Ghost Brigade & HIM @ Helldone, Dec 29 2009

The Helldone festival, grown around the traditional new year's gigs of HIM, is again being arranged in the Tavastia & Semifinal clubs in Helsinki. This year, the set up includes HIM playing four consequent nights with varying supporters + an acoustic warm up by The 69 Eyes at the Semifinal club.

On the second night of the fest, the honour of the opening band was given to Ghost Brigade that has recently received lots of attention and high appraisal in the Finnish music press. Even though the Helldone audience was not the most optimal for GB tunes, the band played an energetic show. It was nice to see that it is possible to transmit the gorgeous atmosphere of their recent "Isolation Songs" masterpiece into the live context. There appeared some scrabbling and stuffy sounds in the two opening pieces, but as soon as "Into the Black light" got in motion, intensity was ensured. As admitted by the band's guitarist Wille Naukkarinen the day after, the band indeed experienced some start-up difficulties due to the preceding gig break.



HIM was also experiencing some technical problems, as Ville needed to constantly remind the technical staff about sound problems and even to got one of the Kaasu's plates change in the middle of the set. In overall, the set was a routine performance, even a slightly listless one, but the audience loved it.



TMK

http://www.myspace.com/helldone

HIM setlist:

Buried Alive By Love
Heartkiller
Right Here In My Arms
Rip Out The Wings Of A Butterfly
Bleed Well
Join Me In Death
Soul On Fire
Love, The Hardest Way
Killing Loneliness
Wicked Game
And Love Said No
The Funeral Of Hearts
Your Sweet 666
Scared To Death
Poison Girl
The Sacrament
Bury Me Deep Inside Your Heart
Pretending
Encore:
When Love And Death Embrace

Sonata Arctica @ Trädgårn, Dec 14 2009

After the Fall US tour, Sonata Arctica has intensively toured in Europe. The caravan also reached Gothenburg on December 14, and BogFires was present in the Trädgårn hall, a good venue with a capacity of 1,700 people. The house was not full, but probably more than 1,000 people witnessed the band that played flawlessly and with high energy. It is nice to see how much liked the band is also among our western neighbours, although seemingly many Finns also appeared in the audience. Sonata shows are usually events with jovial atmosphere, this time Tony Kakko and others were in an even more cheerful mood that usually, regardless of heavy touring. Tony spent a considerable time between the songs chatting with audience.

The set list consisted of both slow and swift Sonata songs, generating a very impressive dramatic lifeline for the show. The visual aspects of the show were beautiful and powerful at the same time. The lights created various different ambiances onstage and cleverly accentuated the details of the wildlife motif on Sonata's trademark background sheet “As if the World Wasn’t Ending” and “Don’t Say A Word” may have been the atmospheric highlights of the evening, as was the duet of Tony’s and Charlotte Wessels of Delain in the “Last Drop Falls”. Delain itself played before Sonata but did not made a big impression, largely due to the bland song material of the band. The opening band “Winterborn”, a fairly new Finnish group playing slightly progressive power metal, was in turn a positive surprise and very much fun to watch.

I didn’t write down the set list of Sonata, but remember it being the same as in the two preceding shows in Amsterdam and Oslo:

Everything Fades To Gray Intro
Flag In The Ground
Paid In Full
Caleb
The Last Amazing Grays
As If The World Wasn't Ending
Full Moon
Last Drop Falls (with Charlotte Wessels from Delain)
Juliet
Keyboard / Guitar Solos
Replica
8th Commandment
Encore:
We Will Rock You (Queen cover)
In Black And White
Don't Say A Word
Vodka / Everything Fades To Gray Outro

TMK

Metal in Taiwan

Metal in Taiwan
While attending the DeSForM conference in Taipei in October 2009, TMK also studied the Taiwanese metal scene by meeting few interesting persons in the city. One of them was Mr. Space K. Chen, with his company Rock Empire. Space has been 20 years in business as a promoter, agent, and producer, among other things, keeping the metal culture alive in Taiwan by bringing bands to the country, maintaining a metal store with amazing selection of CD’s and other stuff, and running his own recording studio. He has been recently hosting bands like Children of Bodom and Arch Enemy in Taiwan, China and other local places. And thanks to him, Sonata Arctica is coming to Taiwan for the third time in January. I also met Jesse Liu from Icon Promotions, also a concert promoter for some metal bands and a number of other groups, as well as some record company reps and people from the Wall club, the only decent live house in the whole city with some 2,6 million people – which indeed tells something about the state of music culture in the country.

Metal underground
In specific, heavy metal is a small scene in Taiwan, much smaller and underground than I even initially thought, knowing that even many Finnish bands have visited the country in their Asian tours. But in fact, it turned out that Finnish bands belong to the best known and appreciated metal bands there. Children of Bodom, Stratovarius, and Sonata Arctica have gathered audiences around 800 people that is a high number for a metal show in Taipei. However, the city is lacking a decent gig place for that size of rock shows, and promotion is difficult while there is not any considerable metal media in the country. The big names of metal do not visit the country, while they are too expensive and would therefore require a big crowd. And live gig is a ticket for greater appreciation also in Taiwan. That is probably one reason while Finnish and Swedish bands are experiencing relative success there. As told by Jesse, these and other metal bands, in the first place, come to Taiwan thanks to Space.

In addition to the rare visits of foreign bands, there is in average only one metal night arranged per month. These gigs usually present local bands in the Wall club, which is an astonishingly small venue (max capacity of 400) considering it is basically the only place in Taipei for such concerts and hosting even some semi-big names every now and then. For example Skid Row recently performed in the Wall for some 300 people. My interviewees estimated that there are perhaps 10 active metal bands in Taiwan. My robust peek into some of the bands suggested that the Taiwanese metal heads are inclined to play technical stuff with death/black influences.
I was lucky to see one of those local nights in the Wall, as four Taiwanese bands – Valcun, Hekate, Emerging From The Cocoon, and Solem – played there for some 100 mostly young fans. And quite young seemed the band members as well, but apparently well educated in precise playing and heavy metal gestures. In terms of their music, it was very difficult to differentiate the bands, as they showed very little personal subtleties. One difference, however, was the female singer of the main act Solemn. Her casual appearance with the red striped shirt may not quite fit the metal environment, but otherwise the references to Arch Enemy were obvious. And even in a small event like this, there are always some metal ambassadors from Scandinavia in the audience (Cheers Tomas & Geir!).

Big in Taipei
Not only are the gigs small and rare, but also CD’s are selling quite marginal numbers. Younger customers don’t buy them much anymore, while Internet is the main channel to get one’s hands on the music. Even the big names like Metallica and Iron Maiden are selling albums only in few hundred copies, and practically all the CD’s are imported. If a band nowadays manages to sell close to 1,000 copies, it is a “big” one. For instance, Polaris by Stratovarius has sold some 800 copies so far (in comparison to the 2,000 copies of some earlier albums). From the Finns, COB, Sonata Arctica and Nightwish are also selling relatively well. And many other Finnish items are found in the Space’s record store where, by the way, Steve Vai is the best selling artist. In overall, technical stuff and guitar virtuosity is much liked in Taiwan, which quite resembles the situation in Japan.

And why is metal so underground in the country? It is basically due to the lack of any considerable culture and history. Metal listeners are mainly young people, the music and its’ listeners are still generally considered rebellious, and many people stop listening to metal when growing older. It is very difficult to find older metal fans in the country. For example, the COB audience is typically 18-25 years old and very male dominated. Arch Enemy is appeals also to many women, thanks to Angela of course. So in many respect, the culture is very different in comparison to Japan. Overall, consumption of domestic music is dominating: Only 10% of people listen to foreign bands in the first place. The local pop stars easily fill arenas of 20,000 people. From the foreigners, one of the recent considerable successes was Beyoncé whose concert sold some 8,000 tickets.

Noise from the dragon's mouth
And the mainland China is much like Taiwan. Both Space and Jesse operate also in China, which is still a tricky country in terms of gig arrangements and CD sales. Nonetheless, a new music culture, also metal, is strongly booming there. The Chinese Painkiller magazine (btw, currently promoting visibly the China tour of the Finnish Ensiferum) is selling some 6,000 copies, which is of course none in the Chinese scale, but still considered a considerable communication media. More and more gigs are also being organized, especially in Beijing that is becoming the heavy metal centre of the country. COB in the recent tour played to an audience of 600 people, which is also about the required size to break even. However, having wrong looks, singing about wrong themes, or coming from a wrong country can cause bands some troubles. For example, the visas of Skid Row was recently retained, but Jesse eventually managed to get the band to the country. Some extra payoffs are also required in many instances.

One of the most interesting and often also amusing details from China and Taiwan are the altered band names. Not only must the lyrics be translated for Chinese officials if a band hopes to obtain a permission to perform in the mainland China, but also the names of the bands often have to be translated to Chinese when promoting concerts or CD’s both in Taiwan and China. This is not always due to political reasons, as was the case when Napalm Death was translated to something like “Gasoline Pump” in China. Many foreign names are simply considered too difficult and impersonal for the local fans, while English is generally not well understood. For example, Children of Bodom may be translated to something like “Seiren’s Child” or “Children of Love”, Arch Enemy to “Biggest Enemy”, Sonata Arctica to “Sonata of Northern Lights”, and Stratovarius to “Riding the Cloud”. A perfect case of re-branding!

Chthonic state of mind
Finally, when writing about Chinese metal, one local band needs to be mentioned. It is Chthonic that during its’ 14 years of existence has grown relatively big. The band has created interest abroad and toured all over the world, for instance in the Ozzfest 2007, and the band’s female singer Doris Yeh has created some attention for the band by posing in the FHM magazine. Chthonic presents an interesting concept of extreme metal, including strong local influences in its music and lyrics that stem from the mournful events in the Taiwanese history. The band has currently a link to Finland, as the recent album “Mirror of Retribution” was released by the Finnish Spinefarm. As Spinefarm writes on its website: “Taiwan is a country where history and folklore work very much hand in hand, and both of these elements are central to the latest studio album from that country’s premier metal outfit, Chthonic.” Hopefully there are more bands emerging that merge the rich cultural background into their music, which is something that could make a difference abroad.

Toni-Matti Karjalainen



Links:
Rock Empire: http://www.rockempire.com.tw/
Icon Promotions: http://www.icon-promotions.com/
The Wall: http://www.thewall.com.tw/
Chthonic: http://www.myspace.com/chthonictw
Chtonic at Spinefarm: http://www.spinefarm.fi/showband.php?id=199
Painkiller magazine (Chinese): http://www.painkillermag.com/


Photos (top down):

Add for the Wall club metal night
the Wall club (photo: Toni-Matti Karjalainen)
Solemn performing at the Wall (photo: Toni-Matti Karjalainen)

Ghost Brigade atop on the Soundi list

The Finnish major musg mag Soundi listed the best albums of 2009, voted by their 13 critics. In the heavy category, the list was as follows:

1. Ghost Brigade: Isolation Songs
2. Swallow the Sun: New Moon
3. Insomnium: Across the Dark
4. Amorphis: Skyforger
5. Mastodon: Crack the Sky
6. Baroness: Blue Record
7. Immortal: All Shall Fall
8. Sólstafir: Köld
9. Kreator: Hordes of Chaos
10. Napalm Death: Time Waits For No Slave

It's very easy to agree on the top 5...

TMK

www.soundi.fi

Negative and Lovex @ V-Rock Festival, Tokyo Oct 25th

Finnish glamrock bands Negative and Lovex performedat the V-Rock Festival in Chiba, near Tokyo in the Makuhari Messe on Oct 25th, the same venue where Loudpark festival was held the week before. The venue looked surprisingly similar, even the timetables and food stands. But there was something very different, and that was the crowd. I have never witnessed such an overall majority of female fans at a rock festival not to mention the peculiar costumes of some of the most dedicated fans. Unfortunately I arrived at the festival sight too late to see Negative perform on the main stage, because of arriving in Tokyo the same morning. Fortunately I did catch Lovex's perfomance a couple of hours later on the V-stage. Lovex was forced to start their set by doing soundcheck behind the curtain which led to some amusing interaction with the fans. When they were finally ready with the soundcheck they had only 30 minutes to perform. Even though the stage was quite small and there weren't that many people watching, Lovex gave an energetic performance and they were able to attract more people in front of the stage during the show. Bogfires also had the opportunity to meet and catch up with some of the members from Negative and Lovex after the show. Lovex was planning on staying in Japan for a coule of days and "explore the countryside" whereas Negative flew back to Finland the next day. Negative had not performed or even practiced together since they finished the tour following the release of their previous studio album Anorectic. In spite of that, Antti Anatomy and Jay Slammer both seemed very happy with their performance. The reason the band hadn't been practicing together in such a long time is the recording process of their upcoming album, taking place in Los Angeles, CA from where Jonne Aaron and Larry Love flew straight to Japan from. According to the guys, the album is almost finished, only vocals missing from a couple of songs. Negative recently singed a global record contract with Warner and the new album will be released in April 2010.

Live report: Mr. Big trilogy

Live report: Mr. Big trilogy 2009
By Toni-Matti Karjalainen

Helsinki, Nosturi, September 6

London, Shepherd’s Bush Empire, September 12

Seoul, Olympic Gymnastics Gymnasium, October 24

If someone had told me in the early 90´s when a band called Mr. Big was experiencing its success peak that I would go and watch the band three times in 2009, I would have ignored the whole idea due to its impossibility. I did listen to the band in small quantities back then, but it’s more rockier side and recognizable tone created by the unique playing of Billy Sheehan (bass) and Paul Gilbert (guitar) were overshadowed by the cheesy dominance of the few hit songs like “To Be With You” and “Just Take My Heart”.

Anyway, when news about the Mr. Big reunion tour emerged and finally resulted in a list of dates also including Helsinki, I sure got interested in seeing the band live, not only to experience the great Sheehan-Gilbert duet but also to check if Eric Martin (singer) still sounds and look the same (yes he does) and to see how well the songs have managed the test of time. Then, by chance, I happened to be a week later in London and seven weeks later in Seoul when the band played in these cities. Even if Mr. Big may not really lie at the core of the BogFires interests, this trilogy also offered a nice opportunity for some analytical contemplation. It was interesting to experience the band and audiences within three different cultures and settings: at the Nosturi club, a semi-sized venue in Helsinki, in a theatre environment at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London, and in a larger arena atmosphere of the Olympic Gymnastics Gymnasium in Seoul.

The set lists were very similar in all three places, as were the guys’ gestures, clothes, solos and contact with the audience. The only notable difference between the shows was the video screens used only in Seoul. And in Seoul, the band played a highly amusing extra number in the beginning of their second encore, as the guys swapped their instruments and played “Smoke on the Water”. Yes, sounds like a bad idea when you hear it, but worked really well in that context. And the Korean audience went really crazy seeing that.

So in overall, I basically the same show for three times. Which was in a way good, because then it was easier to recognize more nuances in the set as well as to pay more attention on the behavior of the audiences. You know, keeping one variable constant to analyse another one in a more rigorous manner in order to practice more reliable science… For those interested, the Mr.Big 2009 appearance is captured in almost the same form in the recently released “Back to Budokan” DVD.

The shows were great, much more than I initially expected. The band played flawlessly, with an amazing presence and sense of humour. The guys seem to be genuinely having good time, which was instantly transferred to the audiences as well. Mr. Big it is a band that is very nice and fun to watch. And the appeal is really created by the great presence and chemistry between Sheehan, Gilbert, Martin and Pat Torpey (drums). There are no extra gimmicks used, if you don’t count the double neck guitar and bass to be one. The band just played well. And most importantly, they play as The Band! Eric still nails the songs in convincing manner and Pat performs with a good charisma, and Billy’s and Pauls’s playing and gesturing – that form the core of the performance – are truly unique. And all the members really appear down-to-earth, easy going and approachable. This impression was verified when I had the opportunity to briefly meet the guys personally after the London gig.

Mr. Big has some catchy songs and some less attractive ones. The lack of really strong song material that would carry the high mood consistently throughout the whole set is the only negative thing to say about the band. However, many of the classical songs still sound fresh and accurate, like my favourite “Green-Tinted Sixties Mind”. The sets involved lots of soloing and jamming from Billy and Paul. It was something that many in the audience seemingly liked a lot, but a bit too much especially when seeing the same thing three times.

The show thus worked well in a club, in a theatre and in an arena, which I guess is a sign of strong professionalism. What concerns the audiences, they were different. Helsinki and London crowds appeared, in general, quite similar in their behaviour, seemingly happy to see the band alive and kicking after many years. But the Seoul gig was definitely the loudest and wildest of these three, the audience jumping up and down, making good noise and singing along the songs. The concert only filled half of the seats of the large hall in the first Seoul night (followed by another one on the following day), but the atmosphere was great. High profile ending for the trilogy indeed!

And a big thank to Adam for organizing the entry to the shows!

TMK

Loud Park 09 festival report

Loud Park 09 festival report
Saturday 17th and Sunday 19th of October, 2009
Makuhari Messe, Chiba, Tokyo

By Toni-Matti Karjalainen & Laura Laaksonen, BogFires Research Project

Photos © Loud Park, used by permission, all rights reserved

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Friendly people, relaxed atmosphere, well functioning organizations, exact schedules, functioning venue with good sounds and full darkness even in the daytime. This is what the Loud Park metal festival in Tokyo, “the heaviest metal festival in Japan” is about, according to our previous experiences.

The above applied also to Loud Park 09, organized October 17-18 in the Makuhari fair centre in the outskirts of Tokyo. Except what concerns the venue! The Saitama Super Arena, the “normal” Loud Park venue, which was used in the two previous years when BogFires reps attended the fest, was this time booked by Beyoncé for her concert, as told by the organizers at the Creativeman agency. The Makuhari fair hall may work well for the Tokyo Motor Show and other similar events but it is not an ideal place for a rock festival. The place was yet quite roomy and easy to move around, but it was too warm and, yes, too bright with the white walls and beams of sunlight invading the main hall. The acoustics were also poorer than in Saitama, and quite disturbingly, the middle hall where many food, drink, and information desks where located, and where also most of the bands’ signing sessions took place, was extremely noisy. The variety of food available at the venue, by the way, had possibly increased from previous years but was still not very good. In specific, if you are a vegetarian, the choices are very scarce.

Anyhow, the festival built up to be another memorable rock event experienced in Japan. Instead of two, this year’s setting offered three stages; two of which (“Ultimate Stage” and “Big Rock Stage”) positioned side to side in the trusty loudparkish manner to allow a non-stop stream of shows, and a new “side” stage (“Sanctuary Stage”) that featured slightly smaller bands. This meant that there was some overlap in the performances. Nevertheless, due to the compact size of the venue, it was very easy to move between the halls and to get a glimpse at most bands. And the local metal heads seemed to fully enjoy the event in the traditional Japanese manner; cheering during the songs, staying silent in-between, sleeping on the floors, and wearing a full range of black band T’s. Moreover, it seemed that also a slightly bigger number of foreigners had found the event than in the previous years.

Enough about the context – next about the contents.

Day 1 started, on our behalf, with the final few songs in the set of Loudness. There were already lots of people packed in the hall, and it was surely nice to see the legendary Akira Takasaki live and in good form. The veteran category was represented also by Dokken who had made a promising return into the hard rock universe with the positively remarked “Lightning Strikes Again” album, released last year. However, Don with his band looks old, which does not matter of course, would the performance have turned out to be a bit more convincing. Don’s voice it’s not there anymore, and the band’s playing rather sloppy. It is therefore no wonder that, both for the audience and seemingly also for the band itself, the apparent high point of the set was when George Lynch guest appeared on the stage to play “Tooth & Nail” with his old band.

Anthrax, another breeze from the past, was again back in the saddle after the singer hassle and cancellations of many summer gigs (including that of Sonisphere in Pori Finland). This time they played with John Bush (Anthrax singer 1992-2005), which was probably greeted with happiness by many fans. Finally seeing the fourth representative of the Bay Area Thrash big quartet may have filled the whole in our general knowledge, but the gig itself did not make a big impact. It was just ok. There is nothing wrong with the playing, sounds, or anything, but Anthrax really lacks interesting and powerful songs.

Lynch Mob then manned the Sanctuary Stage. The band that was started by the Dokken guitarist George Lynch and was mostly active in the 1990’s, performed a more fluent, interesting and convincing set than George’s old acquaintances before them. The newer songs from the “Smoke and Mirrors” album (2009) worked particularly well live. Poison the Well, one of the new live acquaintances for us, appeared also positive, energetic, and accurate. They played a good show with quite interesting songs. This group needs to be checked more closely.

As seen before, Arch Enemy is very popular in Japan. And powerful and loud the band was also this time, providing no surprises and nurturing a consistent visual appearance with black clothes and white bands in the arms of every member. Was there some specific meaning for wearing them? Having said this, it would be nice to see some surprises and fresh ideas from the band every now and then. And is there really a point in playing as loud as they (and many others) did? Yes, this is a metal festival and metal should be loud, but if you don’t recognize any flavours in music anymore, loudness just becomes uncomfortable. By the way, it struck us again to see that practically no one of the local people had protected their ears. There were even small children listening to the bands with their bare ears, which is of course just simply stupid.

Megadeth was brilliant. Dave and the rest of the gang were seemingly in a good humour. In the standard Megadeth manner, the show really involved nothing extra, just powerful playing. In specific, the excellent interplay between Mustaine and Chris Broderick was fun to listen and fun to watch. Chris actually played a big part of solos, and maneuvered the practice with sheer professionalism. It seemed like the band had some problems with the sound levels in the beginning, and played in general at considerably lower volume than the preceding Arch Enemy. And good so – now there was more possibilities to recognize finer nuances in the songs. The set list included a couple of songs from the new Endgame and lots of older material. The gorgeous “Holy Wars…” ended the highlight performance of the day.

Dave & Chris of Megadeth

Judas Priest ended Day 1 by focusing on the older material. No surprises from the Brits either, and BogFires left the building after half set to avoid the massive rush in the subway and headed back to Shinjuku. There, TMK had a pleasure to greet Dave Mustaine in person in a certain small bar…

On Day 2, the first BogFires beam was directed towards Hibria, a Brazilian power metal group that has produced two albums (2004 & 2008). This new band was one of the most positive surprises of Loud Par. Iuri Sanson, the singer, showed amazing talent on the high register. The technical songs of the band included lots of old school melodic references to bands like Queensrÿche (which usually works well… ;). However, the band should seriously consider redesigning their logo. It is really awful!

Iuri of Hibria

In the meantime, Japanese Galneryus had presented their technical virtuosity at the Sanctuary Stage. Unfortunately, we saw only a small fraction at the end while the set was overlapping with that of Hibria. On the Ultimate Stage, the next appearing Hatebreed was very convincing in its own league, but was not really our cup of tea. The same applied to the traditional hard rock presented by Royal Hunt. Napalm Death, in turn, made a strong impression. It was loud, fast and powerful, and generated a real sonic landslide. Between the short songs, political and “advisory” comments by Mark “Barney” Greenway were entertaining, as was his great stage presence throughout the whole set as well. A very positive experience indeed!

Papa Roach presented their recent hit “Hollywood Whore”, which is quite a catchy song in overall, but did not otherwise create any remarkable feelings. Fair Warning from Germany, being surprisingly popular in Japan, in turn managed to put smile on the faces of most spectators, but really approached being a comedy act with their gestures and wind machines (which probably was not the intention). Another sort of a comedy act, Anvil, was not convincing at all. They really don’t have good songs, and the performance is merely embarrassing. But yes, I guess one should take a look at the much appraised movie that was also clearly promoted in Loud Park.

Children of Bodom, the sole Finnish representative in this year’s festival, performed a rather basic gig; no surprises were provided. The band appeared less energetic and more passive as usual, and quite little contact was created with the audience. The COB signing session before the show gathered one of the biggest crowds at the front of the autograph booth.

Alexi of COB at the signing session

COB arrived in Tokyo Saturday afternoon and Bogfres had an opportunity to catch up with the band. The guys had just had a couple of days off in Hawaii where they also finished the North American part of their lengthy “End of the World Tour” (started in Buenos Aires on September 8th). COB management had also come to Tokyo for Loud Park and other meetings. Both the band and the management seemed very pleased with the tour so far. After Loud Park, COB was off to Hong Kong, Taipei, and Beijing. BogFires also met the promoter of these three gigs in Taipei a few days after. According to him, the concerts went really well, although the atmosphere in these concerts with some 500 to 1000 spectators must have been quite different from that of Loud Park with several thousand noisy fans. After Asian gigs, COB headed Moscow where the last show of the Blooddrunk tour – that started in April 2008 – was to come to the end. The band will next have a break. For Alexi, this means going back on the U.S. tour with Hypocrisy already in November. In February 2010, COB is going to start to write new material and to practice for their next album. Studio time is scheduled for June 2010.

Rob Zombie, in turn, was something very different. This was the absolute highlight of Sunday in terms of the show value. Rob and the band were professional and entertaining. Rob had an excellent contact with the audience, climbing down to be touched upon by the fans every now and then. However, Rob had to wake up the audience a couple of times to break the typical Japanese silence between the songs. The set was visually impressive with the weird videos and stage gimmicks – and ragged Rob is visually impressive and a highly credible rock star himself. Guitarist John 5 (who played with Marilyn Manson, by the way, before joining Rob’s new band in 2005) with his clown painted face was also fun to watch and to listen. Overall, the sounds were solid and discernible, and the songs grooving and stomping, even though sharper melodic hooks are missing.

Rob Zombie

The Loud Park 09 was closed by Slayer. And Slayer was Slayer, not more, not less. If you’re not really within their realm, the set is pretty much seen after a couple of songs.

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BogFires want to express warm thanks, again, to Onta from Creativeman for hospitality. And thanks for all old and new friends in Tokyo for such a nice time!

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Links:
http://www.loudpark.com/ (info and more photos)
http://www.creativeman.co.jp/ (organizer and info for other events in Japan)

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BogFires presented at the DeSForM Workshop in Taipei

TMK presented a BogFires research paper at the DeSForM 2009 Workshop on October 26 at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology in Taipei:

Karjalainen, Toni-Matti; Laaksonen, Laura & Ainamo, Antti (2009)
Occult, a Tooth, and the Canopy of the Sky: Conceptualizing Visual Meaning Creation of Heavy Metal Bands

BogFires presented at the IASDR Conference in Seoul

BogFires held two presentations at the IASDR 2009 Conference in Seoul, South Korea, this week:

Karjalainen, Toni-Matti; Laaksonen, Laura & Ainamo, Antti (2009)
Design for b(r)and identity: Exploring visual concept building within the metal music genre
was presented by Toni-Matti Karjalainen

Laaksonen, Laura; Karjalainen, Toni-Matti & Ainamo, Antti (2009)
Understanding Cultural Exports- Finnish heavy metal music in the United States.
was presented by Laura Laaksonen

http://www.iasdr2009.org/

And the BogFires Asian tour continues next to Taiwan...

Progressive Nation 2009 in Helsinki and Stockholm

BogFires checked the Helsinki (Sep 23) and Stockholm (Sep 25) shows of the Progressive Nation tour featuring Dream Theater, Opeth, Bigelf and Unexpect (only in Stockholm). In Helsinki, I stood among the audience, but in Stockholm I had a great opportunity to follow part of the show behind the scene. It was not only fascinating to see my two big favourites Dream Theater and Opeth from that angle, but also another interesting possibility to experience how things work backstage in such a large organisation.
However, through my blue and white BogFires glasses, my specific focus on both nights was on Bigelf, the L.A. based but “half Finnish” band. It is not generally known, not even in the Finnish media, that two Finnish members have been part of ithe band for several years alredy: Esa “Ace” Mark on the guitar and “Duffy Snowhill” alias Repe Lumikumpu on the bass. Bigelf may not be as big in popularity as our other case bands (and certainly not as big as they should be on the basis of their originality, big sound, and quality songs), but they make an interesting case of Finnish rock export/import/whatever by building up the Finnish image abroad in their own manner. As Bigelf is now part of the high profile and long Progressive Nation tour (thanks for DT’s Mike Portnoy’s persona preference for the brand), new potential fans become surely aware of their existence. The new emergence is even accompanied by their recent warming up gig for Porcupine Tree, another big name in the loose category of progressive rock. The concept of Progressive Nation concept, created and nurtured by Dream Theater, is, in effect, quite interesting in its variety. Perhaps all participating bands (slightly different line-ups in the U.S. and Europe) can somehow be grouped under the progressive label, but they are quite different from each other in terms of their styles and influences. This of course might also be a risk with regard to consistency, but probably appeals a more heterogeneous crowd to the venues than would the participating bands do individually.

Bigelf started the evening in the Helsinki Ice Hall that had some empty seats left on the upper level but was almost full. This was first show of the tour in Europe after a small break, and a few days after the aforementioned Porcupine Tree gig in the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles. As the recent album “Cheat the Gallows” already showed, the band is in top form, an impression that is further strengthened by their live appearance. In itself, Bigelf’s music and whole concept is interesting while, on one hand, it is very familiar with its strong references to the 1970’s but, on the other hand, also quite unique in the contemporary polished and supercharged sound environment. The band also uses authentic vintage gear at stage, which makes a distinctive visual impact and creates unique sound that is rugged, warm and rich at the same time. The Helsinki set had a slightly tame start, perhaps because of the extra excitement caused by playing for the Scandinavian audience (which the main man Damon Fox mentioned to be their favourite one) for the first time after a long break. As commented by Esa, playing in the home city was also a somewhat nervous experience for him. Anyhow, the set was soon set in good motion, and especially the songs “Blackball” and the set closing gorgeous “Money Machine” were pleasant pieces of music. The good vibe was continued in the Hovet in Stockholm with perhaps slightly better sounds than in Helsinki. In general, the sound in this venue, also designed originally for ice hockey, seem to always outperform that in the Helsinki Ice Hall. Damon’s singing in Hovet was better heard on the floor and Esa’s guitar sounded more powerful despite the afterwards reported pedal problems. And Bigelf was not only fun to listen but also to watch: all members are active and charismatic onstage, Damon Fox with his impressive keyboard gear and tiny Yoda mascot drawing the main attention. In Stockholm the audience was also treated by an extra number, already familiar from many U.S. shows, when Mike Portnoy himself staffed the drums during the Blackball.

The Bigelf setlist in Helsinki was three songs longer than in Stockholm. The reason for this was the absence of the opening band Unexpected in Helsinki. As told by the keyboard player ExoD after the Stockholm gig, cancellation was due to budget reasons. In Stockholm, the band performed an energetic, but the band’s complex and multi-instrument songs were difficult to grasp for a first timer. But this colourful gang from Montréal is definitely a band worth checking out. ExoD told me that, unsurprisingly, it was again Mike Portnoy who had included the band in the PN package.

Opeth was as massive sounding, serene and powerful, and small gestured as always. Such short set lists may not do justice for the band’s impressive catalogue, but song choices were really interesting. Both shows had identical set lists; starting in a moody mode with restricted blue spotlights and the ecstatic “Windowpane”, soon changing to a more heavier storming for the rest of the show. As an extra service for the fans, three unexpected songs were performed: Helsinki was written in the Opeth history as the place where “Reverie/Harlequin Forest”, “White Cluster” and “Hex Omega” were played live for the very first time ever. In Helsinki, we heard one of the trademark questions of Mikael Åkerfeldt in connection to their gigs in Finland: Should he use English or Swedish? The former was chosen, again. In Stockholm, the band’s home town, selection was natural, and Mikael appeared somewhat more serious than usual. When I met Mikael afterwards, he admitted that also for him it was rather exciting to appear in front of the home public and lots of familiar faces.

The close relationships between Opeth and Dream Theater, especially those of Åkerfeldt and Portnoy, have been reported several times in media. Åkerfeldt mentioned again that seeing Dream Theater in Stockholm during their Awake tour in 1995 is still one of his greatest concert memories. I can well understand this comment, while seeing the band in the Tavastia club in Helsinki during the same tour, which was a mind-blowing evening and got me seriously hooked with the band for several years afterwards.

By the way, Mikael was really surprised to hear that DT had really played in such a small place as Tavastia. And yes, tour after tour, the audiences of Dream Theater have become bigger and bigger. And even though the latest two albums have been somewhat less interesting and innovative than many of their predecessors, DT concerts are always top-of-the-line experiences. Also this time, both in Helsinki and Stockholm. The band also included two songs from the masterfully crafted Awake album in both shows. In Helsinki, we heard “Erotomania” and “Voices” and the Stockholm crowd was served with “the Mirror” + “Lie”, one of the heaviest, grooviest and gloomiest metal song pairs out there. In overall, Portnoy’s idea of playing remarkably different setlists in subsequent shows was this time very true. Of course a massive numbers of good pieces have to be left out in such a short set, in DT terms, but Helsinki and Stockholm lists formed a very varied collection of songs, which seemed to receive really good response from the audience (that in Stockholm was a bit smaller than in my earlier DT visits to Hovet). Quite rare moments were also experienced in Stockholm, when the PA crashed three times during the “Dance of Eternity”, leaving Portnoy a bit unsecure about the continuation of the set. But the problem was soon fixed and, as many times for big bands, the incident just added an extra flavour to the show. As a dressing on the cake, I also managed to shake hands with John Petrucci just before their performance. He warned about his guitar amplifiers positioned backstage being particularly loud. Oh my goodness, they really were loud...

Warm thanks to Esa for being such a good host in Stockholm and to other people in the Bigelf, Opeth and DT teams who I had a pleasure to meet.

TMK

---

SETLISTS

BIGELF

Helsinki: The Evils of Rock & Roll, Neuropsychopathic Eye, Pain Killers, Madhatter, Blackball, Disappear, Money Machine

Stockholm: The Evils of Rock & Roll, Madhatter, Blackball, Money Machine

OPETH

Helsinki & Stockholm: Windowpane, The Lotus Eater, Reverie/Harlequin Forest, White Cluster, Deliverance, Hex Omega

DREAM THEATER

Helsinki: A Nightmare To Remember, A Rite Of Passage, Hollow Years, Erotomania, Voices, Forsaken, The Spirit Carries On, As I Am, The Count Of Tuscany (encore)

Stockholm: A Nightmare To Remember, The Mirror, Lie, Keyboard Solo, Sacrificed Sons, Wither, The Dance of Eternity, One Last Time, Forsaken, The Name Of God, The Count Of Tuscany (encore)

Fans at Children of Bodom gig Sept 2009

Heavy Metal and Gender, international congress

An interesting event:

Heavy Metal and Gender
Internationaler Kongress
8-10. Oktober 2009
Hochschule für Musik und Tanz
Köln

http://www.metalandgender.de/

Nightwish Dark Passion Play tour grande finale in Helsinki 19.9.2009

The Dark Passion Play World Tour of Nightwish kicked-off in October 2007 and comprised 194 shows in 39 different countries. On September 19th, it was time to conclude the long journey at the sold out Hartwall Arena in Helsinki. The special atmosphere of the final show, preceding a two years tour break and anticipation of the new album, was tangible both backstage and among the audience. The show had drawn fans from various countries to Finland. Perhaps the most visible group appeared at the corner of the stage on the lower part of the auditorium, tirelessly cheering and waving their Italian, Spanish and French flags. The crowd further back appeared slightly passive in the first part of the set, but warmed up significantly towards the end of the show. Spectator waves revolving around the Arena, easily ignited by Marco Hietala, and the impressive light sea during the “Islander” and “Walking in the Air” were the atmospheric highlights of the evening.

The band played another great gig with flawless and powerful expertise. In specific, the sovereign appearance of Marco Hietala was striking. In this special night, the Finnish violin virtuoso Pekka Kuusisto guest appeared on the stage during the “While Your Lips Are Still Red” and surely added an extra dimension to the beautiful song. Troy Donockley joined the band playing pipe and bagpipe in several songs, as in some of their earlier shows. Special was also the appearance of “Meadows of Heaven” in the set list, reportedly for the first time ever. Perhaps this piece was intentionally saved for this specific occasion, but surely would that song have been warmly welcomed by the audiences in earlier shows as well. Visually, the show was expectedly grand and included the familiar DPP stage design with the massive anchor and the wooden boat of Tuomas Holopainen. Additional fireworks and pyrotechnics highlighted the special nature of the evening. In overall, this was really a high profile ending for the most successful period in the band’s history.

Apocalyptica featured as the opener and filled their spot with high reliability, intense playing and powerful sounds – no need to constant apologizing, which seemed to be their main theme in their interim comments. Antti “Hyrde” Hyyrynen from Stam1na was this time manning the vocal parts of “I’m Not Jesus” and “I Don’t Care”.

Once again, BogFires want to thank the Nightwish staff, especially Adam, for their hospitality.

Nightwish setlist:

Finlandia (with Troy Donockley) (Intro)
7 Days to the Wolves
Ever Dream
Wishmaster
Romanticide
Amaranth
The Siren (with Pekka Kuusisto on violin)
While Your Lips Are Still Red (with Pekka Kuusisto on violin)
The Poet and The Pendulum
Nemo
Sahara
Dark Chest of Wonders
The Islander (with Troy Donockley)
Walking in the Air (Acoustic with Troy Donockley)
Last of The Wilds (w/ Troy Donockley)
Meadows of Heaven
Encore:
Ghost Love Score
Wish I Had An Angel
The Heart Asks Pleasure First (Outro)

BogFires Asian Tour

BogFires go Asia in October to attend two conferences and present research papers there:

IASDR 2009 October 18-22. Seoul, South Korea:

• Karjalainen, Toni-Matti; Laaksonen, Laura & Ainamo, Antti (2009). Design for b(r)and identity: Exploring visual concept building within the metal music genre. IASDR 2009. October 18-22. Seoul, South Korea.
• Laaksonen, Laura; Karjalainen, Toni-Matti & Ainamo, Antti (2009). Understanding Cultural Exports- Finnish heavy metal music in the United States. IASDR 2009. October 18-22. Seoul, South Korea.

DeSForM 2009 October 26-27 2009. Taipei, Taiwan:

• Karjalainen, Toni-Matti; Laaksonen, Laura & Ainamo, Antti (2009). Occult, a Tooth, and the Canopy of the Sky: Conceptualizing Visual Meaning Creation of Heavy Metal Bands. DeSForM 2009. October 26-27 2009. Taipei, Taiwan.

... and to attend Loud Park (incl. Children of Bodom) and V-Rock (incl. Negative) festivals in Tokyo.

Musiikkiala 2009 -selvitys

A review on Finnish music industry "Musiikkiala 2009" (in Finnish) by Digital Media Oy:
http://www.digitalmedia.fi/main.site?action=siteupdate/view&id=5

7th Triennial Conference of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music

Interesting conference with over 300 participants from 35 different countries:

7th Triennial Conference of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music
University of Jyväskylä, Finland
August 12-16, 2009

http://www.jyu.fi/hum/laitokset/musiikki/en/escom2009

Sonisphere travel report - Pori, July 25 2009

Metallica brought its Sonisphere caravan to their fifth spot, the city of Pori in the southwest corner of Finland. The one day festival gathered 60.000 guests to the Kirjurinluoto Arena, normally used for the annual Jazz festivals, making the day the biggest ticketed rock event ever held in Finland (a record to be broken today with Madonna’s first visit to our country) and almost doubling the population of Pori for a short time.

Because of the massive crowd in the relatively small city, visitors and habitants were told to be prepared for long queues and lack of parking places in the nearby area. I started my drive early in the morning from Vantaa, and when arriving in Pori around eleven, the place was still rather quiet. I managed to leave the car next to the area, right by the Raumansilta, and face practically no queuing at the entrance. A couple of hours later, it was already a different story.

Los Bastardos Finlandeses, the group of Finnish hard rock veterans, kicked off the festival on the second stage at the noon. The laid back set was a good start for the day, but did not arouse big movement in the still scarce audience. Right after the LBF, Mastodon opened the main stage, and the atmosphere slightly suffered from the lack of people. At the same time, it was nice to get close to the stage and enjoy the gig without any rush, which was mostly impossible with later bands on the main stage. Despite the early slot, the band performed an energetic (but short) set, but the bright daylight and big stage is not a perfect setting for their complex songs. The setlist was quite balanced with songs from the recent “Crack The Sky” album, including the opener “Oblivion”, the great title song and the majestic “Czar”, and a compilation of older tunes. After seeing Mastodon recently warming for Metallica, Slayer and Iron Maiden, which cannot provide the best conditions for the opening band, I would really like to see them playing a full set, preferably in a smaller club.

Mastodon early starting time may have come as a surprise for many visitors who consequently missed the band. And yes, the organizers’ decision not to publish a precise program on the web before the event was not only strange but also a major shortcoming. And this discomfort was further crusted by not displaying or handing out the program in the area itself, except for those “info packs” priced 5 Euros (and that version even had the cancelled Anthrax on the bill). This really looked like a desperate attempt to cash some additional revenues. Otherwise, the schedule was nicely constructed, so that it was able to see all the bands with no overlapping or major waiting times, and all the bands started their sets in time.

Back to the second stage that next hosted the Finnish group Nicole. I experienced the band live for the first time and was not very familiar with their material anyway. And what a positive surprise it was. Their powerful songs combined with technical and precise playing seemingly had reached a good body of devoted listeners. This is definitely a band worth checking out.

Lamb of God had already gathered a large crowd by the main stage. Seeing the LOG gig for the third time this year, the show did not offer any surprises and was rather mundane compared to their blasting performance in Frostbite in January. A minor extra interest was provided by Buz McGrath, a guitarist from the Boston metal band Unearth, replacing Mark Morton who had flown to Virginia for the birth of his first child. McGrath filled his shoes with no problems. While the band was barging on the stage with Randy’s typical gyrating presence and know-how of Finnish curse words, the audience in the first section played their part and performed the usual LOG rituals in the form of large circle pit and the wall of death. The latter made the policemen and security guards on their heightened platform seemingly a bit nervous.

The small stage next witnessed the Finnish Diablo who gave the audience a rather standard show with good humor and selection of headbanging songs of high quality. However, as is the case quite often with the band, the sounds were a bit scruffy and somehow mute, for instance compared to more crispy and intense Nicole.

The next large US band on the main stage, Machine Head offered nothing specific to remember. The lack of strong songs and out-of-tune singing of Flynn left somewhat empty feeling, although the band was loud and passionate as usually. The set ended earlier than intended with some dramatics as the guitarist Phil Demmel passed out after some 30 minutes of playing, which forced the band to end the set with apologies. Demmel then walked from the stage with his own feed and was reported to be fine.

The Finnish Turisas was replacing Anthrax who, due to their singer problems, have cancelled their tour including the Pori show. Although missing the representative of the legendary Big Four of the Bay Area thrash scene must have been a disappointment for many visitors, Turisas gathered a surprisingly large and active crowd for their folk/Viking/battle/whatever metal. However, this setting was not my cup of tea. It was also a bit strange that the short slot was covered with lots of speaking and courting with the audience, with the overly extended version of their “Rasputin” cover, leaving the setlist quite stump. However, credits must be given for their professional and flawless playing despite of such a short notice and little practice.

Linkin Park was a strange choice to the Sonisphere bill to start with, and their halfhearted, boring, and distant hit list may have provided the fans with some good moments, but for most of the Metallica-expecting audience the show was probably a meaningless intermission performance.

LP worked fine as background music, so it was time to test the food services in the festival area. And yes, as complained by many, they were too few, resulting in long lines and stupid waiting times. Moreover, there were no veggie options available – somebody had seen something inside the beer area where the beer desks were also reportedly plentiful. So quite likely many of the visitors went fighting their hunger with the malt soup instead of decent food. Another target of complaints was the too few female toilets with long queues, but everything worked on the men’s side. Most flaws may be excused for the large crowd, as was also the slow exit from the area, but these aspects (and the program info!) should be improved if the festival is to be arranged in Pori in the future.

Before Metallica, Saxon closed the second floor with their sortiment of new songs and old NWOBHM classics. Most of the people were already securing their places by the main stage, leaving the front of the small stage half empty. This did not prevent the Saxon fans, with the average age clearly the highest of the day, from enjoying the familiar and safe offering of Biff Byford and the gang.

And then, the Kirjurinluoto Arena transformed to a very different place, as Metallica entered the stage. The guys had already served the Finns with nice two gigs in Helsinki in June, but the response seemed and sounded like the band hadn’t played here for years. This time the stage setting was an ordinary one, instead of the clever and specific circle stage design with lasers and pyros witnessed in their inhouse arena tour. However, the pyros were high and the lights got very powerful and impressive, as the night darkened along with the show. The guys were in good humor, Hetfield made his familiar comments, Lars playing was inaccurate now and then, so nothing new under the sun. But somehow the show felt extraordinary; certainly one of the best Metallica shows, if not the best, I’ve witnessed. Big part of this great experience was made by the wonderful audience constantly making noise, keeping hands towards the sky, and singing the songs out loud. Their participation was enhanced by the well-balanced set list, giving less weight to the new songs as in Helsinki shows. Even the occasional light rain brought an extra dimension to the show, at least visually. Otherwise, weather was mostly cloudy and a bit chilly with wind throughout the day, with some short moments of sunshine however.

After spending an hour before being able to get back to the Raumansilta bridge that obviously formed the hardest bottleneck for such a mass, I was able to start driving back to South. The unbroken sand slow moving stream of cars on the normally empty roads 2 to south and 11 to east added another memorable flavor to the day. The first 24H open ABC station in Tampere was unsurprisingly packed with metal heads on their way home. I grabbed a large mug of coffee and headed south in the already lightening Finnish summer night that faded to black only few hours ago.

TMK

Photos: TMK

http://fi.sonispherefestival.net/

Metallica set list:

Battery
Creeping Death
Fuel
Harvester Of Sorrow
Fade To Black
Broken, Beat And Scarred
Cyanide
Sad But True
One
All Nightmare Long
The Day That Never Comes
Master Of Puppets
Blackened
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman
Encore:
Stone Cold Crazy (Queen cover)
Motorbreath
Seek & Destroy

Graspop metal meeting (GMM) June 26-28

Bogfires visited the famous Graspop Metal meeting in Belgium, June 26.-29.2009. The Graspop festival was first organized in year 1986 as a local pop festival. In 1993-1994 Bob Schumacher joined forces with the original organizers and together they changed the format into a genuine metal festival. Over two decades later Graspop is one of the biggest and famous metal festivals in Europe, and in the course of its history over 250 bands have performed in the festival, including the biggest names in the metal genre, such as Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath, Slayer, Megadeath, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and so on. This year’s headliners were Mötley Crüe, Slipknot, Marilyn Manson and Nightwish. Besided Nightwish the only Finnish band performing at Graspop was Children of Bodom. Both Finnish acts had their gigs on Sunday, so we had plenty of time to check out the other interesting bands, such as Heaven & Hell, Down and Mötley Crüe on Friday and Delain, Kataklysm, Volbeat, Journey and Slipknot on Saturday. Journey, an American band that was formed in the early 70’s by former members of Santana, was alive and well, with their new singer, Arnel Pineda from Philipines. The band had found the singer on YouTube singing covers of Journey songs. Interestingly, all Children of Bodom members were really excited to see Journey’s show on Saturday. The headliner Slipknot played a solid show with no surprises. On Sunday, Lamb of God had an early slot at one in the afternoon, but once again put up an energetic and sharp performance. Other interesting shows on Sunday were Suicidal Tendencies and Chicken foot, an all star line-up with members from Van Halen, Red Hot Chili Peppers and maestro Satriani on the guitar. Nightwish performed on the main stage before the official headliner Marilyn Manson at eight on Sunday evening. Their hour and a half set list differed a little from the previous festival appearance in Finland, featuring for example Ghost Love Score from Once and title track Wishmaster. Children of Bodom had a later slot, headlining the second stage (a tent) at ten. This is how the band bassist Henkka describes his experiences of Graspop on the band website: “Sunday was sort a reunion feeling, when Lamb Of God and God Forbid was playing too. And Suicidal. Saturday we managed to get to the festival in time to see Journey. We played on Sunday, and the tent was really hot. But the crowd was amazing. Best Graspop show ever for us”. Bogfires would like to thank COB and Nightwish for their generosity and hospitality once again.

COB, NW & HIM mentioned in the metal history of the Classic Rock mag

The British "Classic Rock" magazine writes the story of metal in its Summer 2009 (#134) issue. Of the Finns are represented the big three:

Children Of Bodom's "Sixpounder" and Nightwish's "Wish I Was An Angel" (?!? wrong name doesn't necessarily improve the credibility...;) are mentioned as "songs that forged metal" from 2000 onwards (among with nine other songs from Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, In Flames, Disturbed, Opeth, System Of A Down, Immortal, Clutch, and Mastodon).

HIM in turn is briefly mentioned as one of the "five goth metal bands inspired by the sound of the Sisters Of Mercy (with Lacuna Coil, Type O Negative, Rammstein, and Marilyn Manson - hmm...).

Descriptions:

Sixpounder - Children Of Bodom (p.71)
"This Finnish band really broke out into the international scene with the Hate Crew Deathroll album. And "Sixpounder" is a definitive example of why it happened. The fierce extremity of old is still in evidence, but it has been given a new coat of classic metal values. The song roars right in your face, but it also still possesses sufficient finesse to be more than just musical concrete. It's got class."

Wish I Had An Angel - Nightwish (p. 71)
"More than any other song, this is the best example of the way that Nightwish could combine their goth-metal music with the soaring operatic vocals of Tarja Turunen., and encapsulate it all in what is essentially a finely tuned pop song. There's a charismatic sensibility here, overcoming any uneasiness in the increasingly fractured relationship between singer and band. This suggests what might have been had they remainded together."

HIM (p.70)
"Goth imagery + Bon Jovi-esque stadium rock powerchords x dandy frontman = pant-moistening superstardom. Download: Join Me In Death"

Hmm, hmm, hmm...

TMK @ Schiphol Airport

Heavy metal in Seoul

As noted already during my earlier visits to Seoul, the Korean metal circles seem to be very small, or at least it is very difficult to find information about gigs, bands or anything. Foreign bands seem to rarely visit the country, and local concerts are scarce as well.

There is, however, a special event called"Asia Metal Festival 2009" taking place in the Rolling Hall this Saturday (unfortunately after I've left the city), but without any bigger names on the list: http://www.myspace.com/asiametalfestival.

According to the locals, the music market here is dominated by local pop artists and bands. CD sales are marginal, as most of the music is downloaded from the web (with the exception of classical music). A visit to the music department of the Kyobo bookstore in Gwanghwamun, practically the only decent CD shop I've found, however reveals that there is a relatively good collection of metal CDs from better known foreign bands available. The brand new "Black Clouds & Silver Linings" album of Dream Theater is currently the only metal album visibly advertised, positioned on the 5th place in the store's list and accompanied with an article in the "Hottracks" music magazine. Probably the band's 2006 concert in Seoul is still paying off.

The only Finnish representatives in the store are Nightwish, Sonata Arctica and HIM, the last mentioned with the widest selection of albums, as well as a T-shirt, available.

And talking about metal T-shirts, they are extremely rarely worn on the streets. Only one from Black Sabbath spotted...

TMK

SAUNA OPEN AIR 2009 report

BogFires @ SAUNA OPEN AIR 2009
June 5-7
http://www.sauna-open-air.fi/

BogFires put another ethnographic precision whack into practice at the Sauna Open Air Metalfest in Tampere Finland. This three day festival at the city centre gathered lots of folk especially on Saturday (reportedly 10.000) and Sunday (8.000), even though the weather was not exactly the best possible this year.

On Friday, the day started with Amorphis at three o’clock in the afternoon. Not the best possible slot for the recent number 1 at the Finnish official chart with their brand new “Skyforger” album. As we were later told by Jouni Markkanen from King Foo, the band’s management agency, this deal was done with the organizers in order to attract more early comers to the festival area. This seemed to work, as surprisingly large crowd had gathered at the front of the main stage. The band understandably had to suffer from some technical and audio problems in the beginning, but once they were solved, vigorous sound and the nice mixture of old and new songs were well received by the audience. The band played three songs from the Skyforger album: “Sampo”, “Silver Bride” and “Majestic Beast”, from which especially the last mentioned piece of art with the Opeth-like passages, beautifully structured bridges and the melodic chorus pounded the Tavastian sky like the blacksmith Ilmarinen himself. The closing piece “House of Sleep” caused the biggest movement on the slightly muddy field of the Tampere South Park.

Of the Finnish export trumps, the day’s closer Apocalyptica played a convincing and professional show for the already a bit cold-stiffened crowd. As already familiar from many earlier Apo gigs, Tony Kakko of Sonata Arctica visited the stage to sing the few vocal pieces.

Earlier, Sauna was entertained by Duff McKagan’s Loaded whose rather monotone offering was seemingly revitalized as Michael Monroe, the perpetual motion machine of the recently docked Hanoi Rocks, vaulted onstage to sing few GN'R oldies with the band. The main stage also featured the Swedish Soilwork, whose acute yet unsurprising show was carried out with good energy.

On the second stage, the best mood was created by the good-humoured Viikate and the rigorous Medeia. Medeia was replacing Meshuggah, whose cancellation (due to Thomas Haake’s not yet healed back) was a huge disappointment to many, including the BogFires team. However, the band filled the empty hole in an excellent way. Their tight songs and precise playing must be admired. Especially the guitar mining of Samuli Peltola was impressing.

Saturday was primarily spent in anticipation of the evening’s stars, the mighty Mötley Crüe. The performances of Poisonblack, Hammerfall, and Finntroll caused some mild quiver in the constellation of erected index and little fingers, but the true wake-up surge was served by the Sunset Strip saints. The opening triple, almost a perfect one, ”Kickstart My Heart”, “Wild Side” and “Shout at the Devil”, was followed by a set of the band’s old classics and songs from the latest album. The audience, which was presumably the biggest one in Sauna’s history, went absolutely crazy in nostalgia. And the band was seemingly enjoying the atmosphere as well, not least the reckless the Duracell bunny Tommy Lee who spent considerable time in chatting with the audience. After the 1.5 hours show, the night was sealed by “Home Sweet Home” that, at least in the front part of the crowd, resembled an ecstatic community singing session.

Sunday, a day with constant sunshine, was kicked-off by Kotiteollisuus that, similarly to Amorphis, was probably placed as an early act to get people wander towards the park and populate the beer stalls early enough. Hynynen, Hongisto and Sinkkonen, as usual, were in good humour and the first mentioned spent lots of time talking (or merely bitching) to the audience about its dumbness and stupid metal manners. It was an amusing start for the day. The down-to-earth and unaffected style of Kotiteollisuus was heavily contradicted by many of the later performers. The multinational Kamelot, in turn, played a surprisingly big show with pyrotechnics and their theatrical songs, which people really seemed to like.

The newly started Finnish veterans Stratovarius were as much liked, and the new chap in the gang, guitarist Matias Kupiainen seemed to well fill the big boots of Timo Tolkki. The band supplied a standard set of its swift power metal, but brought nothing new under the Tavastian sun.

On the small stage, Omnium Gatherum served its basic but rather monotonous death metal with a bit over the top gestures. The Swedish Bullet with their AC/DC-influenced basic rock with a cheerful attitude generated lots of smiling faces at the field, but the Canadian long-term show group Thor only made an annoying impact at least on the BogFires team.

Finally, the festival was wrapped up by Nightwish. These tireless itinerants are approaching the grande finale of their massive sequence of world touring in the Dark Passion Play style, but the miles seem to show up in the bands’ stage appearance only in a positive way. The sounds and accuracy of playing was namely flawless. The band, especially Anette, was conspicuously enjoying the appearance to their Finnish fans who, reciprocally, cheered the band with lots of sympathy. Even the surprising event of Marco totally forgetting the lyrics of the “Islander”, his own offspring, turned out to be a mood lifter rather than flattener and a strong sign of the band’s deep appreciation. Marco’s blooper made the band to start the song over again, still followed by minor lyrical blackouts, this time safely backed-up by Anette. Anette, according to her own comment, had again made a misjudgment concerning her outfit. Indeed, the shorts were not a good idea in the freezing wind of Sunday evening.

Otherwise, the show with the standard DPB visual setting, beautiful pyros and other decorations did not offer any surprises, particularly after seeing the band several times recently. The set list was also quite expected, including: “7 Days To The Wolves, Dead To The World, The Siren, Amaranth, Romanticide, The Poet And The Pendulum, Nemo, Sahara, Islander, Last Of The Wilds, Dark Chest of Wonders, I Wish I Had An Angel”. The set was coloured with the guest appearance of Irish Troy Donockley whose bagpipe brought a gorgeous add-on to “Last Of The Wilds”, “Islander” and the beautifully woven opening hymn “Finlandia”. An elegant closing to the three days of sonic delight.

TMK

The Rise of Finnish Heavy Metal: A Survey of Finnish Heavy Metal and its Export to North America

Wyatt Marshall, a friend of BogFires, wrote an interesting paper as his course work at the Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, USA. With his permission, we publish the text below.

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The Rise of Finnish Heavy Metal: A Survey of Finnish Heavy Metal and its Export to North America

By Wyatt Marshall

A small European nation intersected by the Arctic Circle, typically known abroad as the home of the cell phone giant Nokia, can safely add heavy metal music as a component of its national identity. Finland, as the native land of internationally successful and critically acclaimed heavy metal acts such as HIM, Children of Bodom, and Nightwish, has truly become what a recent documentary following the rise of Finnish metal music has called the “Promised Land of Heavy Metal.” Finland’s heavy metal bands feature musicians who are often classically trained and write exceedingly complex compositions, and their talents and efforts are regularly rewarded with top spots on Finnish charts. Although in Finland heavy metal rests comfortably within the parameters of mainstream music, internationally Finnish metal bands cater to a niche audience and compete for market share with heavy metal bands of other nationalities. An examination of export techniques and strategies for the North American market employed by Finnish heavy metal bands and Finnish music and art industry support organizations showcases the ways in which Finland has marketed its heavy metal as a uniquely Finnish cultural product with remarkable results.

Finland’s heavy metal has been exported in a variety of formats that reflect the complexities of the amorphous music industry. Although traditional cornerstones of the music industry such as touring and sales of compact discs remain staples of the business, an increasingly diverse range of alternate income sources are available to bands and record labels seeking to reach consumers. Digital media downloads, web stores that sell band merchandise to fans anywhere in the world, licensing deals with instrument manufacturers to create signature models named after bands’ stars, and even downloadable ring tones for cell phones are all ways in which bands can monetize their music [1]. Finnish heavy metal bands have embraced both these newly emerging methods of monetizing their product as well as the more traditional approaches.

Measuring their success at doing so, however, can be difficult. Musex (Music Export Finland), an organization comprised of a number of companies and organizations that “facilitate the marketing, promotion, and sales of Finnish popular music abroad” provides some comprehensive data for the export of Finnish music. For the purpose of gauging the export of Finnish heavy metal to North America, a 2007 study published by Musex in which forty-nine record labels and industry-related organizations were surveyed offers some insight. Within the survey, record labels reported that North America accounted for fourteen percent of total export sales in 2007. Furthermore, seventeen percent of these companies believed that North America was their most important export region in 2007, up from fourteen percent in 2006 [2]. Assuming that labels featuring heavy metal bands were fairly represented in the study, North America became an increasingly attractive market for record labels seeking to promote heavy metal bands over the 2006-2007 period.

Touring schedules of Finnish heavy metal bands in North America over the past few years appear to confirm the increasing importance of the region in bands’ efforts to export and reap profits from their music. Touring is an effective method of spreading interest in a band and a successful tour will result in increased album sales and additional opportunities to gain market share in the region toured. Though touring can serve as a means to make inroads into a given market, touring is also important as a profitable venture in and of itself through sales of tickets and merchandise at merchandise booths. The Musex study of 2007 reports that twenty four percent of record labels believe touring will be the most profitable method of monetizing their bands’ music in the future. Toni-Matti Karjalainen, a researcher at the Helsinki School of Economics studying the Finnish heavy metal industry, has similarly suggested that “touring is an even more important measure of attention than album sales in metal, and increasingly important as album sales are generally diminishing" [3]. As Karjalainen and respondents to the Musex study indicate, touring remains a secure way to monetize music in the face of rising concerns about piracy and the difficulties it presents to the traditional music market.

Measuring venue capacities played by bands serves as an effective method of gauging a band’s success in penetrating a given market [4]. Over the past few years, Finnish heavy metal bands have toured the North American market extensively and have played larger venues on each successive tour, either as headliners or as support for popular American metal bands. Finnish metal pioneers Amorphis, for example, headlined a tour in 2005 supported by three bands and played twenty-nine dates at venues with an average capacity of 864 occupants. Amorphis’ follow-up 2008 headlining tour featured a more focused schedule of nineteen dates also with support from three bands and visited venues with an average capacity of 1096 occupants. The decreased number of tour dates and larger venues seems to reflect a better understanding by Amorphis’ tour managers of Amorphis’ position in the North American market and points to a more efficient allocation of resources.

While Amorphis has headlined smaller venues, the more commercially successful and musically extreme Finnish heavy metal band Children of Bodom have played in support of popular American metal bands at bigger venues on larger “blockbuster” tours. Over three tours, two in 2006 and one in 2009, Children of Bodom played venues with average capacities of 1402, 9636, and 3843 persons respectively. Children of Bodom played as second support in the first and third tours and as third support during the second tour, therefore either playing in an increasingly prominent spot on the billing order or before a larger audience on each successive tour. Although by playing as support Children of Bodom would receive a smaller percentage of the pooled revenue from tour ticket sales, the opportunity to play before larger crowds presents an attractive trade-off for a band seeking greater market share. To date, the highly successful “love metal” band HIM has been the only Finnish heavy metal band capable of playing large venues as a headliner. On their most recent tour in 2007, HIM played thirty-two dates at venues with an average capacity of 1967 persons.

Finnish heavy metal bands’ increasing success at penetrating the North American market and the global market generally has been due to a number of factors. Many credit the extremely high quality of Finnish heavy metal bands for their success abroad and critics typically praise their technical proficiency [5]. Also, the majority of Finnish heavy metal bands sing in English, thereby making their music accessible to a much wider audience than if they sang in their native language. Although these qualities undoubtedly appeal to consumers of heavy metal music, the uniqueness of Finnish metal comes through in the discernible traces of Finnish culture that color it.

Critics and musicians have a tendency to wax poetic when describing the elements of Finnish heavy metal that distinguish it from metal of other nationalities. An article published by the Finnish Music Information Centre entitled “It’s So Heavy to be a Finn,” explains the unique qualities of the Finnish landscape and Finnish identity that shape Finnish heavy metal:
But what is it that makes Finnish metal so unique? Anyone interested in the answer should dig deep into the snow and live the long, dark cold winter. They should also look for the answer in the woods, behind the trees. And do not forget the Slavic melancholy, either. For when the somber Finnish mentality meets yearning melodies, the result is something you’re not going to get elsewhere. [6]

Although the inspiration for Finnish heavy music is doubtlessly important for the individual listener who appreciates the music, Finnish metal bands have managed to successfully turn the inspiration for their music into a largely genre-defining and marketable characteristic. By focusing on unique elements of Finnish culture, Finnish metal bands, their record labels, and organizations that support them have separated Finnish metal bands from competitors in other subsets of the heavy metal genre.

An ongoing study at the Helsinki School of Economics and funded by the Academy of Finland entitled “BogFires” seeks to understand the ways in which Finnish heavy metal bands have marketed themselves using such techniques [7]. A large component of the study focuses on analyzing “concept building,” and in particular the ways in which Finnish heavy metal bands have drawn upon elements of Finnish culture to distinguish themselves in the heavy metal market, with the result that a “collective ‘Finnish Metal’” genre has emerged [8].

The BogFires project has thus far focused on the band Amorphis as a case study and studies their consistent use of Finnish cultural heritage as inspiration for their artistic concept. The research analyzes how the development of a concept, which is evident in musical tonality, lyrical themes, band artwork as found in CD booklets, and band image in terms of personal appearance onstage and in the media can be helpful in terms of marketing a heavy metal band as a unique identity that distinguishes itself from and surpasses the simple understanding of a musical group. Amorphis’ front man and lead guitarist Esa Holopainen, who has drawn upon the Finnish national epic the Kalevala for inspiration in his band concept, believes that the Kalevala concept has made a difference for Amorphis’ success in US and Japanese markets. The study, though in its preliminary stages, has also concluded that “tentative observations suggest that a considerable share of [Finnish metal bands’ international success] is based on the distinctive musical and visual concepts [Finnish metal bands] have created and communicated" [9].

Their successes have been actively supported by a number of Finnish organizations that promote the spread of Finnish music, and by extension Finnish culture, in a variety of ways. Particularly in the wake of the acclaimed monster-rock group Lordi’s victory at the 2006 Eurovision song contest, Finns have embraced their affinity for and talents in heavy metal. Musex, for its part, organizes and participates in trade conferences around the world in efforts to raise awareness about Finnish music and regularly promotes heavy metal bands. The Finnish Music Information Centre likewise seeks to spread Finnish music abroad and publishes a number of articles for the purpose of doing so both on its website and in print. Each year since 2006, the Finnish Music Information Centre and Musex have collaborated to publish a promotional collection of CDs entitled “Come hear. Finland.” [10]

The most recent edition featured four CDs, with one entire disc being devoted to metal music and another to rock music. There are also a number of governmental and non-governmental organizations that offer grants to artists of all kinds, and metal musicians have received grants alongside classical and folk musicians. The Finnish Performing Music Promotion Centre, ESEK, for example, has “awarded grants to hard rock/heavy metal bands quite often” [11]. Also worthy of note is RockPolis Oulu, an organization in the Central Finland city of Oulu funded by the Council of Oulu Region (EU) and the City of Oulu that seeks to guide aspiring heavy metal bands to commercial success with tips and guidance as to how to conduct themselves in the commercial music marketplace [12][13]. RockPolis Oulu also aims at development of the Oulu music industry as an alternative to the dominant music region in Southern Finland centered on Helsinki. The organization is particularly intriguing for study due to its focus on regional development, its grassroots approach, and its specialization in heavy metal that recognizes the importance of heavy metal in the Finnish music industry and Finnish culture.

With an active support structure in place, Finnish heavy metal bands look to enjoy continuing prosperity going forward. The focus on “Finnishness” in Finnish heavy metal, seems to only strengthen Finnish metal bands’ international prospects. Foreign markets, such as the North American market, have found the stylistic, tonal, lyrical, and visual concepts presented by Finnish heavy metal bands to be appealing alternatives to those put forward by heavy metal bands from America and other countries. The Finnish response to their newfound successes with heavy metal has also been remarkable. Although world-famous heavy metal festivals have filled public parks in downtown Helsinki for years, the success of Lordi at the Eurovision song contest has served as a unifying force in Finland that has helped shape national identity. In the “Promised Land of Heavy Metal,” one of the directors of the documentary asks Finnish President Tarja Halonen whether she minds that along with Finland’s pristine nature, technology, and high level of education, Finland is now also known internationally as the home country of Lordi. [14] Without hesitation she replies, “Do I mind? I love it.” With the president on board and recognizant of the importance of Finnish heavy metal in Finland, Finnish heavy metal has officially made it. Finnish heavy metal has taken Finland and the world heavy metal market by storm and it does not appear to be leaving anytime soon.

References
[1] Musex: Music Export Finland, “Market Value Research 2007,” http://www.musex.fi. (=Market Value 2007) See “Total Market Value and Structure of Finnish Music Exports in 2007” for a detailed breakdown of ways in which bands receive income.
[2] Other countries reported to be increasingly important export regions over the 2006-2007 period include Germany and the UK. The gains were offset by losses in perceived market potential in Japan, Sweden, Russia, and Others. It is noteworthy that the regions listed, with the exception of Others which defies analysis, are markets traditionally favorable to heavy metal. The focus on these regions suggests that heavy metal is significant in Musex’s study of Finnish music export value. Market Value 2007.
[3] Toni-Matti Karjalainen, e-mail message to author, April 28, 2009.
[4] David Throsby, Economics and Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 113. Throsby recognizes that measuring the output of an artistic activity can be difficult, but suggests that in the performing arts “output might be measured in different circumstances as the number of performances staged by a theatre company over some time period, the number of seats available or sold for a symphony concert series, or box office revenue for an opera or musical production.” In the absence of information about the box office revenue for specific tours, I have turned to venue capacity to gauge the value of a tour. Venue capacity, unlike total tour revenue, also has the added benefit of providing a sense of the amount of exposure a band receives on a given tour. Venue capacity data was obtained either from venue web sites or confirmed across multiple news outlets. Tour schedules were obtained either from band websites or confirmed across multiple heavy metal news websites.
[5] Gary Sharpe-Young, author of Metal: The Definitive Guide, writes that “…many [Finnish metal bands] are of such high quality that they have made serious inroads into the global market.” In profiles of individual bands in his encyclopedic book, he praises the talents particular to each band. Gary Sharpe-Young, Metal: The Definitive Guide (London: Jawbone Press, 2007), 390.
[6] Matti Riekki, “It’s so Heavy to Be a Finn,” trans. Tero Valkonen, Finnish Music Information Centre, http://www.fimic.fi/.
[7] BogFires Research Project, “Heavy Metal Bands as Entrepreneurs, Cultural Export, Finnish Identity,” http://bogfires.blogspot.com/.
[8] Toni-Matti Karjalainen, “Analyzing Concept Building and Visual Communication within Heavy Metal Music (Forging the Canopy of the Sky),” (paper presented at the 8th NORDCODE Seminar & Workshop Program, Kolding, Denmark, May 27-29, 2009).
[9] Karjalainen, Concept Building.
[10] Finnish Music Information Center, “FIMIC Publications on Finnish Popular Music,” http://www.fimic.fi/.
[11] Leena Hirvonen, e-mail message to the author, May 25, 2009. Unfortunately at the time of writing this I am waiting on a list of band names from Ms. Hirvonen, an employee of Gramex Finland, the parent organization of ESEK. It is currently around the date that all grant applications are due and she is very busy. How often metal bands apply for grants, however, is uncertain and is a subject of further study; Mr. Karjalainen has suggested that “many people in the [heavy metal] field that we have talked with [in the Bogfires study] are quite negative towards governmental support in general [due to the fact that] it ‘distorts’ competition and selection is not necessarily made on the basis of the bands’ musical qualities…” Toni-Matti Karjalainen, e-mail message to the author, May 29, 2009.
[12] RockPolis, “Info in English,” http://www.rockpolis.fi/.
[13] Matthew McCambridge, “Oulu’s Rock Police: One Year Up and Running,” 65 degrees North: News and Views from Oulu Finland, http://www.65degreesnorth.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=119&Itemid=73.
[14] Promised Land of Heavy Metal, “Promised Land of Heavy Metal,” http://www.promisedlandofmetal.com/

Bibliography
1. BogFires Research Project. “Heavy Metal Bands as Entrepeneurs, Cultural Export, Finnish Identity.” http://bogfires.blogspot.com.
2. Karjalainen, Toni-Matti. “Analyzing Concept Building and Visual Communication within Heavy Metal Music (Forging the Canopy of the Sky).” Paper presented at the 8th NORDCODE Seminar & Workshop Program, Kolding, Denmark, May 27-29, 2009.
3. McCambridge, Matthew. “Oulu’s Rock Police: One Year Up and Running.” 65 Degrees North: News and Views from Oulu Finland. http://www.65degreesnorth.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=119&Itemid=73.
4. Musex: Music Export Finland. “Market Value Research 2007.” http://www.musex.fi.
5. Promised Land of Heavy Metal. “Promised Land of Heavy Metal.” http://www.promisedlandofmetal.com.
6. Riekki, Matti. “It’s so Heavy to Be a Finn.” Translated by Tero Valkonen. The Finnish Music Information Centre. http://www.fimic.fi.
7. Sharpe-Young, Garry. Metal: The Definitive Guide. London: Jawbone Press, 2007.
8. Throsby, David. Economics and Culture. Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press, 2001.