Information on Finnish music

Some interesting articles on Finnish metal and rock:
http://www.fimic.fi/
Click > Popular music > Articles

And "Finnish music in a nutshell":
http://finland.fi/netcomm/news/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=26972

Thanks for Wyatt for the links!

Alexi Laiho voted the best metal guitarist in the Guitar World mag

The April 2009 issue of the Guitar World magazine listed the results of its 15th annual readers poll. Children of Bodom's Alexi Laiho was voted the best metal guitarist and COB's Blooddrunk got the second place in the best "extreme metal album" category after Opeth's watershed.

The votes in each category were given for five pre-selected nominees, so the poll may not meet the tightest objectivity criteria...

Overview of the results:

Best Metal Guitarist: 1) Alexi Laiho 2) Kirk Hammett 3) Alex Skolnick 4) Insahn 5) Matt Tuck

Best Extreme Metal Album: 1) Opeth: Watershed 2) Children Of Bodom: Blooddrunk 3) All That Remains: Chiron 4) Whitechapel: This Is Exile 5) Insahn: Angl

Best Rock Guitarist: 1) Eddie Van Halen

Best Shredder: 1) Michael Angelo Batio

Best Metal Album: 1) Slipknot: All Hope Is Gone

Best Rock Album: 1) Disturbed: Indestructible

Best Alt-Rock Album: 1) Oasis: Dig Out Your Soul

Best Shred Album: 1) Paul Gilbert: Silence Followed by a Deafening Roar

Guitar World Hall of Fame: 1) Joe Satriani

2008 Most Valuable Players: 1) James Hetfield/Kirk Hammett

Best New Talent: 1) Black Tide

Best Riff of 2008: 1) Avenged Sevenfold: Afterlife

Hottest Guitar World Girl: 1) Amanda Harris

And the same issue also has a very interesting article/interview with Adam Jones (Tool) and Kirk Hammett (Metallica), talking about their inspiration and ideology behind music, visual arts, etc.

http://www.guitarworld.com/

Forthcoming BogFires research paper

Karjalainen, Toni-Matti; Laaksonen, Laura & Ainamo, Antti (forthcoming 2009).

Analyzing concept building and visual communication within heavy metal music.

8th Nordcode Seminar & Workshop. May 27-28 2009. Kolding, Denmark.

http://www.designskolenkolding.dk/nordcode

Revolver Golden Gods Awards

Bogfires visited Revolver Golden Gods Awards at club Nokia in LA on Tuesday April 7th that featured performances from Megadeath, Killswich Engage, Suicide Silence, Hatebreed and All That Remains. Some winners of the evening were Ozzy Osbourne (Lifetime Achievement Award), Slipknot (Best Riff, Best Live Band), Metallica (Best Album) and Slayer (Most Mind-Blowing Guitarist).

Finnish pagan-metal bands featured in Revolver magazine

In the April (No. 79) issue of Revolver magazine seven pagan -metal bands are introduced out of which four were Finnish bands: Finntroll, Ensiferum, Korpiklaani and Turisas. The bands were asked questions like what is a pagan-metal band, who was the first pagan-metal band, and questions about favorite instruments and outrageous outfits worn by fans etc. In the same issue of Revolver "This month's Hottest Chick in Metal" was Lady Awa from Finnish hard rock band Lordi.

Corey Taylor from Slipknot comments on collaboration with Finnish bands

Corey Taylor, the singer of Slipknot and Stonesour commented his collaboration with Finnish metal bands Apocalyptica and Children of Bodom for Bogfires earlier this week in LA. Slipknot toured with Children of Bodom in Europe in fall of 2008. Taylor said that coming up with the best mix of bands musically is the most important criteria for choosing the bands to tour with and reminded that the selection is also based on who is available at the time. Corey Taylor was featured on Apocalyptica's latest album Worlds Collide, doing vocals for "I'm Not Jesus". Taylor told Bogfires he was very happy with how the song turned out. Bogfires met with Corey Taylor on Monday April 6th at the Key Club on Sunset Strip, LA where he joined Steel Panthers on stage to perform a Poison -cover song. 

Children of Bodom in Vancouver, Wednesday April 8th

Bogfires visited Vancouver to check out the No Fear Energy Music tour featuring Lamb of God, As I Lay Dying, Children of Bodom, God Forbid and Muncipal Waste. UBC Thunderbird Arena was nearly sold out and over 5 000 metalheads had arrived to the venue located at the beautiful campus of University of British Columbia. Children of Bodom played a solid show as usual, even though the setlist featured one less song than the previous shows on this tour, due to As I Lay Dying joining the tour in Vancouver. 

Alexi Laiho from Children of Bodom celebrated his 30th birthday that night and one of the highlights of the evening was having Randy Blythe form Lamb of God show up on stage just before Children of Bodom were getting ready to play their last song. Randy congratulated Alexi and had everyone in the audience sing happy birthday to him.  Special thanks to Children of Bodom Hate Crew!

Children of Bodom Vancouver setlist:

Silent night bodom night

Hate me!

Hellhounds on my trail

Living dead beat

Angels don't kill

In your face

Blooddrunk

Downfall

History of Stam1na to be reported in a DVD

(http://www.metalfromfinland.com/: 09.04.2009):

STAM1NA releases their K13V dvd on May 6th 2009. K13V contains 2 dvd's and it has over 5 hours of material. The name K13V comes from words Kadonneet 13 Vuotta (Lost 13 Years) which means that Stam1na turns 13 years old this year.

"After 3 studioalbums it was time to make a dvd and sum up our achievements so far. Last 4 years have been very crazy and hectic for us and during that time we have gone a long way with Stam1na. The release of this DVD is a culmination in our career and after this it's good to continue with the future.", says Antti "Hyrde" Hyyrynen, vocalist/guitarist of Stam1na.

K13V DVD 19 Musicvideos + making ofLive at Lutakko 2005, Provinssirock 2006, Provinssirock 2008, Lutakko 2008K13V DVD 2Kadonneet 13 Vuotta-documentary (over 90 minutes)

More about the DVD:

http://www.sakararecords.com/

www.stam1na.com/k13v/

Hanoi Rocks farewell at Tavastia, Thursday April 9th

BogFires checked the gig number four in the sold out series of Hanoi Rock’s eight farewell shows at the Tavastia club in Helsinki. The two hours midnight concert presented a charismatic band in a good form with solid playing and sounds, supported with impressive stage design dominated by the classy spotlight installation at the back wall. The song list was compiled quite evenly from the two Hanoi Rocks eras, the “original” (1979-1985) and the “rebirth” (2001-2009), the main focus being however on the latter.

Why stopping now, when the band’s success is at its peak since the rebirth and constantly increasing, has been the key question in recent interviews. In Iltalehti Plus magazine (28.3.2009), the main man and guitarist Andy McCoy comments that finishing at the top is what the band wants. According to him, they do not want to become a jukebox playing “re-union” gigs. Morever, Andy and Michael Monroe, the singer and accompanying main force behind the band, are reportedly lacking the needed creativity to write new Hanoi Rocks songs. “Now, when it doesn’t have a new spark in it anymore, it’s better to leave Hanoi the best kept rock ‘n’ roll secret of the world. The band must be finished with dignity”, comments Michael.

The magazine also reminds Hanoi Rocks being the first Finnish band in the 1980’s that focused on international markets from the beginning. The band’s 30 years career is also wrapped-up in a brand new (Finnish) book “All Those Wasted Years” (LIKE, written by Ari Väntänen) which presumably provides an amusing reading experience and an important historic review of these pioneers of Finnish rock export.

TMK

http://www.tavastiaklubi.fi/
http://www.hanoirocks.info/
http://www.iltalehti.fi/

Bands clear for FINLAND FEST & FINLAND MUSIC DAYS 2009 IN TOKYO

"Finland Fest in Tokyo is an opportunity to meet representatives from top Finnish music companies: Labels, publishers and agents are bringing forth the abundant talents in pop, rock, electronic, world music and metal. Along with the music trade event at on Thursday, May 28th, Finland Fest in Tokyo will ship several top Finnish bands to Japan’s capital for intense showcase performances at Liquid Room on Friday, May 29th.
Playing at Liquid Room:
Sunrise Avenue
Carmen Gray
Naked
Stalingrad Cowgirls
Indica
Tv Off"
(www.musex.fi)