Review Summary: An excellent live release that showcases the brilliance of this unique band from the land of thousand lakes.
Holding the record for most metal bands per capita, Finland is probably the most metal country in the world. Some of the bands residing there have become very renowned names and have found acclaim all over the globe. Amorphis is one of those bands. Having started out as a doomy death metal band, they would later expand their sound with the 1994 classic Tales From The Thousand Lakes, incorporating prog rock elements, traditional folk rhythms, a lot more melody in the guitars and keyboards and even the occasional clean vocals. The constant and increasing experimentation eventually started to strip the band of their metal roots, some would say even a bit too far with 2003's Far From The Sun. However, Amorphis then redeemed themselves in 2006 with Eclipse, featuring new vocalist Tomi Joutsen who also brought back the growls. The album even came in at number 1 on the Finnish album charts and would eventually go on to be certified gold. Follow-up albums Silent Waters and Skyforger were also released to critical acclaim and saw the band’s fanbase expand further and further, so naturally it seemed like the right time to record a live show, thus resulting in Forging the Land of Thousand Lakes.
Containing two DVDs and two CDs, this package is an excellent example of a live release done right. Disc one contains the the band’s full concert al Club Teatria in the city of Oulu, Finland. A - by Finnish standards - pretty big concert hall where also the legendary Finnish band Sentenced had recorded their very last concert for the live album Buried Alive and where later Sonata Arctica would go on to record their Live in Finland DVD. As far as show elements, this is fairly standard. No pyro, fireworks or even a very active band (with of course the exception of the ever-engaging Tomi Joutsen). Yet, under the motto of ‘let the music speak for itself’, the professional light show and excellent camera work make this far from a boring watch. In between songs, Tomi might talk to the audience in Finnish, thanking them or prepping them for the next song, but luckily he always keeps it brief (and Finnish is a beautiful language anyway). Soundwise, everything sounds crystal clear without taking away the actual live feeling that so many live releases these days seem to miss because of an excess in overdubs and cleaning-up in post-production. Here, there’s no need for that because of top-notch performances from every single band member. Everyone was at the top of their game that night and mistakes (if any!) are very few and far in between. The musicians are fully in control of their instruments and Tomi constantly showcases that he can switch between heavy and clean vocals effortlessly and during the older songs even improves on the previous vocalists’ performances. The setlist is another plus, containing material from every single studio album up until that point. Note that I used the word ‘material’ and not ‘songs’, because Far From The Sun is merely represented by a part of the song ‘Smithereens’, which here is used as an intro to another song called ‘The Smoke’ off of Eclipse. Since this show was recorded during the tour for Skyforger, this album is naturally represented the strongest, with five tracks. Furthermore, the band plays classics and regulars such as ‘The Castaway’, ‘Silent Waters’, Black Winter Day’ (preceded by the beginning of ‘Magic & Mayhem’), House Of Sleep and closer ‘My Kantele’. An interesting highlight is the Elegy album medley, consisting of parts from the songs ‘Against Widows’, ‘Cares’, ‘On Rich And Poor’ and at the very end - even though it’s not mentioned on the track listing - ‘Better Unborn’. Overall an excellent show!
The second disc contains lots of bonus material, such as their - once again - excellent performance at the Summerbreeze Festival in 2009, a documentary on the history of the band up until then, all their music videos, an old interview and a photo gallery. Although the first disc makes up the main feature of this release, the second DVD is definitely worth your time as well.
The CDs simply contain the Oulu show spread over two discs, so buyers can enjoy the concert anywhere, which I certainly have done several times, even still now after many repeated listens.
Whether you’re completely new to Amorphis or you have been following them around for some time now, this release is undoubtedly worth checking out, as it can serve as an excellent introduction to the band or as a great addition to your Amorphis collection as the live performances and bonus material brings something new to what you might already know of the band through the studio albums.
