The IASPM-Norden 2010 Conference on MUSIC, LAW AND BUSINESS

BogFires is co-organising a research conference on music, law and business
in Helsinki, November 24-27.

DEADLINE for proposals is JAN 31!

More information:
http://iaspmnorden.wordpress.com/activities/

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...