still have a brutal and energetic sound along with something more to offer.

There are some bands that I can’t quite get into, because there’s not enough energy or accessibility for me to want to come back to the album(s). That’s how I feel about the second album from Finnish death metal band Amorphis. This band has been on my radar for a long time, because I’ve seen stuff from them. Their name isn’t one that I’m too familiar with, but it’s one that I’ve heard. I thought I’d look into them a bit, and I found 1994’s Tales From The Thousand Lakes. Apparently, this is one of their best albums, as well as a very influential album of 90s death metal. The copy that I got also comes with a bonus EP, 1995’s Black Winter Day, but I wanted to hear this, because this album combined a couple more styles of metal into their sound, such as progressive metal and doom metal, so I wanted to hear how this band would work with a few very different styles of metal in their sound. I hate to say this, but this is one of those albums that I respect more than I like it. I don’t really hate it, or anything close to that, but Tales From The Thousand Lakes is a cool album on paper, but for me, personally, it doesn’t do a lot for me. Maybe it’s because it comes with that EP, so it makes the album feel a bit more padded. The album itself is only 40 minutes, but the EP makes it about 54. This thing is really unique, though, so I have to give it some credit. I have to give it a lot of credit, actually, because a part of me wants to say that this album might have contributed to the creation of death-doom, as well as prog-death. There are elements of those styles there, but that’s the thing. This album feels so jarring, disjointed, and confusing, it’s really strange. There’s a lot happening in this album, and it’s just too much for me to really get into. I like this record, especially at its core, because it’s got such a unique style to it, but it’s not one that I feel as though has a high replay value to it. I don’t want to listen to this all the time, let alone more than a few times. I’d recommend this to people that like prog-metal, doom metal, or death metal, because you might be able to get into a new style of metal, but it’s a very messy album that I respect way more than I like.