BogFires research group made its first "official" excursion, Frostbite metal festival being the target. On Friday, feb 6th, we drove to Lahti fair centre and made serious ethnography on the spot.
About the bands: The headliner Lamb of God was really really good. Sounds were massive but clear (and load, of course), playing accurate, show energetic, crowd active, and so forth. Between the songs, Randy Blythe also made references to his friends in Children of Bodom, who seemed to have taught him lots of Finnish words as well. He seems to be genuinely keen to Finland, which was made clear also when the BogFires team had the honour to meet him before the show. A real gentleman!
Arch Enemy, nice to watch and hear, as usually. Angela and the boys were in the top form and in good humour. And when one feels the killer riff of "My Apocalypse" live, nothing else is needed...
The Dutch band Textures was quite a positive surprise. For me formerly unknown group really played well its math/death/whatever modern metal. Despite being a bit too meshuggahish at time (which is, on the other hand, nothing but positive, if you will...), they sound very original. A band that deserves a closer look, definitely.
On the smaller stage performed lots of smaller Finnish bands. The local Profane Omen made the biggest impact.
And the festival itself... nothing really worked. No accurate schedule available, not any information whatsoever, practically no food available, VIP stands didn't arrive, people had to wait outside in the cold (it was freezing) to get to the bar or fetch their jackets... and so on. And on Saturday it seemed to be even worse, as some of the bands didn't arrive due to missing payments or accomodation (?!?!), and news stating that "metal festival ended up in chaos":
http://viihde.mtv3.fi/uutiset/musiikki.shtml/796200?frostbite_metalFun anyway, but this event was probably a one-timer...
TMK
http://www.frostbite.fi
Opeth (from Stockholm, of course) recently finished its mini tour in Finland. I witnessed two gigs; in Helsinki 15/3 and Tampere 16/3. Both shows were amazing sonic and visual experiences, not to mention the always so amusing notions of the singer/guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt. Among other things, he wondered how Finland has grown to such a metal country, a "metal paradise" to which he has even been considering moving... as was put in the Tampere gig. He also mentioned some forerunners of Finnish metal such as Amorphis and the pioneering thrashers Airdash. No wonder Finland has been one of the most successful countries for Opeth, 
including the high positions of the latest "Watershed" album in charts and various polls.
