Amorphis - Black Winter Day (1994)^{Release ID: 2460}

Certainly not essential, but any tracks from this period of Amorphis' evolution are priceless.

Amorphis' Tales From the Thousand Lakes is an incredible album of unique and extremely melodic death metal. This little EP came out a month after that classic album was made public and while it's certainly not an essential release, it's worth checking out for any fans of the full length. It contains a total of 4 tracks and has a running time of only 13 minutes, with all unreleased material now being available as bonus tracks on the reissue of Tales. So, I'm hardly going to try to convince you to go chase down the original EP. But I am going to rate this highly as in my opinion, the more Amorphis material from this period of their evolution the better!

The first track is the brilliant Black Winter Day, which is one of the cuter (how often can you use that word in a metal review!) tracks on the aforementioned full-length. But of more interest to Amorphis fans would be the 3 other tracks on offer. Folk of the North is a short instrumental that's mainly piano based and while it's nothing amazing, is a nice little atmospheric piece. Then there's Moon and Sun which is the highlight of the EP. It would not have gone astray on Tales at all, having those typical melodic Amorphis riffs and accompanying keyboard work. The band have always been able to fill very short tracks with stacks of creativity and a multitude of moving sections and Moon and Sun showcases everything I love about the band. Finally, there's Moon and Sun Part II, which is also damn entertaining, and continues the good work of its predecessor. It's the heaviest track on the album with one riff cranking up the intensity a tad (for Amorphis anyway) and still has heaps of beautiful melodies and a nice piano interlude to boot.

All up, the Black Winter Day EP isn't going to rate as anyone's favourite Amorphis moment. But it does give us an opportunity to explore more work from these Finish legends, and in particular, tracks created during what many consider their most successful period. For anyone out there that doesn't actually own Tales From the Thousand Lakes, I highly recommend picking up a copy that includes the 3 bonus tracks. You won't regret it.