Finnish metal institution Amorphis has just announced to be hitting the road in late December in celebration of the 20th Anniversary of their legendary 1994 release Tales From The Thousand Lakes.

Guitarist Esa Holopainen gives a retrospect on the band’s early days and explains how the tour came about: “This month (July 12) marked the 20th anniversary of the release of the by far most significant album of our career: Tales From The Thousand Lakes. The years have flown by, and it feels great to notice that the tooth of time has not diminished the value of the album, nor the popularity of its songs when performed live. ‘Black Winter Day’, ‘The Castaway’, ‘Into Hiding’ and ‘In The Beginning’ are still part of almost every Amorphis gig. Although we have played these songs hundreds of times, it is still as exciting as ever to see the joy in people’s faces and the sheer emotion evoked by, for example, the piano intro of Black Winter Day. When Tomi Joutsen joined the band, we reviewed the setlist in a new (old) light. It was perfectly clear that we would include more tracks from Tales From The Thousand Lakes – without forgetting our debut The Karelian Isthmus, of course. At that point we understood how much Tales From The Thousand Lakes meant to people. Most of us have feelings about the 1990s that are brought back to mind by the songs from Tales From The Thousand Lakes, so we are certainly talking about nostalgia here. To honor the two-decade history of the album, we will embark on the Tales From The Thousand Lakes 20th Anniversary Tour. The shows of this tour will feature the Tales From The Thousand Lakes album in its entirety as well as some rarely performed Amorphis songs. Don your wigs and start the pit!”

Joining in the band on tour will be Swedish label mates Avatarium.

Commented guitarist Esa Holopainen: "We are really happy to have Avatarium as a special quest for Tales From The Thousand Lakes 20th Anniversary tour. A year ago on tour in Germany we hooked up with Nuclear Blast guys and they brought us several of their new releases. Being a huge fan of Candlemass I was obviously really interested in Avatarium release. I guess this was one of the albums everybody enjoyed listening to and why not, the band and their music is great!"

Don’t miss the chance to see Amorphis and Avatarium live at the following dates:

December

26 - Berlin, Germany - Huxley's Neue Welt    
27 - Leipzig, Germany - Täubchenthal
28 - München, Germany - Backstage
29 - Tilburg, Netherlands - O13   
30 - Pratteln, Switzerland - Z7   
31 - Essen, Germany - Weststadthalle