Metal Heaven

Concert Reviews - Ensiferum w/Tarujen Saari

2010-03-18T06:21:00.003-06:00

What an unexpected night.

Juho and I went in (too early) for the Ensiferum show. After the last time I saw them, back in September, I was expecting sort of a similar thing - to run into lots of people I know, hear some awesome music, and have an awesome time. I can't say that's what happened.

I am sure there are a lot of things I could say about Tarujen Saari. Not many of them would be positive. But, I am a fan of talking, so I'll tell you anyways.

Tarujen Saari

For starters... stage attire? We have an undead bride playing violin that looks like she had an Evanescence music video puke all over her, and not in a good way (I have been known to like Amy Lee's style). Then there is the old-school rocker (with a terrible voice) who was in leather pants and a Tarujen Saari shirt. The singer had a goth/Morticia Adams thing going on in her too-tight fake corsetted dress with her hair shaped like boobs. Then there was a guy who looked like he wanted to be a pirate but just settled for whatever he had in his closet that was too big and full of bling, and an affeminate guy in a kilt. What the bloody hell? No symmetry at all.

Musically, the singer sounded like she might be able to sing but wasn't trying very hard to do it successfully. Musically, the only one of the musicians who had any style was the violinist, and I couldn't hear her half the time.

And then there was the random weird stuff that kept happening. Most of it was vocal, like weird laughter or vocal parts that either made us laugh hysterically, or cry. Here is a picture that pretty much says everything you need to know about Tarujen Saari.

Juho doesn't know whether to laugh or cry...

As for good old Enska... I don't know what it was. Maybe it was just me and the fact that I wasn't really in the mood for going out, or the fact that there wasn't a massive crowd of my friends like last time, or the fact that the crowd did consist of shirtless pasty 18-year-old dipshits... well, whatever it was, I didn't enjoy it that much.

The setlist was actually better than during the From Afar tour, because they didn't play either of the Heathen Throne songs and played more older favorites. I finally got to hear Lai Lai Hei live, for example. There were also some older favorites, like Victory Song, Token of Time, and more. They skipped Smoking Ruins, which I was a bit disappointed by, since it was on their setlist. The orchestral intro version of By the Dividing Stream was pretty wicked, I must say.

Ensiferum

As for live shows... I've yet to see them in their sexy Finnish flag kilts, but their stage set was really cool - Emmi had the shield and swords on the front of her keyboards, like always, and they were wearing their usual kilts (Pete's Ensiferum kilt is pretty awesome). What was unusual, was the addition of a viking-like guy on the left, carrying a sword and ale horn, and a mostly-naked "viking" in a fur diaper on the right. The purpose of these two were to do backing vocals and chants, and in the fur diaper guy's case, vocals on a couple songs (because Pete can't sing, I guess).

Now, viking-guy was fine and I had no problem, but I really had to question Aleksi Parviainen's attire (cuz that's his name - you may recall me making fun of his suck factor back in May of last year because he is the singer for Soulcage). The guy sets off my gaydar seriously, sticking his chest and gut out like he's completely overconfident in the most odd way possible. His hairy diaper and his fur "boots" (that looked more like someone strapped a dead animal around his feet than boots) were ridiculous. He looked like he had been wearing fur pants at some point but someone came up behind him, ripping the legs off, so there was nothing but underwear and hairy pantlegs bunched around his ankles. He did not look viking.

Aleksi (Soulcage) on vocals

And the things they had to do were a bit stupid. I was hoping to see them have some sort of small sword-fight during one of the songs, but I was not so fortunate. They just touched their blades together and walked away from each other. Booooring!

Aleksi did a good enough job on vocals for the song Vandraren (a cover of a Nordman song that appeared on the From Afar album. A sort of 50-50 moment for me was when they invited him back to do another cover, Battle Hymn. What I didn't initially realize was that it was a Manowar cover! I was torn between joy and amusement. Joy, because I love Manowar and think they are the funniest thing ever (though this is far from their best or most amusing song) and amusement because Aleksi couldn't sing it very well. He's got a bit of the Eric Adams going on, sure, but his voice was cracking in the big wails and his stage presence still annoys the hell out of me.

The only other thing I can think to mention is just that I am convinced Sami Hinkka (bass) was drunk out of his mind. He seemed unnaturally energetic and was running around and making faces like a complete madman. It was hilarious to watch but I wondered if it was a bit too much for Pete and Markus.

Sami looking insane

Overall, it's hard to see a bad Ensiferum show, but this was nowhere near as nice as the last one. I think a lot of it was just me, and the show itself was really good. Crappy crowds do a lot to ruin a show for me (even though I was watching from the balcony) and the opening band put me in a rather unforgiving mood - we even bailed out before the encore. I've seen Iron before and didn't care about the other songs. Still, gotta love Enska!

Setlist:

By The Dividing Stream (orchestral intro)
From Afar
Token Of Time
Deathbringer From The Sky
Elusive Reaches
Dragonheads
Into Battle
Smoking Ruins ~ not performed
Windrider
Old Man
Vandraren (Aleksi vocals)
Stone Cold Metal
Lai Lai Hei
Ahti
Battle Hymn (Aleksi vocals)
Blood Is The Price For Glory
Victory Song + outro
EC Tears (Kaisu vocals)
EC Twilight Tavern
EC Iron

Ensiferum ft Aleksi on vocals

Year: Mar 2010
Opening bands: Tarujen Saari
Who I went with: Juho
Location: Nosturi, Helsinki

Concert Reviews - Finntroll & FME

2010-03-02T03:18:00.002-07:00

Trying out something a little different this time, since last weekend was a whole pile of concerts.

Finntroll

Let's start with Finntroll. This was the third time I've seen them now, and each time I've been to Finntroll, I've watched from a different place. The first time was in Calgary and I was on a small rise that keeps people out of the mosh pit but is still on the main floor. The second time was at the Virgin Oil Co. and I was front-row. This time I ended up being relatively directly in the mosh pit.

It is impossible not to be involved in the insanity when you are bordering the mosh pit at a Finntroll concert. You are either pushing the moshers back, or you are being pushed aside by people entering and exiting the pit. It can be irritating if you want to just watch the show but once you have accepted the fact that unless you move, that's how it's going to stay, it opens up worlds of fun for you.

The pit at this show was quite big. It took up almost the entire floor of Nosturi with sweaty shirtless men and crazy metal girls, all in there going insane. The music was upbeat and fast, with Finntroll all being drunk and high and having a good time on stage. They played the usual favorites, like Korpens Saga and Trollhammaren, but also played some new stuff, like Under Bergens Rot and Solsagan to make up for taking out some others. I was actually a bit disappointed that they removed Forsvinn Du Som Lyser and En Mäktig Har from the repertoire because they were some of my favorites and were awesome live.

As far as release parties go, this was a great show though. Everyone was having a blast, the crowd was insane, and the music was awesome. You can't ask for much more than that at a folk metal show.

Fintroll again

Year: Feb 2010
Opening bands: Armour, Barren Earth
Who I went with: Juho, Marc, Garance, Jari, Ilkka, and anyone else who was there!
Location: Nosturi, Helsinki

As for the Finnish Metal Expo, that was an interesting thing indeed. I've never been to a metal expo before. Promotional stuff everywhere, free/cheap CDs and singles, signing sessions, band members walking around everywhere signing and taking pictures with people who recognise them, interviews, and more. It's general madness and you can want to be in about three different places at once at times.

Korpiklaani

The first show I watched was Korpiklaani. We were a bit late arriving and they had already started. Holy hell, energy. Their songs are quite fast normally and they really cranked it up a notch live. The sound quality was too loud and rather poor as a result, which was unfortunate, and I felt like Vodka was actually too fast, truth be told. However, I also thought that some of their other songs were better at a faster pace, such as Saunas & Cottages. And they played all the obvious favorites, like Wooden Pints, and finished off with Happy Little Boozer.

They're a ton of fun to watch, too. Jonne Järvelä is the cutest man in the world with a great voice and his awesome dimples. Whenever he sings "here comes the womanizer" in Vodka I can't help but smile. The guitarist likes to shuffle around happily on stage and Jonne joins in with him sometimes. Their bass player has such a friendly smile as well; they all look so happy on stage (except the violinist, he looks very dutiful). It was a fun show and I'd like to see them play a real show sometime now!

I didn't watch much of anyone else on Friday but did catch a glimpse of Doom Unit. It didn't impress me so we didn't watch for long. We missed out on Satyricon and Amorphis because it was late and we were tired from Finntroll, wanting to save energy for Saturday.

Due to a late start, we missed Insomnium and the Finnish Metal Awards, but the winners were as follows:

Leverage

Band of the year: Insomnium
Record of the year: Insomnium
Vocalist of the year: Tomi Joutsen, Amorphis
Musician of the year: Alexi Laiho
Cover art of the year: Skyforger, Amorphis (Travis Smith)
Newcomer of the year: FM2000
Demo band of the year: Ghoul Patrol

Insomnium only played for 30 minutes, so it wasn't a huge loss. I've seen them about four times now anyways.

Juho and I checked out Leverage's 30-minute show (though I ducked out for a signing session for a bit of it). Leverage is just a ton of fun to watch live. They're so silly that it's awesome and I can never get over their singer's hair. It's too much. He must spend so much time getting it to look like that beforehand! It was fun though, as it always is.

Swallow the Sun

We caught the end of Swallow the Sun, which was about the same as always. Good music, good live show, but doom metal really has a hard time drawing me in live because it doesn't have a lot of energy. It's not the fault of the musicians - it's just the style. It doesn't mesh well with an active crowd and for me, it's the kind of music I listen to before I go to sleep.

The big ones of the weekend, of course, were Apocalyptica and Swallow the Sun. Apocalyptica was awesome. They played all sorts of favorites, like Bittersweet (instrumental) and had a guest vocalist whom I have so far been identify to name singing I'm Not Jesus and I Don't Care. They had Mikko come down from the drums and play the stand-up bass for the first time ever too, which was really something else. They played a slow instrumental that might have been a new song too. Their live performance is always so exciting, especially since they play such big instruments that require such immense control to keep a good sound. Phenomenal, as always. Something cool that I noted was the lighting in their show - it sometimes flashes back and forth so you can't see the drummer, and then switches so you can only see the drummer, and goes back and forth, creating a really cool effect with the music.

Apocalyptica - Mikko on bass

Apocalyptica - guest vocalist

And then there's Sonata Arctica. This was my third time seeing them live and I never get sick of it. Tony Kakko is always so engergetic and he was really talkative (though I had no idea what he was saying). They played the obvious favorites, like Don't Say A Word and Fullmoon, but threw in a whole lot of new stuff, like The Last Amazing Grays, Flag in the Ground, As If The World Wasn't Ending, and Juliet. It was awesome to hear some new stuff and the sound was great. The stage show was really exciting too, with fire and sparks and all that good stuff designed for the sole purpose of pumping you up (and totally suceeding).

Sonata Arctica

All in all, the whole thing was a blast. I met a ton of musicians, like the guys from Sonata, Apocalyptica, and Amorphis, got a ton of autographs and pictures, got to meet some of my heroes, like Tony Kakko and Marco Hietala, and got to see a couple of the guys from Swallow the Sun get really excited over my moth tattoo (which is their design). It was definitely a good time and I'd recommend it to any metal fan; especially those who are into the Finnish brand of metal!

Year: Feb 2010
Bands Seen: Korpiklaani, Leverage,
Who I went with: Marc
Location: Nosturi, Helsinki

Concert Reviews - Lacuna Coil

2010-02-17T09:18:00.001-07:00

I've been waiting for this show for a very long time. I originally planned to go to Ontario to see it someday with my friend Chris, but since then I moved to Finland and he didn't want to come all the way here for one show (shocking).

Cristina Scabbia

Marc, however, was awesome enough to come with me. We were having a lazy night so we skipped the opening bands, got lost trying to find Nosturi and walked somewhere between 2-3 km out of our way (total) and ended up on the docks with no accessible easy way, so we had to go back. We still arrived with a good 15-20 minutes before LC went onstage, fortunately.

The show was really excellent. One of the first things we noticed was that the bassist was missing. In the end they mentioned that he had messed up his shoulder, which was a bit odd, considering that Andrea Ferro also had some stuff going on with his shoulder from an incident in Oslo, apparently. He had his arm in a LC scarf for a sling and seemed quite oblivious to it and didn't let it hold him back.

Andrea Ferro

However, as a result of the bassist being gone, they had to have a track play and therefore, the musicians weren't really able to let loose and have as much fun as I think they could have. So the show was a lot more focused on the vocals, which was okei because both Cristina and Andrea did quite well. I liked the fact that they didn't try to sound exactly like the do on the albums and had a bit of fun with it. They had a lot of stage charisma too, talking to the crowd, introducing the songs, that sort of thing.

I have to say one thing about Cristina Scabbia on stage. There are different ways a girl can act as a singer and sometimes it just doesn't work for a metal band. If you compare Nightwish's singers - Tarja Turunen was always rather still, raising her arms and looking sort of epic. Anette, contrastingly, dances around and looks sort of popstarish. Cristina is the happy medium between these two. She doesn't look like a popstar at all but she still moves around and has fun and rocks out a bit on stage. She was fun to watch and didn't annoy me in the slightest by the way she was acting.

The set was excellent too. I heard pretty much everything I was dying to hear, from as far back as they have good songs (Unleashed Memories). They had quite a long setlist, considering they only played for about an hour and a half. They had a change in the middle where Cristina came out in a lovely dress to sing my favorite of their slow songs - Wide Awake (you may remember as a song of the day from around when I moved here, and my general life anthem for a while). Then she changed again and they brought it back to life for the rest of the show, with four more songs and then three encores.

Cristina Scabbia - Wide Awake

Another fun moment was the "karaoke contest", where they stated that every night they play Depeche Mode's Enjoy the Silence and see which city sings the loudest. I think Marc won "loudest city" all on his own, heh.

Set List:
I'll Survive
Underdog
Closer
I'm Not Afraid
Fragments
Tight Rope
Senzafine
I Won't Tell You
Heaven's A Lie
Fragile
Wide Awake
To the Edge
The Maze
Swamped
Enjoy the Silence
EC - Not Enough
EC - Spellbound
EC - Our Truth

Overall, really excellent show. It would've been a bit better if they had maybe been able to loosen up a bit and have some more fun (if the bassist had been there) but otherwise everything was really solid. There was a lot of focus on the vocals and the singers were outstanding. Definitely a show I'd recommend checking out!

Lacuna Coil - whole band

Year: Feb 2010
Opening bands: Dommin, Blackstar Halo
Who I went with: Marc
Location: Nosturi, Helsinki

Concert Reviews - Tarja Turunen (joulukonsertti)

2010-02-17T09:13:00.002-07:00

Tarja Turunen's Christmas concert... what an experience.

I had no idea what to expect from this show. To be completely honest, I didn't actually know it was a joulukonsertti when I bought my ticket; I thought it was her solo band. I was a bit disappointed when I found out I spent quite a lot of money on that sort of thing, considering I am notorious for HATING Christmas music. But hei, I never do anything festive and I've never seen Tarja perform before (not even with Nightwish, to break my heart), so I figured it would be something interesting, and I was not let down.

Tarja was performing her Christmas show with a percussionist, a guitarist, and an organist (is that a word?). The music was ridiculously well done, and I was really pleased by the Finnish Christmas songs. Maybe it's because I didn't know any of them, but the music was brilliant, the songs didn't annoy me like every Christmas song in North America does, and Tarja was unreal.

Her voice is crisp and perfectly pitched and just, mind boggling. She sounds so completely unreal, and it was cool to see her without all the other stuff. I mean, I love Nightwish and they are one of my favorite bands ever, and as I said, I'm crushed that I never saw them with Tarja, but this show was focusing on just Tarja, not on a band as a whole, so it was great to see what she could do.

Her musicians were also really cool. The guitarist looked like he could be quite the rocker but was holding back for the sort of... sanctity of the event. He looked like he was having an absolute blast though and was so into the music, having fun, smiling, and being a bit silly even. The percussionist was in complete control of all of his instruments - from the drums to the chimes, and just looked so practiced and confident. And the organ guy was so Phantom of the Opera that it hurt. And I mean that in the most awesome sort of way. Epic loud phantom-music, totally excellent.

Tarja looked absolutely beautiful, in her lovely black/red dresses and still managed to look a bit metal even though she was doing a fancy show (I'm glad I had the good sense to dress nicely). What was really cool though was that she took a couple breaks and let her band play. I expected some sort of festive music, and I honestly don't know what you consider "festive" in Finland but this was like, dark, ambient music and it was weird as hell and totally brilliant. I was really shocked and absolutely thrilled about it.

Even cooler, she did a Finnish version of Silent Night as an encore, which was nice because, as I said, I hate North American Christmas music but with the Finnish lyrics it was so much better. And her last song was Walking in the Air, and they had "snow" come out to fall around her while she sang, it was beautiful and SO cool to hear with her random assortment of instruments, not a band. Magnificent.

So, while I found the show a bit short, and a lot expensive, it was totally worth the experience and I would probably even consider going again. It was great to hear her at her classical-style best and I would recommend seeing her to anyone. She really is amazing, regardless or not of what you think of her character.

Year: Dec 2009
Opening bands: n/a
Who I went with: me, myself, and I
Location: Sibeliustalo, Lahti, FI

Concert Reviews - Riverside w/Ageness

2010-02-17T09:11:00.002-07:00

Another weekend in Helsinki, another show to check out. This weekend we changed up from the usual melodic death or power metal I've been seeing to taste something I haven't tried in a while... progressive metal!

I have seen one prog show before, and if you read my reviews, you will know that I had been very unimpressed by Dream Theater's live show. Granted, I think that was just a bad night and would be willing to give them another chance because I think they're a great band. However, I went into Riverside with some skepticism because of this former experience with these long songs performed live.

We arrived a while after Ageness started. The band seemed to have some potential, but everyone seemed to be quite old and we got the vibe that the singer (who looked like Geddy Lee and Dio had a child together) was the master behind the band and the whole thing was his special baby. Shame it wasn't better. It wasn't bad but it got old after a while. It was pretty much the quintessential opening band. Good, but not great, and a nice choice to open for a band of the same genre but you know it's nowhere near as good as what you're about to hear.

So, Riverside. I heard about these guys because Michael's brother was really into them (which is surprising because, Opeth aside, he's not really the prog metal type). I have one of their CDs and I consider it to be a good CD but after a while nothing seems to jump out. It's good to have for a listen but nothing to go crazy over anyways. They are also the only Polish band I can name.

I have to say, with very low expectations of this show (and even a tiny bit of regret because the ticket was a bit pricey), I was really pleased that I had chosen to check it out. For starters, the music was really really good. Even when they played long songs (12+ minutes) it never got boring because it always changed up and it NEVER once sounded like the musicians were just showing off. The guitarist was sort of bouncing on the spot all the time and the keyboardist looked like he was enjoying himself. I really liked the vocalist though. Remniscient of Mikael Åkerfeldt from Opeth, he was awesome to watch live. He had a great sense of humor, joking onstage about singing and the length of their songs, and other such things. He had a great voice too... really smooth transitions between regular and high pitch, and he was just overall really fun to watch.

We were discussing the different bands we could hear in Riverside's music. I could definitely hear Dream Theater elements, as well as some new Iron Maiden style stuff, a bit of Deep Purple, and even a hint of Smashing Pumpkins at one point. The music was diverse, and interesting. It was powerful and melodic and mystical, like good prog metal should be. You got to hear all the members of the band doing their thing and enjoying it and having fun (including the keyboardist and a theramin, haha)!

I really have to conclude that I didn't have much or anything to complain about during this show. It took a while for the band to get the crowd into it but after a few songs, they really started to feel it and got more into it, rocking out and singing along (it really helped that the singer was encouraging and funny, making it easy to sing along even if you didn't know the words). The song selection was good (even though I didn't know hardly any of it) and much more diverse than the Rapid Eye Movement album alone... I even decided I'd look up more of their music because they had one song that they played acoustically that I really loved.

I would completely recommend this band, if you're a fan of progressive metal at all. It was really solid, really well done, and really impressive. Definitely a band to check out if you ever get a chance!

Riverside

Year: Nov 2009
Opening bands: Ageness
Who I went with: Marc
Location: Nosturi, Helsinki, FI

Concert Reviews - Swallow the Sun w/Insomnium

2009-11-22T12:06:00.002-07:00

I finally made up for that missed show back in Calgary. STS was the last show I missed before moving to Europe. I pretty much didn't want to pay to see them open for a band I had never heard of, since I would have been paying $35 or so and STS isn't one of my ultimate favorites. So, I was pretty stoked to hear about STS playing at Tavastia for only 9 eu. My elation was increased when I discovered that Insomnium was opening (and if you read these reviews, you know that I love Insomnium).

Niilo, looking a bit like he's in pain

I was actually a bit late for the Insomnium show but I did manage to wander right up to the front and see one of my favorite live melodic death metal bands. I've reviewed them twice in the last month or two and I ensure you that the show was equally as impressive as it was each other time. The only difference is that Jules Näveri from Profane Omen was not at this show, so when they played the new songs, one of the guitarists was doing the clean vocals. He wasn't very good and I don't think he was feeling very confident singing them. However, you must make due with what you have. It was still awesome and would've been worth the 9 eu alone.

The girls in front of me left, leaving me right at the front for Swallow the Sun. I really didn't know what to expect from this show because I am not really big into doom metal and had no idea what a doom metal show would be like. I was pleasantly surprised.

Mikko looking dramatic

For starters, I sort of expected a really... boring show. Like, I expected everyone to be really dreary. I was shocked to see that not only were they all really into it, but they were VERY active and the two in front of me (Juha on guitars and Markus on keyboards) were particularly into it. Juha has a lot of style and Markus looks like he is angrily destroying his keyboard at all times. Mikko (singer) sort of passionately clutches his mic and growls and he's pretty excellent. The man has a great voice. The drummer from Wintersun is playing with them at the moment too and he's pretty darn good.

The music itself was not bad. Their playing was really clean and good. The sound was great but the vocals I found to be too quiet (though I'm not sure if that was due to me having earplugs or not) and they had a girl come in to do guest vocals on one song, which was really nice, but again, couldn't hear her well enough. I have no idea what her name was though. The song was 50% nice and 50% thrashy, so I was on the fence on it.

The set was nice, they didn't play anything too long, which was good, and they played a couple songs I did know, including Don't Fall Asleep. However, most of the stuff was off the new album (which has the most unfortnate name based on the fact that the new Twilight movie just came out). If you want to hear a fun story about my aquisition of a setlist, check out the latest post in Amy's Barbaric Adventures. Here are the tracks:

These Woods Breathe Evil
Falling World
Out of this Gloomy Light
Plague of Butterflies
Sleepless Swans
Lights on the Lake (Horror pt III)
Don't Fall Asleep
Servant of Sorrow
New Moon
EC The Giant
EC Swallow (Horror pt I)

Overall, I liked it. I'd probably go again if you asked me. I'd like to know the music better next time though.

Mikko and the guest singer

Year: Nov 2009
Opening bands: Insomnium
Who I went with: me, myself, and I; encountering Ilkka, Daniel, Jaakko, Valtsu, and Marko in the process
Location: Tavastia, Helsinki, FI

Concert Reviews - Stratovarius + Bonus

2009-11-16T17:20:00.002-07:00

Yep... I saw Stratovarius. Are you as surprised as I am?

I made an evening trip into Helsinki to check out this show. I've had Stratovarius floating around on my iPod since I was 17 but I can't say I've ever really gotten seriously into the music. Something about Kotipelto just reeks of cheese and as much as I think he's a good singer, I get sick of them pretty fast.

Kotipelto

Stratovarius has had enough drama since its birth to pretty much qualify it as a soap opera. The most recent news involves Timo Tolkki's leaving of the band. Tolkki wrote pretty much all the music and there was some messy business over the name Stratovarius but it seems that the remaining members of the band hold no real negative feelings. They brought in a young guy by the name of Matias Kupiainen to fill in on guitars and are now writing their own music without Tolkki as the God and Overlord of the music.

I was really thrilled to see Kupiainen live. I've seen him in interviews and he seems like a really interesting guy. He was so happy and lively on stage. Everyone was, really. They all just seemed spot on with the performance, no stress, everyone happy... a far cry from what they might've looked like a year or two ago with the longevity of the band so threatened. I sensed a lot of freedom amongst them and fellowship though. They all looked comfortable playing together, like everyone was having a good time.

The song selection was also really nice. I'm not so fluent in Stratovarius-nese but I recognised Destiny, Hunting High and Low, A Million Light Years Away, and a few more. Actually, quite a few considering how very seldomly I listen to their music. And they threw in a bass solo and a guitar/bass duel too, which was pretty darn excellent, if I do say so. Mathias and Jens passed off beers and riffs to each other, and they were both all smiles! Somewhere in the night the keyboardist began to mess around too, and whatever the setting he plays on is, I love it and he's really phenomenal. I love his playing, it always sounds so sharp and reminds me of King's Quest games (which is a good thing).

Kupiainen

My complaint? Only that Kotipelto's voice wears me thin after a while. I think he's brilliant, it's just not so much my thing. I was also situated for the first while behind the most retarded couple in the room who were waaaaay too into it. Painfully so. Shamefully so. It made me a bit ill. But hei, whatever makes you happy right?

Overall, good performance, good music, good everything. If it's a bad you like, you'd probably love it live. I don't think I'd go again but that's because it's not really my type of music.

So of course I snagged a setlist, but this time I was stealthy about it and asked the soundbooth guy. He gave me the most hardcore eye-roll I've ever received, but what the hell do I care about that? Here it is:

Destiny
Hunting High and Low
Speed of Light
Kiss of Judas
Deep Unknown
Legions
A Million Light Years Away
-Jens solo
Winter Skies
Phoenix
-guitar/bass solo
Forever is Today
Twilight Symphony
Eagleheart
EC Forever
EC Father Time
EC Black Diamond

Stratovarius

Year: Nov 2009
Opening bands: nada
Who I went with: me, myself, and I
Location: Tavastia, Helsinki, FI

*BONUS REVIEW*

What? Behold! You are getting a second review in here today! Aren't you lucky!

So who is this mysterious band I am reviewing? The one and only Leverage! A cheesy old epic metal band from Finland and one of the best times I've had at a show in a while.

This is music for amusement, for laughter, for pumping your fist in the air, for holding up your lighter, and for banging your head! I listened to the music for an hour before heading to Helsinki and then headed to the show with my friends only to wait way too long for the band to come out. But we were greeted with an enthusiastic group who played rather ridiculous music in the most awesome sort of way. The singer looked like a gym teacher (which I believe I was told he actually was at some point) and probably spent an exorbitant amount of time getting the wings in his hair to look so sublime.

I won't go into detail. All I have to say was this was one of the funnest shows I've been to. The sort of show you see to get drunk and go crazy at. A good times had by all show. No one is judging because they're all laughing and having fun. If you see it, go, have a few beers, put your fist in the air, and rawk! You'll see what I mean!

Leverage!

Year: Nov 2009
Opening bands: nada
Who I went with: Jake, Juho, Jake's friends
Location: Dante's Highlight, Helsinki, FI

Concert Reviews - Insomnium w/Profane Omen & Omnium Gatherum

2009-11-16T17:18:00.001-07:00

This may sound a little familiar... did I not just see this show a week or two ago? Yes I did, only last time it had a crappy thrash band and not Profane Omen. Also, I missed Profane Omen on Friday because my family went to Tahkovuori and I had to go with.

So, a note to all the readers out there... tonight marks a special occasion (sort of) - Omnium Gatherum now wins the prize for band I have seen the most times, sitting at thrice, and is tied with Insomnium for seen in quickest succession, since they're touring together.

Omnium Gatherum

Omnium Gatherum is always a treat to watch. I've figured out my issues with the band too. As always, the music was fantastic, Toni is growing a goatee now and I didn't recognise him at first, and Aapo looked less bored than last time.

My problem with them is that, while I love watching Jukka and his antics and ways of making the first couple rows smile, his voice isn't that great. With singers like Niilo Sevänen (Insomnium) to compare with, Jukka sounds like he's not well trained to do growls and gives off the impression that he probably has a sore throat and pukes blood after a show.

However, the show was great, as it has been the last 2 times I saw it, and I was pleased to see Jukka come down to the crowd and shake hands with everyone in the first row. He's such a personable guy. Loves the crowd, and I think that's a great thing. Shame his vocals aren't better.

Profane Omen - Jules Näveri

Profane Omen was next. What I had expected to hear was an acoustic show, but that was not the case. It was very loud. I actually got earplugs for the first time (mom should be happy) and I'm damned glad I did because something about the cement venue of Finlandia-talo (Finlandia house) is insane.

I haven't listened to much Profane Omen but I had intended to see them with Marc that one night so it was nice to get a chance to see them live. I was really really REALLY impressed with their energy; particularly Jules Näveri. He doesn't connect directly with specific people the way Jukka does, but he really gets in there and makes you want to put your fists/horns in the air and be part of it, getting everyone revved up. Oh, and they did wall of death. It was epic, but I stayed out of it.

The music was great - a bit thrashy but really solid. Jules has a great voice and his growls are pretty awesome too. He's a pretty good looking guy... got a bit of a Brad Pitt thing going on, only skinny and Finnish and metal, hah. They were all very active and put on a great show.

Profane Omen

One of the guitarists broke a string at one point so they did some little fun things to kill the time. I'm not sure what song they played to pass the time but it was fun. And the drummer got up and asked where his mom was (they're from Lahti) and then wished her happy birthday. It was pretty cute. As a side note, that happened in Finnish and I understood, so give me a few cheers too!

Insomnium - Niilo Sevänen

As for Insomnium, well, I openly welcomed another flawless performance. I spent a lot of time thinking about Niilo's vocals and wondering why I like them so much while other bands not so much. I've concluded that it is great because it sounds natural and effortless, and when you hear it, it's gentle and not overbearing. It flows perfectly with the music, and I adore it. Also, he dresses really nicely and it makes me happy - simple, but looks totally metal. Insomnium has to now be one of my favorite melodic death bands. Of course, that means that the playing was sensational as well.

What a bonus to be touring with the band that hosts your clean vocalist. Jules (Profane Omen, does the clean vocals on the tracks off the new album) and Niilo's voices just flow so beautifully together, making absolutely perfect harmony and Profane Omen's show had a lot of growls, so it's great to hear Jules with more clean vocals. The man has an unreal voice and he should use it more.

Insomnium with Jules

Their stage show is more laid back than Profane Omen's, but that's fine, the result is that they just look badass. Everyone has great hair to bang around as well. The only unfortunate part was that about half to three quarters of the way through the set they started to get some reverb in some of the songs.

Overall, spectacular show (again), and I just discovered that they're playing with Swallow the Sun next month, so bonus for me! That'll bring them up to tie with OG for band I've seen most, and I couldn't be more pleased with the fact!

Insomnium

Setlist for Insomnium:
Equivalence
Down With the Sun
Drawn to Black
Last Statement
The Harrowing Years
Where the Last Wave Broke
Medeia
The Killjoy
Lay of the Autumn
The Gale
Mortal Share
Devoid of Caring
EC The Day it All Came Down
EC Weighed Down With Sorrow

Year: Oct 2009
Opening bands: Omnium Gatherum & Profane Omen were opening for Insomnium
Who I went with: me, myself, and I
Location: Lahti - Finlandia-klubi (Finlandia-club)

Concert Reviews - Insomnium w/ Omnium Gatherum

2009-10-12T07:31:00.002-06:00

Another weekend in Helsinki, another bunch of shows.

Before I get into Insomnium, I want to mention that I happened to catch Eternal Tears of Sorrow on Friday night with Jari and Ilkka. I can't say I know many (or any) of their songs, but it was a good show, unfortunately ruined by absolutely brutal sound quality. At the stage it was so loud it made your ears bleed and at the back you could only hear the drums. It was unpleasant. Stage show was good though and so was the music. Glad we opted to check it out.

So we went earlier than I had wanted to check out the show. I didn't know anything about Axegressor but Jake had told me that they were terrible. He was right. They were just really bad thrash. Anyone who knows me knows I don't like thrash, but I can at least appreciate a band that's got some style and that sort of thing. I don't mind Stam1na, for example. But this band was just plain with a pretty awful vocalist and I found myself thinking "mennä kotiin" the whole time.

Next was Omnium Gatherum. If you're following, you know I've seen these guys before once and I liked it. My latest decision about this show is basically the same but I have some new points to add.

Omnium Gatherum

First off, it was a good show, nice performance, and their music is quite alright - nothing mind-blowing but nothing offensive to my ears at all, making for an enjoyable experience. Jukka Pelkonen is a rare type when it comes to fronting a band too. While he can look a bit ridiculous onstage, I appreciate that he is always REALLY into the show and does his utmost to connect to every person in the crowd, searches out the person who isn't smiling and MAKES them smile, and gets right in there (even literally at one point) to get the crowd going.

The rest of the performers are also great. However, we were noticing this time around that Aapo (keyboards) did not seem to be doing that much and even seemed bored at times. He was, of course, still rocking out, but I felt like every time my attention was drawn to him that he wasn't playing much.

Omnium Gatherum

OG is just one of those bands that I can watch to put me in a pleasant mood. Something about seeing a show by these guys puts a smile on my face.

Insomnium was the main attraction, of course. When I had mentioned the consideration of going to this show, my friend Valtteri told me I should listen to Insomnium because they're great. A few other people seconded his notion, so I decided to do it, and I was really pleased with what I heard. Their last album was very highly acclaimed and their newest album really captured me, so I became really enthusiastic about this show. And I was certainly not disappointed.

Insomnium

We were watching from upstairs on the balcony across from the stage, where the sound quality wasn't at its prime but wasn't too bad either. I have to give utmost praise to what was an absolutely flawless performance. The vocals were incredible, the music was well played, the performance was outstanding, and Jules Näveri (Profane Omen) stepped in to do the songs from the new album, Across the Dark, which really pleased me considering I am really loving their new album. That guy has a great voice and really flows well with Insomnium.

Insomnium w/ Jules

The set was also incredible, with some favorites, such as a recent song of the day of mine, Where the Last Wave Broke. Another cool thing was that they played two intros... Equivalence to open up but also The Gale into Mortal Share (Mortal Share being one of the songs I was dying to hear). The encore was performed after a surprisingly short wait (that's a good thing in my opinion, I hate waiting 5 minutes for an encore to start) and they performed two more songs before finishing up.

Overall, outstanding performance, with Niilo Servänen's vocals and stage presence really creating good and solid union with the rest of the band, for a spectacular show.

Insomnium's setlist:
Equivalence
Down With the Sun
Drawn To Black
The Killjoy
Daughter of the Moon
The Harrowing Years
Where the last Wave Broke
The Lay of Autumn
Medeia
The Gale
Mortal Share
Devoid of Caring
EC The Day It All Came Down
EC Weighted Down With Sorrow

Insomnium w/ Jules

Year: October 2009
Opening Bands: Axegressor and Omnium Gatherum
Who I went with: Mikael, and met up with Markus and Valtsu
Location: Helsinki - Nosturi

Concert Reviews - Amorphis

2009-10-06T00:48:00.001-06:00

I missed Amorphis twice this year. I'm not sure why that was such a big deal to me considering I never got big into their stuff. I like them and they've got great music though, so when I was hungover and passed out and didn't wake up until their set was half over at Nummirock I was pretty bummed. And at Ankkarock my friend wasn't ready to go on time so we were too late for that performance also.

I saw that they were playing in Hel in December so I had planned on going and this weekend I was supposed to see Amon Amarth playing in Tavastia. Unfortunately for me, by the time I went to get my Amon Amarth tickets, they were sold out. I did manage to get the last available ticket for Amorphis a week later though but that meant going solo (something I am getting more comfortable doing).

So, opening bands were Amoral, whom I've seen once before and am on the fence on the whole Ari Koivunen thing, and Before the Dawn, whom I tend to enjoy and watched a bit of at Nummirock, so I was relatively pleased with the lineup for this show.

I found myself a nice spot on the rise right at the front before Amoral started playing (after having a nice visit with Ilkka at merch) and prepared for the show. What I was not prepared for was the crowd.

Amoral, first song

Before I get into this, let me explain something about myself. I go see bands for the music. I enjoy watching live shows even if the music isn't my favorite. I just like seeing performances and taking pictures and that sort of business. What I do not like are groupie poser girls who slut up the scene and make the girls who actually like the music look bad. And that's pretty much all you're gonna find at an Amoral show these days.

Ari Koivunen

Don't get me wrong, Amoral's music is quite okei, but I can't comment too much because I don't actually know any of their songs. I also don't know what their old vocalist was like. I will admit though that since my last review of them, Ari seems more comfortable with the music and he didn't seem nearly as out-of-place as before. They sound good, they look fine on stage, and whatever you may think of Ari Koivunen, the guy has a voice. But I have to wonder if he hates himself for going on Finnish Idol because the only people in their crowd were slutty 15-year-old groupie wannabe sluts and little boys who want to be like him. It made me nauseous. It made me ill. It made me never want to see them play again (regardless of how much I love their drummer and his vinyl pants). Particularly annoying were two girls right near me who were trying way too hard and took off their shirts to try and get some attention. Because they think that their bras are going to impress Koivunen. Seriously. If you're gonna be a poser slut, at least have the guts to show your boobs.

Amoral full band

After that was Before the Dawn. I know they're not everyone's favorite but I think their music is okei and I like the bassist's voice combined with the vocalist's growls. The music was really good. They played a few songs I really like, a few more that I recognised, and a few ones I didn't but it was a good show. I have to say again that I really like Lars Eikind's voice. He sings quite nicely.

Lars Eikind (clean vocals and bass)

The thing that made me the happiest about their show was the drummer though. If I recall correctly, he is just a touring drummer but he had this ridiculously huge grin on his face the entire show and every time I looked at him I just couldn't help but smile also because he just looked SO happy. A couple songs I recognised, for interest's sake, were Disappear, Faithless, and Deadsong. My biggest problem, and this was unfortunately with all the bands, was that the vocal quality of the main vocalist was not very good from where I was sitting.

Before the Dawn

Little intro to a side-story... I asked the security guy (who was very nice) if I could have the set list for the show and he asked the stage crew guy, who said no. Jerk. To be continued.

Tomi Joutsen, Amorphis

I know you really want to know what I thought of Amorphis though. I can see right through you! Okei, well, bear in mind, like I said, that I actually don't know much of their stuff (like all the bands this night). But the performance was brilliant. Really brilliant. Tomi Joutsen is a tiny little guy who is completely ripped and has a really strong and proud stage presence. Like, the guy is a massive aura of confidence, but he doesn't project himself like a douche. And what a voice. He has a really lovely singing voice combined with solid growls, making such a really wonderful overall show. And my lord that man's dreadlocks are long. Really long. Like, a few of them are down to his knees (granted, as I said, the man is very short).

The stage performance was great. The line-up is really solid, with a couple guitars, bass, keyboards, and drums. Tomi had a sort of a 50s-style mic, which was kind of cool. Everyone looked like they were having fun, playing confidently, and enjoying the sold-out crowd. I've said that I don't know that many songs by them, but they played the ones I know, including The Smoke, Silent Waters, and House of Sleep. There were a couple others I recognised too but didn't know the names of, which was nice.

Continuing my setlist tale, after the show one of the crew guys (possibly the one who shot me down before) grabbed a couple of set lists and handed them out to the crowd. The security guy was totally going to take one for me but the nasty old woman beside me snatched it first like a seedy gremlin. I am pretty sure she was actually cackling and drooling too, in the sort of Gollum "my precious" way. But when I was in the lineup to leave, he came back to the other side of the stage with two more setlists and no one noticed him but me so I went up and he gave me one. So here is the set from the show:

1. Leaves Scar
2. Towards & Against
3. On Rich and Poor
4. Sampo
5. Castaway
6. The Smoke
7. Majestic Beast
8. Alone
9. Silent Waters
10. Against Widows
11. Silver Bride
12. Sky is Mine
13. My Kantele
EC House of Sleep
EC Black Winter Day

All in all, I was really pleased with the show, I'm more interested in listening to Amorphis now, and I would definitely go back to see them again. This completely made up for the fact that I've missed them twice over the summer. Oh, and how can you go wrong playing Eläkeläset's Vaivaistalossa as your outro track? You can't!

Amorphis

Year: Oct 2009
Opening bands: Amoral and Before the Dawn opened for Amorphis
Who I went with: me, myself, and I
Location: Helsinki - Nosturi

Concert Reviews - Omnium Gatherum

2009-10-06T00:44:00.002-06:00

Sorry, this is a bit older than the others but I wanted to add pictures before copying it here.

Mikael had put in a solid effort to get me to start listening to Omnium Gatherum. His most efficient method has been convincing me to go to the show the other day.

We arrived in the middle of an epic storm just in time to get the show. Omnium Gatherum was just about to start and since they were opening, I was able to get right up to the front to watch the show.

Jukka, Omnium Gatherum vocalist

Omnium Gatherum is sort of a melodic death metal band, as far as I can tell. So what to say about them? I can't talk about the set list because I can't name any of their songs (even though I spent the day listening to The Redshift, which is a fantastic album), but it was great. The music was phenomenal, but what really impressed me was the stage show. All of them had so much energy, it was hard not to get into it. In particular I refer to Jukka Pelkonen, the singer. What an interesting guy to watch. He was so in tune with the crowd and he really drew the watchers in. Everyone in the first three rows of people (most of whom were girls, incidentally) got a personal salute from him at some point, including me, with a connected set of metal horns for some 30 seconds or so. He shook hands with the drunk rockers and generally, in the words of Jason Lee in Almost Famous, spent the entire show "getting people off." It was wonderful. I wish more singers really spent time connecting with the crowd this way.

There was also a lovely scene where Aapo Koivisto (keyboards) took the shirt off one of the guitarists (not sure which), and Jukka poured water on his bandmates.

Omnium Gatherum; more band memebers

So, as I'm sure you gathered, I was really happy with the show. I greeted Aapo at the bar for Mikael and met Toni Mäki (bass) at the merch table when I was talking to Kaisu, the sweet girl who was selling stuff. He was an unbelievably nice guy and I was very pleased to make his acquaintance.

Toni, Omnium Gatherum bassist

After some time, Amoral came out to perform. Basically, the story behind Amoral seems to be that they, for reasons I am not familiar with, have recently replaced their old death metal singer with Ari Koivunen, the winner of Finnish Idol a few years ago. In this, the band has had to change their style quite a bit and in doing so, from what I've been told, in the long and short, has lost most of their old fanbase, being replaced with an entirely new fanbase.

My feelings about this, after getting over the fact that Ari looks like he's about 12, were that the music was good. Nice sound, nice playing, nice performance. And Ari can sing... there is no doubt there. However... the combination of the two was questionable, to say the least. Something was not quite clicking for me in this performance and because of it I can't give it a very solid review. Granted, it was still much better than most opening bands I've seen in Canada, but for how good the music was, I felt a bit disappointed by the overall show.

So that's my general feeling about this show. Omnium Gatherum was quite fantastic to watch and gets a definite recommendation from me. As for Amoral... I'll leave that call up to your judgement!

Year: June 2009
Opening bands: Omnium Gatherum was opening for Amoral
Who I went with: Evita and Kaspars, met up with guys from Norther and made friends with Kaisu and Toni
Location: Helsinki - Tavastia

Concert reviews - Ensiferum

2009-10-06T00:39:00.002-06:00

I have decided that I will indeed grace my readers (all none of them) with a review of this show, because, well, frankly it was a great show. The reason I hadn't really intended on reviewing this show was that I hadn't been paying a WHOLE lot of attention to it.

After having a few drinks we went upstairs to the balcony bar to watch Tracedawn, who was already going. I haven't actually heard them before but I had read online that these guys are quite young and they are. Really young. And I don't know any of their songs but they were pretty good. They had a nice show, the music was fine, and that's pretty much that. As I said, my attention in the opening bands was not at its best.

Tracedawn

Metsatöll: Markus Teeäär and Lauri Õunapuu

Metsatöll was second on the line-up. This is an unusual Estonian folk metal band. They were actually the main highlight and reason for coming for a couple of friends, like Markus and Erkka. I had been only half paying attention because Jake had showed up and there were lots of people appearing to talk to. As far as folk music goes, it didn't really jump out at me as being incredible. That being said, it wasn't bad. The singer was good, looking like a proper hairy viking-type, and their torupill (Estonian bagpipes)/etc player was really quite phenomenal. The overall impression didn't leave a great mark on me though. That could just be because I wasn't really watching though.

Of course, the main highlight for us was Ensiferum. Garance had flown in from France for the show, so you know it had to be a good one. And it was. They opened up with the intro song off their new album and went right into an explosive rendition of From Afar and Twilight tavern. Pete Lindroos was looking happy and comfortable in his new full-time-no-other-obligations position of lead singer (as you should know, he is no longer the vocalist for Norther) and was having a great time.

Ensiferum, Sami Hinkka

Sami Hinkka was playing a really excellent looking bass and looking very good (and very viking). Markus Toivonen was playing well and I'm betting he's happy with the present line-up of the band. I couldn't see Emmi Silvennoinen (or Janne Parviainen) because she was not in my line of sight but I could hear her and she was playing very nicely. I recall having really liked her performance the last time I saw them back in Calgary and I was very pleased to hear that they had added her as a permanent member to their lineup.

Ensiferum, Sami, Pete, and Markus

And what can I say? I'm a sucker for a bunch of men in kilts and war paint. Scottish, Ensiferum-logo, Finnish flag, whatever these guys are in, they look great and they look hot. I love it.

The set was great. I was really glad to hear a lot of the new songs live, and they played almost the entire album. The new songs feature a lot more symphonic stuff, a long more clean/chant vocals, and a lot of power! Unfortunately though, with all the new songs they left out a couple classics, like Token of Time (which I heard in Calgary so I didn't miss it) and Lai Lai Hei, which I was really sad not to hear. However, hearing Iron and the entire sold-out crowd doing the TÄTTÄDÄDÄÄ TÄTTÄDÄDÄÄ together. I think my favorite from the night had to be Smoking Ruins though. I love everything about that song: the music, the lyrics, the clean vocals combined with Pete's growls... the whole thing was just solid and epic. Fantastic.

So here is the setlist from the show.

Ensiferum, Pete Lindroos

1. By the Dividing Stream
2. From Afar
3. Twilight Tavern
4. Little Dreamer
5. Elusive Reaches
6. Wanderer
7. Heathen Throne
8. Guardians of Fate
9. Tale of Revenge
10. Smoking Ruins
11. Slayer of Light
12. One More Magic Potion
13. Tumman Virran Taa
14. The Longest Journey
EC Treacherous Gods
EC Battle Song/Porilaisten Marssi
EC Iron

Enska is definitely one of my favorite bands these days and I'm really glad I've seen them again now that I know them infinitely better than the last time I saw them live. Great performance, great new songs, and an overall great feeling of good times, battles, and metal.

Enska

Year: October 2009
Opening Bands: Tracedawn and Metsatöll opened for Enska
Who I went with: Garance, Matti, Jake, and joined at points by Teemu, Sebastian, Kasper, Varpu, Erkka, Markus, Atte, Aki, Antti, Marko, and more!
Location: Helsinki - Nosturi

Concert Reviews - Apocalyptica/Nightwish

2009-10-06T00:34:00.001-06:00

I haven't really felt wildly compelled to do this in a while. I also haven't been to a show in a really big venue since I moved to Finland either though. Not sure if it's related.

Either way, a few months ago, very shortly after I moved to Hel, my first host family's grandparents brought over a newspaper clipping for me. It is quite a well known fact (probably because I posted it on my Au Pair profile) that I love Finnish metal and hoped to see as many shows as humanly possible while I was in Europe, and they were eager to help me out. I debated it for some time. It was an expensive show, and I didn't know anyone in town so I wasn't really keen on going. Adversely, I have never seen Apocalyptica play live before and I like them a lot, and I also was interested to see the grande finale after 2 years and 193 other shows. So I opted to go.

Apocalyptica came out relatively quickly after I arrived, to my great pleasure. I've never been good at remembering their song names, unfortunately, but it was of no consequence. I recognised their cover of Fade to Black by Metallica, as well as an instrumental version of Bittersweet, which was quite lovely, and they brought in a guest singer (you may know him as Antti Hyyrynen of Stam1na) to do I'm Not Jesus and I Don't Care from the Worlds Collide album. They also finished with Hall of the Mountain King, which is one of those songs that I had really hoped to hear live, and I was not disappointed.

Visually, Eicca Toppinen and Perttu Kivilaakso were both incredibly brilliant to watch. The long hair and headbanging while playing, Perttu playing with the cello tilted to the side (which I imagine takes some talent because you are holding up your cello at an unusual angle while playing), and some rocking on the ground, waving cellos around, that sort of business; they both were quite amazing to watch. Paavo Lötjönen impressed me far less. Maybe it was his inital lack of hair that made me lose interest in him but his stange presence was to me less metal and more show-off. Plus, without the hair he made the band lose symmetry. Nothing against his playing though. I also thought it was interesting to see them with a drummer. He didn't overpower the other three like I might have thought. I was pleased to see this, though it might've been nice to see them when they were just four cellists.

As for Nightwish, they opened with a soft instrumental with a guest musician who was playing an instrument that I couldn't quite recognise. It seemed like a bagpipe but not exactly. After that they went into 7 Days to the Wolves, Everdream, Wishmaster, Sahara, Amaranth, Nemo, Last of the Wilds, and many more. They brought out a guest violinist, Pekka something, to play The Siren, and he was incredible. After that, they kept him around for one more song, which totally made my entire night worth it - While Your Lips Are Still Red (which you may recall was my song of the day a while ago and is one of my alltime favorites of theirs). It is a song written for a movie and was on a single, so it wasn't something I ever expected to hear live and I was very pleased. Near the end they did the accoustic versions of The Islander and Walking in the Air featuring the guest musician on the strange instrument and flutes from the intro, and finished with a never-before-played version of Meadows of Heaven, which I admit I enjoyed live much more than I did on the album (definitely my least favorite song). It was good, but I could've done without the extensive vocal soloing at the end that sort of brought it down a bit.

Encore really made me happy. Another one of my alltime favorite ever Nightwish songs is off the Once album - Ghost Love Score. It's another one of those songs I thought I'd never hear... especially when Tarja Turunen isn't in the band anymore. The best part was that Anette actually did a decent job of singing it. She was, of course, no Tarja, but she didn't do a bad job. Then they finished with the 194th time doing I Wish I Had An Angel.

Overall impression? It was a really good show. My initial irritation with Anette was removed after a couple songs and the fire/lights/waterfalls (I think they were waterfalls after Meadows of Heaven, which struck me as odd, but kind of cool) were spectacular. Tuomas was playing inside a big boat and there was an anchor on the stage too, a couple high platforms, so the setup was really great in a sort of "The Islander" way. My biggest complaint really and honestly had to be Anette's blonde hair. I don't know what on earth made her think she would look better as a blonde but it's terrible. Really terrible.

Marco and Emppu are always really fun to watch on stage. And I am always really impressed with how much better Marco's singing is than it used to be. He totally outshines Anette every time he sings these days and unlike when he sings in Northern Kings, Tuomas writes songs that really help his vocals, rather than strain them. Unfortunately for me, I don't understand enough Finnish to understand anything he said at the end between Ghost Love Score and I Wish I Had An Angel, and I sort of appreciated Anette because she's Swedish and doesn't really speak any Finnish, so she was always talking in English.

All-in-all, it was a fantastic show, a great finale, and I'm really glad I went. I remain cautiously optimistic for the next album in hopes that Tuomas writes music more appropriate for Anette's style (though I'd be lying if I said I disliked Dark Passion Play - I actually do like it) the way he did for Tarja.

Track list (Nightwish)
01. Intro - Finlandia (w/ U.K. multi-instrumentalist Troy Donockley)
02. 7 Days To The Wolves
03. Ever Dream
04. Wishmaster
05. Romanticide
06. Amaranth
07. The Siren (w/ Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto)
08. While Your Lips Are Still Red (w/ Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto)
09. Poet And The Pendulum
10. Nemo
11. Sahara
12. Dark Chest Of Wonders
13. The Islander
14. Walking In The Air (w/ U.K. multi-instrumentalist Troy Donockley)
15. Last Of The Wilds (w/ U.K. multi-instrumentalist Troy Donockley)
16. Meadows Of Heaven
17. Ghost Love Score
18. I Wish I Had An Angel

Year: Sept 2009
Opening bands: Apocalyptica was opening for Nightwish
Who I went with: me, myself, and I
Location: Helsinki - Hartwall Areena

Concert Reviews - Finntroll

2009-06-08T10:39:00.004-06:00

Wooo! Did I ever get to see Finntroll again the other night.

They were playing a small show before their gig at Sauna Open Air up in Tampere the day after, so I went with a couple of friends who also love Finntroll.

Some strange band called Draugnim opened up for them. They were dressed heavily in cloaks/robes and mail and whatnot. I had never heard of them before. They looked pretty metal. The music was fine and the vocals were fine... in theory, however, it was rather boring. If you've read any of my other reviews, you know I have a big problem with monotonous sound. The music was okay and sort of folky, which is good, but still, just sort of droned on after a while and I lost interest in it after 3 songs or so. Considering all the shitty bands that have opened in other shows I've seen in the last year or two though, this one wasn't terrible by comparison.

And then there's Finntroll. I met Vreth (the singer) at the merch table and chatted with him for a while before the gig got going. I'm not sure why but I sort of expected him to be a bit stuck up but he was actually quite friendly. Their merch was all on sale, from anywhere from 5-15 euros, which is an absurdly cheap price, especially in Finland. This was apparently because they didn't really have any merch for the show so they just grabbed whatever they could find... turned out it was all old tour stuff from around 2004 and on some of the shirts, they didn't even play most of the gigs because they were cancelled. He was nice to chat with and took a couple pictures with Garance and I (unfortunately I looked like hell in both of them :P but oh well) and then we went to watch the opening.

Finntroll's show was fantastic. Vreth came out with his crazy stick-finger glove that always amuses me (and never seems to leave on for more than one song, which doesn't surprise me). We were right up front so it was great to be right up there, unlike their other show, which I saw from about 20 meters back, behind the mosh pit. The set list was excellent and the performance was fantastic. I could have been happier if I could hear some more of the keyboardists but that is a very small complaint.

I am always happy to hear Trollhammaren, En Mäktig Här, and several others, but the real highlight of this show was the last song they played, off Visor Om Slutet (their acoustic EP), Forsvinn Du Som Lyser... one of the most ecstacy-inducing songs you could possibly imagine, played way faster than normal, and I wanted to jump and dance around like a maniac when I heard it.

So, Finntroll has yet to fail me live, with a spectacular performance each time. I definitely wouldn't pass up another chance to see them!

Year: June 2009
Opening bands: Draughnim
Who I went with: Garance Bascle, Teemu Maarela, Marc Taylor, Marc's two friends, Antti and ?
Location: Helsinki - Virgin Oil Co.

Concert Reviews - Nortti

2009-06-08T10:38:00.000-06:00

Welcome to the secret review of Nortti's [code name] first show. I won't go into much detail because I'll be writing a proper review sometime after the 25th.

Went to Semifinal the other night with Mikael just because he pursuaded me that it would be a good idea to go for a bit. Turned out it was one of my favorite bands playing a show! To boot, Mikael introduced me to everyone in the band.

I've never seen this band play before and they have just replaced their old singer, who I really loved, so I was interested to see what this would be like.

The show was fantastic. I got to hear a lot of songs that I wanted to hear and got a nice preview of the new singer's voice, which was very good. I admit that I didn't find him particularly nice when I spoke to him (or thereafter), unfortunately. However, the keyboardist and bass player were both very nice, friendly guys.

I advise anyone in Helsinki not to turn down a random metal show they might come across. You never know what you might find!

Year: June 2009
Opening bands: nil
Who I went with: Mikael Holmlund
Location: Helsinki - Semifinal

Me and the new singer... at least he was nice enough to take a picture with me.

Concert Reviews - Amberian Dawn

2009-05-26T01:25:00.001-06:00

It has been quite some time since I've been to a show. That's kind of a shame, but I'll be back into it soon enough!

Just a week or two after I arrived in Finland I heard of a band called Amberian Dawn, sort of an operatic gothic metal band from the general Helsinki/Espoo area. I downloaded the CD, gave it a listen, and thought it wasn't bad.

So in trying to find something to do the other night, one of my friends suggested we go to a place called Gloria, where Amberian Dawn and a couple others were playing. I was most pleased with this idea, so we gathered a plethora of friends and headed there.

To get right into it, AdaMantra opened up and they were interesting. They had sort of a Dream Theater/Stratovarius thing going on but the mixing was rather poor, as Marc put it. Generally speaking the music was okay and the singer had a decent wail but in the end I would just give it a mediocre. It was nice and I had no problem listening to it, but it didn't particularly jump out at me. However, as the show continued it seemed to improve and you could tell by watching the crowd that they had a slow start into it but by the end the crowd was really cheering, so they were quite well received.

Soulcage was... umm... well, not really my thing. The music was okay but the singer really bugged me and I was distracted by this the entire show. He looked like some sort of diva, dancing like Annette Olzon from Nightwish, spinning his mic around really fruitily, and really just sort of looked like he was probably a huge douchebag. His vocals were fine but the style was not great. I really just found that the entire thing sounded very mainstream/generic and sort of American, which is the last thing I want from a Finnish band.

Lastly was Amberian Dawn. What to say about that? The music was great. It had a nice feel, it sounded good, there was lots of diversity and power with the two guitars and keyboard... all around pretty solid. Heidi Parviainen is a fantastically beautiful woman with an astounding voice. She has a very opratic sound, very classical, and she is a delight to watch on stage. She looks very beautiful and feminine but without looking like a diva. She looks metal.

So why am I not giving this band a better review? For the same reason I didn't give the CD a better review. All the songs sound the exact same. It's beautiful, it's elegant, it's metal, and it's boring. The stage show was great, the performance was great, the sound was great, but if you've heard one song, you've heard them all.

It was definitely a good time and worth the 10 eu I paid to get in but I wouldn't feel the need to see them again necessarily unless they open up a bit more with their next album and show some more diversity.

Year: May 2009
Opening bands: AdaMantra & Soulcage
Who I went with: Marc Taylor, Jessica Grotensohn, Ines Klammer, Garance Bascle, Antti Pasonen
Location: Helsinki - Gloria

Concert Reviews - Turisas & DragonForce

2008-12-17T19:45:00.004-07:00

What do you expect when you get tickets to see DragonForce? I don't think anyone really knows what to expect. I expected to laugh, I guess.

When I first heard DragonForce, I honestly thought they were a band that was making fun of metal just because they are so cheesy. That was a year or two ago. One day I finally realized that they were a serious band that was just ridiculous. I didn't know what to think after that.

Last night was the last concert of the year for us. When we heard that DragonForce was playing in Calgary, we laughed and thought, yea, maybe if the tickets are cheap or if they have a sweet opening band.

So I did some digging and found out that a band called Turisas was opening for them. For those of you who haven't read my band review on them, I'll summarize it: I fucking love that band. The first song I heard was a metal cover of the song "Rasputin" by Boney M. How awesome is that? They also do a cover of "Those Were the Days," which is also amazing. But not only do they do brilliant covers, but their own work is amazing. Matthias "Warlord" Nygård is exactly what I've been looking for in a viking/folk metal singer, and they have an accordion player, Netta Skog, who is insane, and a violinist, Olli Vänskä, who is pretty much my hero in the world of violins. So, needless to say, I was pretty stoked to see them last night, even though they were opening for Dragonforce.

Powerglove, faintly

The first band on the venue was called Powerglove. We missed most of them because we were in the merch line. When we finally got out though, we encountered one of the most bizarre things I have ever seen: a bunch of guys in ridiculous foam costumes (the singer looked like he had spiked Koopa shells on his shoulders and the drummer had two tall flags on his shoulders) with a giant inflated bat on stage with them, opening with a song about the ultimate weapon in Final Fantasy VII - Omnishred. I almost had a heart attack from a combination of hysterical laughter and amazement, because it was actually really good. Then they did a song about a plumber who does fireflowers and mushrooms, who flushed himself down the toilet and instead of dying, like most people, ended up in the Mushroom Kingdom: Mario Minor. And they ended with none other than the Power Rangers theme, metal style. I remained in shock (and amusement) because, as lame as they really and truly looked, the music was pretty sweet. I am a huge nerd, so I appreciated it.

Turisas

Turisas came next, and they were really what I wanted to see. Well, I really wanted to see them live in their homeland where they have a bigger following, but why not see them in Canada while they're here?

Netta and Jussi

They opened with Battle Metal, A Portage to the Unknown, One More (a drinking song in celebration of trying out three new beers in Canada, all of which gained the seal of approval), In the Court of Jarisleif, the cover of Rasputin that I love so much, and ended with To Holmgard and Beyond.

Warlord

This set, to my immense delight, included four out of four songs that I wanted to hear (Battle Metal, One More, Rasputin, and To Holmgard and Beyond).

Warlord, enjoying some Canadian beer

It was all awesome. Battle Metal got the crowd interested, and The Court of Jarisleif let them mosh around like madmen. They had one of the best responses for an opening band I've seen this year and, as a huge fan myself, I thought it was awesome. The vocals were great, Netta on the accordion was incredible, and Olli on violin was particularly brilliant. All of the musicians in that band were just amazing. And I do love that they dress up like barbarians in war paint and fur and leather and all that good stuff. It was fantastic, they have great energy, really got the crowd going, and the music was phenomenal. It was without a doubt the best opening show I've seen, and one of the most enjoyable concerts (aside from being way too short) I've seen this year.

Hanu and Olli

While DragonForce was setting up, Hannes "Hanu" Horma (bass) and Olli Vänskä were out in the lobby and I went to talk to them. They're both incredibly nice guys, really excited to see someone who came to the show to see them and not DragonForce, and Olli said that getting some sheet music for download is on his list of things to do (being a violinist, I asked him if he has any because his stuff is just brilliant). They were both very friendly and pleasant guys, and very appreciative of the support they were getting.

Turisas, bidding the crowd goodnight

DragonForce

So lastly was DragonForce. I have heard that these guys are terrible live, so I wasn't expecting much from them, save for a good laugh. Well... I did get my good laugh, several times over. They're absolutely absurd to watch as they dance around on stage and the keyboard player rocks out like he overdosed on speed before coming onstage. It was hilarious. However, to my immense shock, the music wasn't bad. They seemed to successfully execute their solos and the sound was good. So you may ask then, why did I not stay for the whole show? Well, to be perfectly honest, I don't know any of their songs, save for Through Fire and Flames, but they all sound the same. This reminded me of why I don't actually listen to DragonForce on a regular basis - because there is no differentiation between songs. There is decent singing, really good guitar playing, entertaining keyboarding with good soloing, and so on and so forth. But even if it's good, if you don't know it and it all sounds the exact same, it's not really that interesting. So needless to say, we stuck it out for a while, but didn't think it was worth standing for another hour to finish watching. We didn't get to see Through Fire and Flames, but we figured they'd play it at the end and didn't want to watch the whole concert to see one song that sounded just like all the other ones we had been listening.

The coolest part of their portion of the show was when Netta came out during the keyboard player's solo song and they had a speedy dual of accordion vs keytar.

Keyboard vs accordion

It was fun to watch their fingers flying around and I won't deny that I was a little more than impressed. It takes some serious talent to know all those tiny buttons on an accordion well enough to fly across them that quickly.

So in the end, Powerglove was a great new discovery, DragonForce proved themselves to be competent live, and the only disappointment from Turisas was the short length of their set. I hope they come back again, headlining, so I can hear more of them live. It was a great performance and I'd recommend anyone to check them out.

Hanu, me, and Olli.

Year: December 2008
Opening bands: Powerglove
Who I went with: Michael Widmer
Location: Calgary - Mac Hall

Concert Reviews - Iced Earth

2008-11-22T12:07:00.002-07:00

If you want to destroy your ears, I recommend checking out Iced Earth in concert. I saw them a couple days ago with Kilyakai and Early Man.

So, first things first. We went for dinner before the show and tried to skip as much of the opening as we could. We came in near the end of Kilyakai performing. They were okay, I suppose. The singing wasn’t that great and the singer had ridiculous stage presence. The music wasn’t bad and I have to appreciate that the sound was at least decent for their performance. Nothing special.

I can’t say the same for Early Man. It’s tough to judge when whoever is doing sound for your band has no clue what they’re doing, but even through that, I knew they were, quite blatantly, awful. You couldn’t hear the singer’s voice unless he was screaming, and the screaming alone was incredibly irritating. One of the guitars was far too loud and they were letting the guitars feed back WAY too much. Everything sounded sloppy, like a bad jam session. I wished they had played first so it had been them we missed most of. Such is life though.

Jon Schaffer and Matt Barlow performing Behold the Wicked Child

So out came Iced Earth. My brother asked me to call which songs they would start with, so I went with the intro to The Crucible of Man (In Sacred Flames), followed by Behold the Wicked Child (the first song after the intro) where the band would come onstage and play. I was right! And it was awesome. Frankly though, I didn’t really have any idea what songs they played. After the first two, the next one I knew was Burning Times, Watching Over Me, Dracula, The Coming Curse, and Stormrider (which Jon Schaffer sang for, which was cool). A couple I didn’t know offhand but found out later were Declaration Day (which was rad with Barlow on vocals) and High Water Mark. The encore consisted of Melancholy (The Holy Martyr) and Iced Earth. They played at least one song off Framing Armageddon, which sounded awesome with Barlow on vocals. There were a few others songs I didn’t know that I really liked, but in general it was all good.

Matt Barlow and his beefy arms

I have to say, Matt Barlow has a voice. That man can wail and the first time, I felt that my eardrum throbbing and I had to cover it because I was actually worried. I imagine that it must be hard to do sound for a man with a four-octave vocal range. You have to crank it up because otherwise you can’t hear his low vocals, but as a result, when he goes into those falsetto shrieks, it feels like you’re brain is about to explode in your skull.

Otherwise (not saying it was bad, just kind of intense) musically, the show was great. I think that Iced Earth’s website describes them as a galloping rhythm, not unlike Iron Maiden, but with a bigger, heavier horse. That was more evident at the concert than it ever has been before. You could really hear the influence. Jon Schaffer’s rhythm was loud and intense, and the drummer’s playing, particularly in the intro to one song that I didn’t know (High Water Mark), was quite enjoyable. Musically, aside from some issues with the sound booth and the turmoil in my ears from Barlow’s wailing, it was incredible. I only wished they played more songs I knew, like The Dark Saga, or anything (Dracula aside) off Horror Show.

Jon Schaffer singing Stormrider

One of the cooler parts about this show was that we had VIP tickets, so we got to hang out afterwards and meet the band. Or should I say, hang out afterwards and say hello, get some stuff signed, and then get your picture taken. “Meet” and greet pushes it a bit. I can’t really blame them, they’ve just been rocking and they’re tired. And they were still friendly, which was great. Jon Schaffer in particular seemed really happy to meet everyone who came out and they all really seemed to appreciate everyone’s support on their first show in Calgary (Matt Barlow stated that he thought Montreal was the most metal city in North America but that Calgary might’ve taken their place). I told Matt Barlow that I was glad that he came back and even though I imagine he hears that all the time, he seemed to appreciate the compliment. I gave my hellos and you rocks to everyone and by the time I got to Troy Steele (the other lead guitarist), I had nothing else to say. Regardless, when I got to him, he thanked me for coming to the show, and I thanked him for being awesome. He seemed pretty amused. After that we waited in line for pictures and I got in there, not knowing what to do, and Matt Barlow was laughing at me because apparently I couldn’t decide whether to do the metal horns in the picture and he said they were wussy or something. I was like, aww, I’m sorry, and he just laughed and gave me a pat on the back. They all seem like really nice, friendly, personable, down-to-earth people, and I have a lot of respect for them as musicians and as people.

The full band

All in all, these guys are really just great people. They really put their all into their music and appreciate every person who comes to see them play. For their first time in Calgary, it was a great show. I wished I knew more songs that they played, and I hope one day my ears stop ringing, but I was really impressed and I am glad I got to see them. I’d definitely check them out if they came again.

Iced Earth saying goodnight

Year: November 2008
Opening bands: Kilyakai, Early Man
Who I went with: Michael Widmer, Jeff Wiseman
Location: Calgary - Mac Hall ballroom

Concert Reviews - In Flames

2008-11-15T13:57:00.003-07:00

Concert Reviews – In Flames

Well, ever since seeing the video for My Sweet Shadow, I’ve been hoping In Flames would come this way. I know they were here with Gigantour earlier this year but I didn’t want to spend the money if they weren’t headlining. Lucky me, they came back a few months later.

In Flames is touring with All That Remains, a decent (considering) American metal band, and Gogira, another decent band. I think someone else played but we were looking (and unimpressed) at the shirt selection and didn’t catch them at all.

So to start with, Gogira was interesting. My first thought is to say that I didn’t hate them. It says a lot, because I hate most opening bands. These guys weren’t hard to listen to, but at the same time, they didn’t really stand out. They had a bit of thrash, but only in one or two songs and not enough to piss me off, and the singer had moments where he sounded like David Draiman (from Disturbed) but in the end, their music was pretty good and, while the singing was a bit boring, it wasn’t terrible. Definitely not the worst thing you could get stuck listening to on a car ride, that’s for sure. They should probably give their bass player some Ritalin though... he looked like he might lose his head if he doesn’t relax a bit.

Next up was All That Remains. I am pretty outspoken in my dislike for American metal. I classify it as American metal because the metal that comes out of America and that comes out of Europe is an entirely different style of music. With that in mind, again, these guys weren’t terrible. The singer amused me a bit cuz he looked kinda like he should be at a frat party, not in a metal band, but he was alright. His nipple rings were a bit distracting though. No comment on that one. The music wasn’t bad but I wasn’t a huge fan of the singing. But, like I said, it definitely wasn’t terrible, but not really my style.

Anders in the spotlight, talking to the crowd.

Ah, In Flames. I am a big big big fan of Anders Fridén. In the last year and a half, I’ve also become a big big big fan of In Flames. I know a lot of the old school fans will say, “whatever, new In Flames sucks and isn’t what it used to be.” My ex told me that Soundtrack to Your Escape sounded like Linkin Park. But hey, I like Linkin Park and he doesn’t. I really don’t see the similarity either way. I feel that bands should play the music they want to play and be true to themselves. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to listen to it.

One of the guitarists, Björn Gelotte.

They opened with a couple songs off their new album, Sober and Irrelevant, along with Mirror’s Truth. Amongst those, they also played Satellites and Astronauts, Pinball Map, Eraser (a song about forgetting the past and being who you want to be), a combo of either Dead God in Me or Food for the Gods into The Jester Race (which was pretty cool, considering I don’t know much old stuff), System, Trigger, Cloud Connected, The Quiet Place, Touch of Red, Delight and Angers, and Alias, plus a few others, ending with Take This Life.

Mostly everyone.

I got the song I HAD to hear (there’s one at every concert, right?), which was Come Clarity, though I was disappointed that Anders didn’t sing along to the chorus through most of the song, which really is what makes it so amazing, so that kinda sucked. It was still incredible though. A few that I would’ve liked to hear that I missed out on were My Sweet Shadow (probably my second favourite song by them), Clayman, and Only For the Weak (which I’m surprised they didn’t play).

The guitarists.

What I really enjoyed about this show, was that it was just a very well-rounded concert. Anders interacted with the crowd, talked to us, and made us laugh (like when the guitar player was playing little riffs while Anders was asking where they could go party after the show, saying something along the lines of “Hey! I am trying to talk to them about something very important; partying, and you are interrupting me with your guitar. SHUT UP!”). With the number of songs they have, you know you’re going to hear a lot of stuff you want to hear, and a lot of stuff you don’t care about either way. I found at the beginning I wasn’t too impressed with their selection but it got progressively better throughout the show. However, I imagine it encompassed enough of a range of their music to satisfy pretty much everyone, so I can’t complain.

What I mean by well-rounded though, is that it seemed like a concert that almost anyone could really enjoy. It was heavy enough that the hardcores were in the middle moshing to most of it, but it was relaxed enough that we were standing off to the side, rocking out and enjoying the music, and still able to see the show without being pressed up against big sweaty guys. Even the songs, like Eraser, that I’m not particularly fond of, sounded awesome live. As I said, anyone who knows me musically knows that I am a big Anders fan and he did not disappoint live. The music was fantastic, as good or better than it sounds on the albums, and it generally just made me happy, sounded amazing, and had a really good atmosphere, even with the Beer Gardens open (which usually results in at least one obnoxious drunk pissing me off for a minimum of half an hour, and I was spared them for the most part). It was a really good set and I was really impressed with them overall.

Anders and the others.

Disappointments? Aside from the lack of Anders during the Come Clarity choruses, I was really disappointed with their lack of encore. This is the second band now (the first being System of a Down) and I find it to be such a let-down. Your crowd wants you, so give them more! I hate no encore. Hate it. Also, I didn’t find Take This Life to be a good ending song. I think it’d be a better opening song. I mean, I know that oftentimes the goal is to leave your crowd wanting more when you go, but you can’t end with an opening song, it kind of leaves you feeling incomplete. And they had the possibility to do something like Only for the Weak for an encore, which would’ve been awesome. Alas, such is life. And really, without all that, it was an awesome show. The band seemed happy to be there, enthusiastic, and just looked like they were having a good time.

Another group shot.

Anders said he likes Canada better than the US but told us not to boo, which I liked (I really don’t know why people do that, but whatever; I guess people are just competitive by nature), and said he wasn’t just sucking up to us. It’s up to you whether to believe him though. It’s still a nice gesture, either way.

So with all that, I’m really hoping they come back again (like he said they would), with a new set of songs I haven’t heard yet live, and a version of Come Clarity where he sings more in the chorus. I left that concert feeling great and wanting more, and I think that’s a generally good way to leave a show.

The group saying thank you at the end.

Year: November 2008
Opening bands: ???, Gogira, All That Remains
Who I went with: Michael Widmer
Location: Calgary - Mac Hall (main floor)

Concert Reviews - Ensiferum & Amon Amarth

2008-10-10T16:07:00.002-06:00

I am exhausted. The show last night was pretty intense and I didn't get to bed until after 1:00 a.m. We caught the Amon Amarth with Ensiferum concert. It was kinda cool, before the show, Amon Amarth was standing by the shirt/etc vendors to sign autographs. Lucky me, they went to get ready for the show right before I could indulge. Such is life.

So the first band to open was The Absence, I believe, from California. They were... not bad. As soon as he said they were American I thought, "oh great, bring on the thrash." However, the music was decent and the singing not bad. They also all sported impressively long hair and wicked beards. Except the drummer, he looked like he might be a member of Our Lady Peace in his spare time, hah! Given my usual leary outlook on American metal bands, I was considerably not horrified by them.

Belphegor was another classic example of how to ruin a great drummer by turning his work into NOISE. Mindless smashing siunds were all I heard. Like I expected from the first band, these guys brought on the thrash. It did a great job of reving up the crowd and all those moshers seemed to really like it, but I've been well known for not having any taste for thrash. Other points of note include... well... ok, listen, to all you singers out there... if you can sing with a growl, sweet, but if you can't talk with it - don't. We don't care, I promise. This guy was trying to growl while he spoke and he honestly sounded like Kermit the Frog if he had gone hardcore. I could only laugh at him. It was ridiculous. The guitar player (I think) was really creepy looking and the singer brought out what I might've thought was a BDSM mask if I hadn't been at a metal concert, which was just kind of strange. Whatever you're into I guess. Really, I wasn't impressed with them at all. Also, I found them to be just a bit too loud. Yes, I realize I was at a metal concert, but it was just... harsh, and not in a good way.

Sami Hinkka (bass) and Petri Lindroos (vocals and guitar) of Ensiferum

Next on the list was Ensiferum. I was actually more stoked to see Ensiferum than I was to see Amon Amarth because I'm a bigger fan of folk metal than death metal. This happened to be another episode of "can that scrawny little guy really growl?"

Markus Toivonen (guitar) in the front and Emmi Silvennoinen (keyboards) of Ensiferum

And he could, and he was wicked. I wasn't familiar with anything they played except the intro, which is from Victory Songs, but I truly enjoyed all the music. The bass player was playing on a 7-string bass, which was incredible, and they threw in a metal Stairway to Heaven intro to one of their songs that was pretty cool. I really like the keyboarding in Ensiferum so I was sad that their touring pianist seemed to be turned down a bit and most of the time I couldn't hear her. The music was still great but I could've used some more of her. I imagine there won't be any complaints if they keep her in as a full time keyboardist for the band because, when I could hear her, she was very good. Unfortunately, they didn't play for very long. For headlining with Amon Amarth, I really think they could've done with a longer set that around 30 minutes. They could've eliminated Belphegor entirely and just had Ensiferum play through there too - that would've been ideal to me.

The visible parts of Ensiferum

So lastly was Amon Amarth. I haven't listened to them much but for a straight-up viking/death metal band, they're pretty sweet. I liked With Oden on Our Side so I bought Twilight of the Thunder God at the show, and I've since been enjoying it.
They opened with TotTG, which was sweet. Others that I caught, were Free Will Sacrifice, Guardians of Asgaard (so heavy and so awesome), Where is Your God?, Valhall Awaits Me (the only song of theirs I really know offhand, and really enjoyed), Hermod's Ride to Hel (another one I vaguely recognised, which was also amazing live), and Cry of the Black Birds (unbelievable). They introduced a couple older ones to me, like Death in Fire, which was wicked and heavy, and I have to say, the mosh pit took up pretty much the entire floor of the Warehouse and looked pretty brutal.

As for the band, I didn't see the drummer pretty much at all, but I could hear him and that was enough, he was great. The bass player was on a 5-string, playing low and heavy, the guitar was intense, and the singer was amazing. He's really smiley and makes the crowd feel like the band really appreciates being able to play for us. As for the music, for me not recognizing most of it, and it being heavy death metal, moshing music but without the thrash, I loved it. It made me want to bang my head and growl, which not a lot of music does. They had some nice looking synchronized head-banging and the band toasted their horns (literally) of ale (beer?) to the crowd in the oldschool viking manner.

Ted Lundström and Johan Hegg of Amon Amarth

Amon Amarth raising their horns to toast

This was their second time in Calgary, first time headlining, and I left the show with a good feeling just of having sincerely enjoyed myself in the presence of a band I don't really know very well. I really hope they come back again once I get a bit more familiar with them. I enjoyed the show a lot and I'd recommend them to anyone who likes that heavy viking/death metal.

Drinking the toast

Year: October 2008
Opening bands: The Absence, Belphegor, Ensiferum
Who I went with: Michael Widmer, Graham Widmer*, Gianna Romano*
Location: Calgary - The Warehouse

* Sorry about the shit pictures - The Warehouse is terrible for getting good shots for some reason.

Amon Amarth, head banging

General Reviews - Turisas

2008-10-08T16:23:00.008-06:00

So Dragonforce is coming to town. I found this out when I was picking up tickets to the In Flames and Amon Amarth/Ensiferum shows and I was thinking, "haha, sweet, I bet they're terrible live - I wonder how much tickets cost." I asked the girl and she said the whole shebang was around $45 total (she was lying, I looked online and saw they were $35 a few days ago). And for someone who paid $35 to see In Flames, a sweet band, why would I pay that much to see a band who is good for amusement value at best and is probably terrible live? Yea, wasn't planning on going.

However, a few days ago I thought I'd look and see who's opening, just incase they're sweet. It's this band called Turisas that I'd never heard of before, so I went to look on youtube to have a listen. Well, if you know Turisas, you will know that the first song I came across would be Rasputin. So I hit it and listen. Then I think, "hey, I know that tune.... oh man! OH MAN! YES! FUCKING YES!" It was a metal cover of Rasputin by Boney M, which is a sweet disco song made even SWEETER by being metal. I came very close to soiling myself with excitement.

So I go to the next song, which was the official video made of fan clips for the song Battle Metal, which I guess is their big thing. The song was awesome in a way that claims fame to wicked music, killer vocals, and just a hint of cheese.

So of course I went straight to Play and bought The Varagian Way (limited Paganfest tour edition). It's more or less a story album about a viking journey, from what I gathered (Varangian being a term for viking).

I popped it onto my computer and started copying it and I thought... this first song (To Holmgard and Beyond) is unbelievable! The intro music draws you right in and I love Mathias "Warlord" Nygård's vocals. You can tell the thick Finnish accent without it limiting his voice, but actually makes it seem more suitable for the music. And the music - it's just awesome. The whole collaboration of the actually band members' instruments with the symphonic stuff that Warlord provided for the background just makes the song. Also, Warlord growls just enough to change up the vocals but without being annoying. I straight up love it.

The next song (A Portage to the Unknown) starts out with an accordion intro that has kind of a piratey-viking feel to it that you don't get in much metal unless you venture into the realms of Finntroll and Korpiklaani. The slowed down vocals are really nice so you can actually hear what Warlord is saying. The collaboration of multiple singers into the chorus gives it more of an epic feel too. I particularly like when one of them busts out the "give me all you 'ave..."

I wasn't sure at first if I liked Cursed Be Iron or not. I find the clanking blacksmith noises to be cool but the initial singing has a bit more of a mainstream American feel to it. However, once he slows down with the accordion droning in the background it sounds good again. After you get past the intro shock, it actually sounds just heavy and not American. I also really like the part at the end with the whispering. I read that this song was inspired by a finnish epic poem called The Kavelava but I couldn't find it to compare. Lyrically this song is very interesting.

I actually didn't know Fields of Gold was a separate song at first because Cursed Be Iron flows into it so directly. It takes the feel of Cursed Be Iron and continues on with it, softening the harshess and allowing the song to be a bit more musical. It has a nice feel following Cursed Be Iron.

The Court of Jarisleif is another one with a bit of a Finntroll folky feel to it, just a happy accordion song that makes you want to dance around and party with King Jarisleif, like the song indicates. Jarisleif was actually a ruler in Rus (Yaroslav I the Wise), so this song is actually a very entertaining take on real history. The violinist really gets going in this song too, which I really like.

I LOVE the intro the Five Hundred and One. The piano has a really beautiful sound that reminds me of the title screen music for the Tristan and Isolde DVD and I love the music from that movie. The song is a bit heavier than I would've expected from such a pretty intro. It changes quite abruptly but becomes a really intense song, going up and down in intensity while maintaining flow.

The Dnieper Rapids really does feel like an raging river as it starts. Warlord's little introductory growl is a nice touch leading into the false sense of calm that comes before the vocals pick up again. This one picks up and makes you feel on edge, putting you in the place of raging rapids. The chorus singing is pretty awesome as well.

The Miklagard Overture is very blatantly an epic song. It is the end to the journey of The Varangian Way and ends it in a dramatic fashion. You even hear him near the beginning saying "to Holmgard and beyond" again, but softer. The backing music just adds the oomph that gets you into the great conclusion of the CD. It stirs you up and lets you out gently while you still want more, and is really a fantastic conclusion to the album. However, lucky me, my copy of TVW had copies of Battle Metal and Rasputin at the end of the CD, so there is fun still to be had once the adventure that is this CD is finished.

For the band themselves, I did some research and I really respect them. Warlord says that he's not writing about dragons and cheesy crap like that, their music has meaning and substance and they believe in it. I really respect that (how'd they end up being the opening band for Dragonforce? Haha!)

As well, just from fans alone, they seem like really nice, friendly guys. They are shockingly young but have done unbelievably well for themselves considering. Their ages range from 18 (Netta Skog, the accordion player) to 27 (the violinist, Olli Vänskä). Their warpaint and viking/barbarian outfits are pretty awesome and their live shows, from what I've seen on the bonus disk, are incredible. They've already made a fair name for themselves in Europe, playing festivals and the like.

What I find is incredible is that, for the style of viking/folk metal, it's not really been heard much in Canada yet. I mean, Finntroll is the biggest and original folk band and they just came to Canada last month for the first time. Helloween, who is a power metal band who've been around since at least the 90s, just came to Calgary for their first time too! These unique bands don't usually get to Canada for YEARS, and Turisas is already big enough to be opening for Dragonforce, and coming to Canada after they've been around for not even 3 years. That's insane!

As a violinist, I really appreciate the fact that these guys have, along with vocals, guitar, bass, and drums, an actual violinist and accordion player IN the band, not just in the studio. It's nice to know that Netta and Olli are respected as actual metal musicians, not just studio music. I really like that. And Warlord is just a genius in general. He writes most of the lyrics, as well as does the piano (now that their pianist quit) and symphonic backing music in studio.

So in summary, I have been listening to Turisas since... approximately October 3rd, and I think they are bloody brilliant. Warlord's vocals are everything I've ever hoped to find in a viking metal band, they have incredible musicians, including those guys who make the extra folky music included in their songs, and they put together one hell of an epic adventure on their second CD. So before, when I was saying that I wouldn't be going to Dragonforce... yea, I'll be going, but not to see them. I want to hear some Battle Metal and rock out to Turisas!

Concert Reviews - Gamma Ray/Helloween

2008-10-05T10:40:00.001-06:00

Ah, Helloween. Helloween is one of the first metal bands I got into after Iron Maiden, along with Blind Guardian and Iced Earth. You can imagine my elation upon discovering their imminent concert at the Mac Hall Ballroom with Gamma Ray.

Gamma ray is, for lack of a better description, old Helloween. They were formed by Helloween's first singer (Uli Kusch also played for them before joining Helloween) and Kai Hanson sings for them to this day. So seeing Gamma Ray with Helloween is like seeing a band that sounds just like old Helloween playing with Helloween. Translation: pretty cool.

I've heard a song or two of Gamma Ray's here and there but otherwise I haven't paid much attention to them, being a bigger fan of new Helloween over the old stuff. So, being unfamiliar with most of Gamma Ray's songs, I was quite pleasantly surprised.

Kai Hanson from Gamma Ray, formerly of Helloween

The music was good, Kai Hanson sounds just like he used to and is really quite enjoyable to watch onstage, and, to my true enjoyment, they did a great rendition of Ride the Sky off Helloween's first CD, Walls of Jericho, which Kai Hanson sang on.

They played some pretty good songs, a newer one called Empress that was about being bitten by a vampire, or a princess, or perhaps both, and they got the crowd going pretty good to Heavy Metal Universe. Gamma Ray is also the first "opening" band I've ever seen to come back for an encore, though I suppose technically they were touring together, not so much as an opening. But to my elation, they played Send Me A Sign, which is pretty much the only Gamma Ray song I know, and I'm rather fond of it.

Gamma Ray, Calgary 2008

Helloween was, ah, well, what can you say about Helloween? I really didn't know what to expect from Helloween. There were a lot of songs I was dying to hear but I didn't know what I was going to get because this was their first time in Calgary, and I would say that for a first time concert, a good selection of old favorites in with a couple newer ones is probably the way to go. That's pretty much what we got.

Andi Deris of Helloween

Andi Deris was phenomenal to watch. He's not quite as pretty in real life as photoshoots would lead you to believe but his voice is still unreal. He's also quite funny to watch, giving us lessons in German profanity and the like. He was also really good at getting the crowd all hyped up.

Michael Weikath of Helloween

Michael Weikath was an interesting sight to see. His visage is, like in most of his pictures, not unlike an old potato that's sprouted a quaff of fuzzy hair. He's a great player but has a bit of a cocky thing going on and tends to flick his wrist in a rather affeminate way, which I admit bothered me after I noticed it.

Sascha Gerstner of Helloween

Sascha Gerstner, I actually saw walk by me when I was buying a shirt but didn't recognise him as the newest and youngest member of the band. He was, along with Andi Deris, the one I enjoyed watching the most. He was far better looking than anyone else for one. Also, his style was just overall great. He's great to watch, he looks like he's having fun and not trying to impress anyone, he's just having a good time. And the music is great. I didn't know they had a second guitarist but I was pleased with the result for sure!

Markus Grosskopf of Helloween

Markus Grosskopf adds another member to the strangely misshapen old men of Helloween, however, his bass playing was catchy and enjoyable, as you can only hope from a bass player. Without him, it wouldn't have been Helloween right?

Dani Löble of Helloween, during a drum solo

Lastly is Dani Löble. If anyone has heard me talk about the drummer that has been with Helloween since Keeper of the Seven Keys: The Legacy, you'd have heard a glowing report. In his own words, he is a "symbiosis" of Helloween's two former drummers and I couldn't agree more. He takes the styles that both of the others had and uses the parts that work from each to make it his own. He actually did a drum solo in the middle of the show that rather blindsided me with amazement. He to this day remains one of my favorite drummers to listen to. It's nice to see the drumming in a band stand out to me.

Musically, they did have a pretty good selection in the manner I had expected - old favorites with a few well-known (singles) new ones thrown in. They had a nice creepy-ish intro, just as I expected, and opened up with Andi Deris belting out Kai Hanson's old tune, Halloween! After a brilliant rendition of Halloween, they also played such old favorites as Sole Survivor, Mr. Torture, If I Could Fly, Eagle Fly Free, Dr. Stein, and a couple others I couldn't place. They did play two songs off Gambling With the Devil, which were As Long As I Fall (one of the songs I wanted to hear) and Paint a New World, which I didn't care much about hearing, but was still really good.

In regards to the song selection, I really can't complain. Hearing Andi Deris sing those old songs of Kai Hanson's really was a treat. I absolutely love Deris's voice and I was really stoked to hear it in those old songs. I mean, I would've loved to hear songs like Time of the Oath, The Departed (known to many as my all-time favorite song ever), and Mrs. God (my theme song). Mrs. God was the only one I was truly disappointed not to hear. I didn't expect to hear the other two but I had hoped that they'd play at least one song off KotSK: Legacy and I knew if they did, it'd be that one. I mean, it's only their second oldest CD, you'd think they might've done it. But alas, no such luck for me. Not that I'm complaining, they've got a lot of great music and you can't expect to hear everything you want in one concert. Looks like I'll just have to go see them again, yes?

The encore was a particularly good treat. They did two, for starters. The first was kind of a mashup of Master of the Rings songs, including Where the Rain Grows into a very crowd-involved long version of The Perfect Gentleman, which was pretty killer. Then of course, they came back WITH Gamma Ray for the second encore to play Future World and I Want Out (old Kai Hanson songs from early Helloween), which was unbelievable.

Helloween and Gamma Ray, united, playing the second encore of Future World and I Want Out

So what can I say? I thought this show was bloody brilliant and I hope to see them again and maybe I'll get to hear a couple more of those songs I missed out on last night. Gamma Ray is exactly what you need to warm you up for Helloween and overall I just thought it was great. Just... you know... try not to stand behind a big fat guy whose farts smell like he's shitting his pants. I really advise against that. Way to almost ruin a great concert for me buddy.

So my advice to Helloween fans is to go see them. The live experience will not disappoint.

Helloween: Andi, Sascha, Markus, Michael, and Dani in the back

Year: October 2008
Opening bands: Gamma Ray
Who I went with: Michael Widmer, Mike Wiseman, Andrea Wiseman, Frank Coetzer, Jaco Coetzer
Location: Calgary - Mac Hall Ballroom

Concert Reviews - Finntroll

2008-10-05T10:38:00.000-06:00

Ah, Finntroll. One of those bands that you think, "they'll never come here, so hopefully if I go to Sweden (or some other European country) one day I'll be able to catch a show." Imagine my delight when I heard they were coming our way!

I've never been to The Warehouse before, and I imagine, of the three main venues in Calgary, that it is by far the smallest place to go see a show, which is appropriate for Finntroll since I imagine they aren't particularly well known in these parts.

Opening for the touring bands was local pirate metal band, Verbal Deception. I had borrowed one of their CDs and was, needless to say, not particularly impressed, so I was curious but not particularly excited to see them. What a pleasant surprise for me! The music was enjoyable, the singing quiet and unoffensive, and the keyboarding... interesting. During the parts where the harpsicord didn't sound like a small creature being tortured, it added the pirate-y flavor to the songs. The sound, I believe, wasn't set up optimally for them, but they were enjoyable to watch and fun to listen to.

The actual opening band was called Warbringer. As someone who detests thrash metal, I don't have much to say about them. The singer was annoying, and the kick was ruined by the incessant banging on cymbals, etc. That aside, the music wasn't too bad. I think I slept through the first two songs because it was annoying me and I was tired. The set seemed to last 3 days and I was forgetting why I came to the concert in the first place.

So finally Finntroll came out. My first thought was... umm what? Who is that scrawny guy? Where's the big fat scary dude from the Trollhammaren video? Que? Well, if I hadn't known better already, this tiny little man (Vreth), youngest of the group and newest as of 2006 (and the newest album's vocalist), might have been the singer all along. He had a horrendous (in an awesome way) voice and sang all the old songs just as well as I might have expected from the behemoth who used to sing for them.

A foggy shot of the singer, Vreth, and his amazing hair.

Interestingly, I noted that the drummer seemed to be very intent on his work. Unlike most drummers, who thrash around and bang their heads, this round, bald man played brilliant kick and amazing drums whilst evidently not moving his body at all. There was a rare and occasional turn of the head slightly to the left, but I was simply blown away by the fact that a drummer, playing like he was, could not move himself at all. I was unaware that this could be done.

The music was lively and fun and as enjoyable as always to listen to. I was particularly pleased, being rather infamiliar with Finntroll's actual songs (sans En Maktig Har and Trollhammaren), that I actually recognised a few songs, like Jaktens Tid and several more whose names I didn't know offhand. Swedish does that you know. The fact that the music, with everyone playing, was clear made it more enjoyable than the din that preceeded it.

Another foggy shot of stage.

So for Finntroll's first appearance in Calgary, I was very impressed with their show. You truly have to respect a band that, even though they're just playing in a small bar, doesn't fail to give the show their everything. I would say that if you're into the whole folk metal bit, take a chance to see Finntroll if they're in your area because you never know when a band like that will be back.

Year: September 2008
Opening bands: Verbal Deception, Warbringer
Who I went with: Michael Widmer, Graham Widmer*, Gianna Romano*
Location: Calgary - The Warehouse

Concert Reviews - Iron Maiden Calgary/Edmonton

2008-10-05T10:36:00.000-06:00

Before I start anything, I must say that if you've seen my other reviews, this will be different. Other concerts were concerts. Iron Maiden was more than just a show to me, it was a dream and an experience. That being said...

I saw Iron Maiden in Calgary and Edmonton this week on the Somewhere Back in Time tour for the promotion of their live video of Live After Death. When trying to describe it, the first thoughts that come to my head are hhgahboralawfulyiocfvstvba

and then I start foaming at the mouth and gyrating a bit. Once the spell passes, I'm able to look back on it a bit more clearly.

Firstly, Lauren Harris, Steve Harris's daughter (the bassist from Iron Maiden), was the opening band. Her set was shockingly short at 30 minutes. My initial thought was, "this is cool." Then I thought that something seemed wrong. I felt like I wasn't listening to music. She could sing, and her musicians could more or less (for old dudes, way older than her) play their instruments, but it just didn't sound like music. She is gorgeous though.

Then came Iron Maiden. As someone who has loved Iron Maiden as long as I can recall loving music, this was a big deal. I hadn't really realized what I was doing, even when Churchill's speech started and the music for Aces High came out. It was only when I saw Bruce Dickinson step onstage that I realized where I was and what I was doing. I screamed instantly and almost fainted, collapsing a bit into my date.

I consider, and as far as I know my date concurs, that even if you don't listen to Iron Maiden, or if their music isn't really your thing, you will enjoy their concert. For me, I stood in shock, in a half-twitching/half-rocking out state, gaping blankly at the stage in disbelief. It took all of Aces High and 2 Minutes to Midnight for me to even regain proper function of myself. But then they played Revelations and I knew I would be able to die happy after hearing them.

I'm really happy to say these concerts were from the Somewhere Back in Time tour. It's like seeing them back in the day, sans Bruce with long hair. The Rock in Rio pants were exciting to see but it was all songs you would've heard if you had seen Maiden playing after their first 10 years of music, and that is an real treat, as they have so many CDs now that you'd be hard-pressed to hear all you wanted to hear in one show. The set was almost directly off their new best of, minus a few songs. Amongst those heard (along with the above listed) were The Trooper (featuring Bruce in Eddie's jacket waving the union jack flags in the traditional manner), Wasted Years (featuring a commentary by Bruce about how you shouldn't have any regrets, and as a band how they regret nothing), Number of the Beast (with Satan peering over the corner of the stage), Heaven Can Wait, Run to the Hills, Can I Play With Madness, Powerslave (featuring Bruce in a fancy mask), and an amazing rendition of Iron Maiden (which is SO much better with Bruce singing).

Highlights for me included Bruce's intro to The Rime of the Ancient Mariner: talking about how the original story is about having respect for God's creations, or in their version, how the song tells you what not to do when a bird shits on you. He made a rather cute/funny comment about how the Saddledome was the last remaining building of its kind (meaning its shape) and he was "concerned" about it being safe, as it was the only remaining one (leading us to jokingly think that the Saddledome is actually an endangered species). It was also an amazing song live... the backdrop was incredibly cool and Bruce wore some sort of fancy robe that seemed very fitting for the song.

Some more highlights included Nicko's birthday during the Calgary show, so Bruce and the crowd got up and sang happy birthday to the drummer. Edmonton highlights involved Bruce telling us that on that night they were supposed to be getting an award but they couldn't be there to accept it so they gave live feed from the concert with the raging crowd screaming for Maiden.

Another big moment for me was in Calgary, when Bruce went to start talking (he's amazing for talking to the crowd, incidentally, making jokes and just generally being interesting/amusing to listen to) and he got so blown away by the screaming that he just stopped talking and looked around with this massive grin on his face - for me, that is something I will remember for the rest of my life.

So the show ended with Iron Maiden (the song) but the encore was really intense. They played Moonchild, a song I NEVER expected to hear live, The Clairvoyant, and to my intense pleasure/joy/ecstasy, Hallowed Be Thy Name was the final song.

The best part about this show, is the expectant Eddie sighting. During Iron Maiden (the song), they actually play through the song once, and then a Powerslave Eddie face on the backdrop cracks open and the mummified Eddie comes out and they play through the song again while mummy Eddie waves his arms around and shakes the snakes in his mouth at the crowd. During the encore (The Clairvoyant), the Somewhere in Time Eddie came out (I can only assume a very talented man in a VERY large outfit) and walked around the stage, shooting people with his gun and playing some of the band members' instruments. Seeing Eddie was just something you HAVE to see if you are any sort of Maiden fan. Seeing two Eddie's is beyond comprehension.

So to summarize, even if you don't really like Iron Maiden... no... even if you don't like them, even if you've never heard of them... go to this concert. They are by far the best live band I have ever seen and more than likely ever will be. They have everything you could want in a concert, a cool stage, great performers (Adrien and Dave soloing and Janick's guitar tosses, as well as the classic Steve Harris style), the music and sound are fantastic no matter where you are in the building (I was in the stands and on the floor), they play as good if not better than it has ever been, Bruce's voice is an experience to blow you away, and generally, you get everything you could ever want out of a concert from them.

Seriously... go see Iron Maiden. Follow them from city to city. You will not be disappointed.

Year: June 2008
Opening bands: Lauren Harris
Who I went with: Ronnie Pendleton, Michael Widmer, Kelton Earl
Location: Calgary (Saddledome), Edmonton (Rexall Place)

Ps - As a last note, I want to give fair warning, not just to little girls like myself, but to pretty much anyone who goes to an Iron Maiden concert. Building up to this show, I had promised myself that I would be front and center on the floor in Edmonton. I got their plenty early and I was front and center with one guy in front of me. There were a good number of people around me that I had been talking to: Ronnie and Kelton were with me, two guys in their 40s-50s (an army guy and his friend) behind me, a biggish guy and his friend to my left along with his short fat wife and her shorter and fatter friend, a scrawny guy in front of me, his scrawny friend beside them, a cool girl from Grande Prairie (Alana) and her stalky friend Nathan (who were incidentally aquainted with the scrawny guys). We were all chatting before the concert and basically, Alana and Nathan were like Ronnie and I, a stalky guy protecting a little girl. However, it didn't turn out so well. After Lauren Harris finished, basically, we were unable to move. We were boxed in uncomfortably, and not so much from behind but from the sides. The more we all thought it couldn't get worse, the worse it got, until I was literally getting crushed to death. Before Maiden even came out on stage (under 30 minutes), I had to give up my front and center place for fear of dying because I was getting crushed. Everyone around us was really cool and the security people were very nice. I was choked that I didn't make it to the first song even, but I was able to linger on the sidelines long enough to see Bruce up close and right below him, which made it entirely worthwhile.

If I recall correctly, the army guy's friend was the next to bail, about 2 songs in, him or the two fat girls. Kelton got out sometime in there too. Then Alana got sent out after about 3 songs, and Ronnie himself bailed after 4 songs because he had someone's elbow in his neck and he was seeing spots.

So I want to give you fair warning - if you want to be front and center for an Iron Maiden concert, be prepared, it is likely to hurt and/or be very dangerous. If you can hold it, good, but be careful.

Concert Reviews - Nightwish (Calgary)

2008-10-05T10:35:00.000-06:00

This was originally supposed to be a dual review for the Edmonton/Calgary shows back-to-back but due to time constraints, long weekends, and me being a fucking moron, Edmonton was a no-go.

This was the Passion for North America Tour part II (I'm guessing the concert we saw in October was part I).

The opening band was this strange thing called Sonic Syndicate. They seemed part metal, part punk, and part alternative. The sound was good but it had a bit of the annoying quality that hardcore punk has. They were quite strange to watch too as the girl was being really harcore and it looked like while she was playing she was getting repeatedly punched in the back of the head. They had two vocalists, the stranger of the two looked more like he was giving himself whiplash than headbanging, but overall they sounded pretty good and if you're into that sort of thing, which I am not particularly, then you'd probably like them.

Nightwish started out with opening up with a Hans Zimmer tune from Gladiator and let me tell you, combining Tuomas Holopainen and Hans Zimmer is so good it should probably be illegal. They started out with Bye Bye Beautiful, and played from that CD, The Poet and the Pendulum, Amaranth, Sahara, Whoever Brings the Night, The Islander, to my intense pleasure Last of the Wilds, and to my even greater pleasure, 7 Days to the Wolves.

Anette and Marco playing together with Jukka in the background.

They also brought out some older ones, including Dark Chest of Wonders, Nemo, The Siren, I Wish I Had An Angel, Dead to the World, and one song off either Oceanborn or Wishmaster that I didn't know the name of.

Emppu goofing off any making people smile.

I want to start by telling you how much I love everyone in this band. Anette and Marco talk to the crowd, joke, make fun of themselves, and generally are a feel-good band that not only play good music but make you happy to be around them. Even though the sound quality beside the speakers was shit, you still go crazy because you're so excited and pumped full of adrenaline. Emppu was the one I could see clearest since he was for the most part right in front of us and he doesn't talk onstage but he goofs around while he's playing and interacts with the crowd, doing silly things to make your already enormous grin even bigger. Marco does it too, grabbing Emppu's boob and bugging him while he's playing.

Tuomas playing at the beginning before losing his shirt.

I didn't see Tuomas as well as I would've liked because he's pretty stationary behind keyboards on the other side of the room, but his music speaks for itself. Anette's singing is good in her own way, which is still nothing compared to Tarja but is good and she's a bit of a goof herself, making you unable to really dislike her because she's fun to watch.

Near the end she announced the last song and they actually were... booed on stage? The crowd "turned against them" with unhappiness at this announcement so she jokingly turned over to Marco, who said that they were just lying to make the crowd scream for more. So after they left everyone screamed and demanded their return, so they came back and played 7 Days to the Wolves (which made me SO happy because they didn't play it last time and I was so very let down) and another, ending off with I Wish I Had an Angel, keeping true to the set list they had in Ontario, beginning and ending the same.

This was an intensely good show. I'm sad that I missed the Edmonton but twice is still good for me. I would recommend seeing this band to anyone who has ever heard their music. You may not like Anette as much as Tarja, but I would say that you should go anyways, the music is great and the band is fun. It's a great atmosphere so why not?

Year: 2008
Who I went with: Michael Widmer with guest appearance by Justin Dillman
Opening bands: Sonic Syndicate
Location: MacEwan Hall Ballroom, Calgary

The full band near the end of the show.

Concert Reviews - Opeth/Dream Theater

2008-10-05T10:34:00.000-06:00

This was for the Systematic Chaos and potentially Watershed albums for Dream Theater and Opeth respectively, though technically Dream Theater was the main event.

Let's start out with the opening bands. Three started first, and if you would've just gone to the concert for Opeth, you would've hated them. I found their musical style to be good but the singer sounded like Geddy Lee from Rush. He had an awkward and kind of lame stage presence, though he was a pretty good player. The vocals were good, he could sing, but it was a questionable sound to go with the music.

Between the Burried and Me offended my ears so badly with their first song that I had to leave. The singer and one of the guitarists looked younger than me and seemed like they'd do better in a skateboard park than on stage - young, skinny, short to practically no hair - they just looked weird in a metal band. The singer had a death metal sound and horrendous stage presence and I wanted to throw things at him. However, as long as I wasn't looking at them and their drummer refrained from going thrash metal, they had a decent sound. It was nothing special and I wouldn't pay for their music, but it was tolerable.

Mike Åkerfeldt and Opeth

Opeth was next on the venue. Take note that I have been quoted to like Opeth, but I couldn't name more than two songs by them. Opeth is a band I have liked to listen to, but not one I have pursued. Well... Mike Åkerfeldt is amazing to see on stage. He has a beautiful voice when he sings and a terrific sound when he growls. He can do pretty much anything, but I also loved his stage presence. He talks to the crowd, jokes with them, and introduces some of the songs he's going to play; overall he just makes a great show of it. Everyone accompanying him was great and if I wasn't in danger of being entirely destroyed by a mosh pit, I would've liked to be closer to the stage.

Lastly is Dream Theater. DT is another band that I can't say I'm particularly familiar with. I have listened to a few songs here and there and I own Awake and Systematic Chaos (the new CD). I was, not so much disappointed but unimpressed with their selection for the first song - a mediocre tune and in my opinion, the worst song off their new album, that might as well be a Metallica song. What was even more disappointing was that it was the ONLY one they played from Systematic Chaos. I bought the CD in the store and loved it, it's a great selection of mysterious concepts and good music (long songs) and being the tour for the CD I was hoping to hear more of it and I was let down.

Jordan Rudess playing with a clip of his hands on screen overhead.

Jordan Rudess is an unreal keyboardist. He was on a spinning platform and you can hardly follow his fingers with your eyes when he plays with one or both hands. For me, he was the highlight of the show; that and their rendition of the Mario songs with an accompanying video.

James LaBrie has a voice you either love or hate. Well, I love it when he sounds like himself but I hate it when he sounds EXACTLY like James Hetfield (as in the first song). My feet hurt so I retired to the back of the venue after Opeth but I found that for the show, it wouldn't have made a huge difference if he had been there or not. Every song was an extended version of its original form, which if you knew the original, was probably pretty cool, but for me I found it dragging. I'm not talking 5 minutes for a song here, I'm talking 20. I have a pretty good attention span for a good metal show but when I'm hearing unfamiliar music and the song goes on for almost half an hour, I get bored. Even the songs I did know (they played a set from Awake) seemed to drone on. The band seemed more intent on showing off than they did on pleasing the crowd. Don't get me wrong, the music was good, but I would've been happier if they had played some newer songs, played some shorter songs, and at least had some crowd interaction between songs so it wasn't all just one song blurring into the next. They've got great stamina and they can play and they sound good, but in the end, a ten minute solo of anything gets boring when it comes from a progressive metal band.

If you know Dream Theater well and you like their music, go to this show and you'll love it. However, if you're not too familiar with them, then I suggest skipping this one unless you're a big fan of Opeth.

Year: 2008
Who I went with: Michael Widmer, Kelton Earl, Brenden (Kelton's friend), Graham Widmer*, Gianna Romano*
Opening bands: Three, Between the Burried and Me
Location: MacEwan Hall, Calgary

Opeth opening for Dream Theater

Concert Reviews - Sonata Arctica

2008-10-05T10:32:00.000-06:00

If you're not familiar with Sonata Arctica, go listen to Reckoning Night and Unia right now. I only started listening to Sonata Arctica in the last year and they quickly moved up to become one of my all-time favorite power metal bands.

I was pleased to find that I was able to stand on a set of stairs at this venue for the show which gave me an ample visual field to watch the entire show. Tony Kakko is a cute little man who was dressed in a manner that reminded me of my brother when he's snowboarding. They all looked and sounded fantastic and I am ever impressed by Henrik Klingenburg's ability to play the keytar and actually make it cool instead of undeniably lame. Tony Kakko has a voice that could make a bear purr like a kitten and while sticking mostly to songs off their newer albums, they didn't fail to give us some old live favorites like Fullmoon, The Cage, and Victoria's Secret (dedicated, as always, to those wearing underwear).

For an encore, Tony Kakko split up the crowd and had everyone making different drum noises and then used his "drums" to play a tune and started singing We Will Rock You by Queen. This tiny little Finnish man puts on an undeniably great show and the musicians are enthusiastic and play to the crowd and for the crowd.

If you are ANY sort of power metal fan, even if you haven't listened to them that much, go see them. Follow them around. You will not be sorry.

Year: 2008
Who I went with: Michael Widmer
Opening bands: no idea
Location: The Starlite Room, Edmonton

Ton Kakko belting out another song.

Concert Reviews - Nightwish (Toronto)

2008-10-05T10:30:00.000-06:00

I will always be disappointed that I never got to see Nightwish while Tarja Turunen was singing for them.

I saw them in Ontario while they were on tour for their new album, Dark Passion Play with the new singer, Anette Olzon.

Paradise Lost was the opening band - not one I'm familiar with, but they were good for an opening. I had a few friends who were there just for the opening and they left happy after the show.

Let me start now by saying that the music was fantastic. Marco's got quite a weird voice but he can sing and he does it well live. They are all great showmen and they make you happy to be there. Tuomas was wearing... oddly... what appeared to be a dirty wife beater, which seemed a bit inappropriate considering I find him to be a musical genius, but hey, as I said, if you're a rockstar, you wear whatever you want onstage.

I think that, in the end, the show would have been better with Tarja. I loved her opratic vocals and she was a dark performer and I liked her stage presence in their videos and DVDs. However, Anette performed the DPP songs beautifully, and if you like the new stuff, I think you'd love the concert. She did a good job of the old songs as well considering she hasn't been with the band all that long and I think as she grows with them and improves, she'll do even better. However, I still feel that they would have been better with the original singer performing them.

I think that Anette was a decent choice for the band. She is definitely different but I think it's in a good way. If you like the new CD, you'll like the concert, but if you're a hardcore Tarja fan and don't like the new music you might decide to skip this one. I'm a fan of both and I'll be seeing them again on their western Canada dates.

Year: 2007
Who I went with: Michael Widmer
Opening bands: Paradise Lost
Location: The Docks, Toronto

Concert Reviews - Guns N' Roses

2008-10-05T10:29:00.000-06:00

This concert was not for any release tour, but more likely that Axl Rose has run out of money for Chinese Democracy and needed some cash.

The main thrill of this concert was to see if anyone showed up. The strippers while the stadium was filling was interesting, and the band after unremarkable.

Sebastian Bach (you'd know him from Skid Row) was the real opening band and for him doing his thing, he can belt out a song. I had never listened to Skid Row (except for Youth Gone Wild) and he played it and a few others that I picked up and enjoy to this day. I Remember You and 18 and Life were very well done and I was, the entire time, blown away by his beautiful golden hair.

The next came the excitement of seeing if Axl Rose would actually show up. He did, to our immense relief and excitement. The next part was to see if he could still sing or if he was just a washed up drunkard as he is so well known to be.

Well, he may look more like a barrel than a 12-year-old girl and those corn rows look ridiculous, but I could not deny that he sounded better than I have EVER heard him sound on a studio album, DVD, or live album. He was sober, and sang everything I wanted to hear. Bach even came out and sang My Michelle, which was an interesting take and very good.

He had three guitarists with him: his original replacement for Slash (who has always been great) and a second, and then a third, younger guy. They all dressed somewhat like red and black leprechauns and could play GNR songs just as well as any other. One of them played a guitar-solo version of Don't Cry that was fantastic, and the young one proved to the crowd that he was not just there to look emo.

My only real beef with this concert was that none of Axl's mics seemed to work, and for his best-ever singing, I was disappointed that I couldn't hear him half the time.

We're all still wondering if Chinese Democracy will ever come out, but he gave us some samplers and, while perhaps not worth the entire wait, I'm convinced that the CD will be worth checking out. If you've liked GNR when they were in their prime, I'd check them out if you see them around... they're still better than Velvet Revolver ever was.

Year: 2006
Who I went with: Ronnie Pendleton
Opening bands: Skid Row, another one I can't recall, and strippers
Location: Saddledome, Calgary

Concert Reviews - System of a Down

2008-10-05T10:27:00.000-06:00

This was on the tour for Hypnotize in the summer of 2006.

I don't have a lot to say about this. The band performs live just as well as they perform in the studio. Serj Tankian is an amazing singer and in 2006 his hair was a sight to behold. However, next to the other singer, Daron Malakian, I found he didn't do as much as I suspected. He did do a lovely acoustic intro to one of my favorite slower songs of theirs (might've been Lonely Day but it was a few years ago so I don't really remember) and this happened with one or two other songs too. The other singer has a wail that is unique and great to hear live, and they put on a fantastic show.

My disappointments with them were that they played every song off Mezmerize but not near as many as Hypnotize. Being the album they were on tour for, I was hoping for more of that. Not that hearing the entire Mezmerize album was a bad thing, I had just hoped for MORE of Hypnotize. My other complaint was that they didn't do an encore. Seriously... who doesn't do an encore? Your fans are screaming for more and you're just like, nah I don't feel like it? That's lame...

That aside, if these guys ever come back from their hiatus (have they already? If they have, I've not heard...) then go and see them and you'll be happy with the performance. Just don't wait around for them to give you any special extras after they leave stage.

Year: 2006
Who I went with: Francois Coetzer
Opening bands: can't recall
Location: Rexall Place (main venue), Edmonton

Concert Reviews - Judas Priest

2008-10-05T10:26:00.000-06:00

If you plan on going to see Judas Priest in concert anytime soon, prepare to see a lot of 50-year-old bikers and 60-year-old women in black leather corsets; likely all that's holding their old withered bodies in place.

That being said, I give credit to this band. Now that they canned Ripper Owens and have good old gay as always Rob Halford back, well, lets just say that Judas Priest will always be better with Halford.

The show was on the tour for Angel of Retribution, which for a new album from an old band and the first album with their good singer back is not half bad.

For starters, the guys in this band are old. They could probably retire the spandex and just wear jeans at this point, but whatever makes you feel like a rockstar, right? Rob Halford displayed a fantastic assortment of leather jackets and something that appeared to be a stylish Victorian robe (I think my jacket-change count was around 19 at the end of the concert). They had lifts on the stage so Halford could move around and disappear and reappear in all sorts of places.

Halford didn't seem too energetic at first, almost like he had an injury (broke his hip a while back?), or maybe it's just age talking. Don't be fooled though, that man can wail as good as he ever could. He did bring out the bike for one song, which had a rather lovely nostalgic feel to it. The new songs have a lot of old feel to them and the performance was fantastic. There was a great blend of Angel of Retribution along with a great opening with The Hellion/Electric Eye and many more of their old classics that you couldn't go see Priest without hearing and feel good at the end.

If you love this classic metal, then you won't be disappointed in this concert.

Year: 2005
Who I went with: Ronnie Pendleton
Opening bands: Anthrax
Location: Rexall Place (main venue), Edmonton

Concert Reviews - Alice Cooper

2008-10-05T10:23:00.000-06:00

I agree with a lot of people in saying that old rockers should find something else to do with their time, but there are exceptions to every rule. I give this one to Alice Cooper because he is (was?) still putting out albums when I saw him.

This tour was for The Eyes of Alice Cooper and I must say, for an old guy he can still put on a great show. I was pleased to hear some of the newer and more humerous songs from The Eyes of Alice Cooper, but some of the old classics like No More Mr. Nice Guy. He can sing just as well as he ever could and he is an unbelievable performer. He may not do as much magic as he did in the old days but he brings out all the props, even having his daughter dancing on stage, and in a more memorable moment, throwing her around and to my disbelief, realizing she had been switched at some point with a doll that resembled her without my knowing. Even his snake came out (recovering from swallowing a heat lamp a while prior).

I would say as long as Alice Cooper is putting out music, you won't regret spending the money to go see his act.

Year: 2003 or 2004
Who I went with: Nicolas Kui, Heather Raffin, Kelsy Polnik
Opening bands: Supagroup (I think that was their name)
Location: Telus Convention Center, Calgary