Sunday, December 23, 2012

X Mas!

24th of December. Christmas, that's always nice :)  Spending it with family, eating a lot and just doing the traditional Christmas thing i guess. After that, on the 25th, i'll go up north to Lapland to do "some" downhil ski-ing with a bunch of friends, so that should be fun. I don't really have a lot of time to write in the coming weeks, since i'll be joining  the Finnish army on the 7th of  January. For those whom are not aware, every Finnish male of the age of 19 and up has to join the army for at least 6 months. That's something that obviously won't be a walk in the park for me, but with the right attitude, i can easily endure the 6 moths of acting without logic, doing push ups and eating 5 times a day :) 

At least the reserve i'm going into has a decent music room, where those whom play an instrument can kill they're free time:) And i still get to have free time during the weekends :P


Monday, December 3, 2012

Back again.


Here we go, once more. Phew. This is actually just about the first time during the past week that i'v had the luxury to sit down, put on some music, get some coffee and actually just write something down:) 

First of all, i'll tell you about the Friday week ago.  You guessed it, more live shows :) This time with my little sister, her friend (also my cousin) and one of my best friends. The band's this time were: Dynazty & Raubtier as the opening acts, and Sabaton as the main act.

A word about the two opening act's: 


Dynazty

Dynazty is a Heavy metal band from Sweden, three albums out. All and all, they had the right "feel" on performing heavy metal, okay stuff i'd say. 

Dynazty
A thumbs up for the Whitesnake shirt! Whitesnake is the shit when it comes to hard rock, and you can just smell all the influence on these guys :P


Raubtier

Raubtier is a Industrial metal band from Sweden also. Three albums out just like the first band. Not really a band that i liked at all, but the Bass player was pretty awesome, but then again, he's a pretty old timer in the whole metal industry, while being on of the co founders of "Scar symmetry" As a guitarist might i add, he's produced studio's for bands like "Zonaria", "Sonic Syndicate" And "Darzamat" and also he's helped in the mastering of Immortal's "All shall fall".



Raubtier




Sabaton!

Actual pic from the show.
For those who do not know: Sabaton is a Swedish power metal act, formed in 1999, they have put out six studio albums and all trough i do not have that much power metal in my arsenal of metal, i can say without a doubt that Sabaton is one of the best ones that power metal has to offer. Sabaton's songs are almost always filled with really hooking guitar action and vocal melodies. The lyrics of Sabaton revolves around war as a common subject, they songs themed with just about any war there is, there's stuff about The battle of Passchendaele, about the nuclear strikes against Japan, about The Finnish winter war, The Nazis, D-Day and countless of others common subjects of WW1 & 2.

I'v seen Sabaton once before, during Tuska festival here in Finland. And it was actually really odd coincidence that Sabaton came to Tampere: Enter the summer of 2012, Tuska festival, i'm there (With the sane guy that came with me to see them in Tampere no less) Our main reason of attending Tuska was to see Behemoth, we are both huge fans of Behemoth so that was obviously amazing, even tho it rained during they're gig, but that just added to the mood. 

We saw Behemoth and did something afterwards, and then Sabaton started playing on the other stage, and we figured that why the fuck not see them since we were there, but alas, we didn't get really good places in the crowd, since we didn't rush it into the front like we did with Behemoth. Didn't have the best place in the crowd, but Sabaton was still pretty damn good, the live performance of Sabaton is just amazing, even if you are not into the music they make, just go ahead and see them, the energy and even the comedy they but out is hard to match. Kind of reminds me of Iron maiden's live "energy".  

I had fun, all trough i had a poor placement in the crowd. And now six months later *boom* Sabaton is coming to Tampere, to the same old venue, which means, epic crowd placement is confirmed.

There's Sabaton during Tuska.

Here's the setlist of Sabaton's gig in Tampere: 

1. Ghost Division.
2. Gott Mit Uns
3. White Death.
4. Carolus Rex
5. Karolinens Bön.
6. 40 :1
7. Cliffs of Gallipoli.
8. Uprising
9. The lion from the north.
10. The hammer has fallen.
11. Attero Dominatus.
12: The art of war.
13. Talvisota.
14: Primo victoria.
15: Metal Crue.






Sabaton even played some of they're demo stuff, in which, Joakim (vox) played the keyboards.



The whole venue was, again, absolutely filled. And the attendance of the crowd was close to it's maximum. 



Sabaton even announced that they will in fact attend another Finnish metal festival, "Sauna open air" in June 2013. Besides Sabaton, Sauna will feature: Nightwish, Opeth, Children of bodom, volbeat and more to be announced. I might just go for the fun of it. All trough i'v seen both Children of bodom and Sabaton twice now, i'm sure that it would still be amazingly fun...

I love the "Play station" shirt!

There's some video material from Sabaton's gig. Again, thx to whomever actually filmed it (:




So that's that. Next subject ->





Got a nice baggage from the UK a while back: "Dyscarnate" hoodie and a tablature book of they're album "And so it came to pass". I love the back print on the hoodie.



Here we go.....

Dyscarnate is a band that i found through a friend about a year ago, and since then and thousands of hours of listening to it, it has came to be one of my favorite artist's, which are many, since i could never name one artist to be the absolute favorite of mine.

Dyscarnate is straightforward death metal, that shows one that you don't need overly complex Tech death riffing in order to be good. The music is really catchy, the drum sound is just fantastic and the vocals will never be boring since they mix high vocals and low ones. They follow the trail of Dying fetus and show the world that you can make amazing music with three guys. Every now and then when i came across one of those highly ignorant "No one makes good death metal now-days" I'll just respond with "Bitch, you haven't heard Dyscarnate yet" and just go away and feel sorry for the guy who's musical appreciation is so limited that he can't see the good in many forms of metal music, even if it was made during 2012 etc.



Since they're inception, Dyscarnate has made two albums: The first one on the righ "Enduring the massacre" and the red one on the left "And so it came to pass". Both are an amazing show of class A death metal.

Now i'm just waiting for the day when Dyscarnate enters the studio again to bless us with the awesomeness that they are, and of course, European tour plz :)

Also, i really like that Ibanez!






The weekend.


This weekend was full of all kinds of stuff too. Spend the Friday at one of my best friend's house, we did some work on these songs that we have been crafting for a couple of weeks. We have a couple of songs done, from Trash/death to Symphonic/black.

Midi - Death metal fuck yeah!



Aaaaand did some serious Whitesnake karaoke!



The other half of the weekend i spend with another one of my best friend's, doing the usual video games and movie´'s stuff :P


The first snow that fell about half a month ago unfortunately did not last for long, since it melted away, but during this weekend it started to snow again, and the temperatures (-15c) are hinting that this time it will stay!  
Now lets hope that the downhill skiing slopes will open soon!








I'll end this one with what is probably one of the most known Sabaton titles: Primo victoria!




Power metal, fuck yeah!

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Here i go again

Today was a great day and i hope that i won't fall asleep while writing this, so i'm going to keep this one relatively short.

 Around 18.00 i headed for this club, and no it wasn't your normal club night, Cardle of Filth (And a few other bands) were playing in there tonight! And that was obviously something i didn't want to skip! The venue inside the club was really small, and even tho the whole place was filled, there weren't more than 70 people in there, but the atmosphere was amazing. Anyways

Let's start with the first bands:


Band #1
Darkend


Dark end is an Italian symphonic black metal act, with three albums out so far, called: "Damned woman and a carcass". "Assassine" and the latest one "Grand Guignol, book 1"

They were a band that i had never heard of, but as an avid Symphonic black metal fan, i found no reason not  to add this band into my collection. 




Dark end but out a really good show, the music sounded great, with no problems in hearing the guitar, vocals etc, the only real problem was that they're set list was probably like 30 minutes long :/

Cheers up there! also, give me that ESP LTD :<




Like i said, i didn't know the music at all, but i still enjoyed it! All and all, nice opening act for bands to come, 
and not a bad band at all.

Dark picture is dark.

Even had a nice talk with Luca, the vocalist of Dark end, as we both found ourself's in the crowd.  such a nice fellow.

Here's a song by "Dark end" or "Darkend" i'm not sure which style to write it to pick, since both are used somewhere :)

Obviously, as i basically discovered the band a couple of hours ago, i'm not sure if this is thy're to notch stuff, but here's a nice song for you:







Band # 2


Rotting Christ!


Next up was Rotting Christ, the Greece black metal titans, i'm a big fan of those guys, and this was obviously something i was looking forwards to. RC played songs like: "Thy Mighty Conract" "Non serviam" "A Dead poem and "Aealo". And damn, they sounded superbly good!




Here's a video from the gig, not filmed by me. (Thx to whomever filmed it!)






RC was really good, which is nothing that surprised me :)


I had my talk with Sakis (GTR/VOX) too, after spotting him near the bar! Really humble guy:)




Band # 3

God Seed

Ah, God seed, the joyfull looking bunch of traditional Black metallers. Formed by the one and the only Ghaal   
and King ov hell.

 I'm not the biggest Gorgoroth fan out there (God seed played some Gorgoroth stuff too) but i still enjoy some stuff by them. 

Oo
I wasn't familiar with the works of "God seed", but i knew some of the Gorgoroth stuff, my favorite one that they played had to be "Carving a giant"





Band # 4




Cradle of filth, a band that will not need introductions. They played for about 130 minutes, set list including songs like "Cthulhu Dawn" "For your vulgar delecation", "Nymphetamine" "Born in a burial gown" "Funeral in Carpathia" and so forth. 

Oi! Paul!

I'v been a Cradle fan since.... Well, i can't remember a time when i wasn't a fan of them, all tough i must admit that i haven't listened to them that much lately.




I own 6 CoF album's, so i'm still a "few" short. My overall favorite albums of them ever are: "Cruelty and the beast" and "Dusk and her embrace" but i don't hate any of CoF's work.


The man himself!



That was a nice 5 hours of banging my head and yelling at the top of my lungs, and some drinking too, all trough i always stick with the beer if i'm in a live show, anything harder then beer will just cause me to miss the whole show :)

So i phoned my friend to pick me up and had around 40 minutes to spend in the venue. I bought a couple of beers and just waltzed around, talking to people, listening to the music that was played there and all that, and those 40 minutes i spend in that place were one of the most metal things i have ever done!



I drank a beer with Gaahl, hah. I have to say that he's actually extremely polite, he knows a lot about things and overall doesn't appear to take himself all that seriously. He was an interesting person to talk to!

Well, my whole body hurts, my arms are in a coma, but at least i can say without any doubt that i had shitloads of fun...........And i can say that i drank with Gaahl :p




Tuesday, November 13, 2012




Like i said in my last post, i'll go through Krisiun's whole discography and do some writing on the subject, without further ado, here we go: 

I discovered Krisiun somewhere during 2010 i think, and i can say without any doubt in my mind that Krisiun is one of those bands that just keep on getting better and better over the years, the drumming has always been extremely good, brutal and fast, and the guitar work should be right up there in the top names of death metal. And along with that they have maintained the exact lineup (With the exception of  a guitarist, who worked with them before they're first full length) infect, Krisiun's line up contains three brothers, yup, Krisiun is a band formed by three brothers, so it probably would take a little bit more then an average fight to break up this band. 

Krisiun was formed in 1990 in Brazil, by Alex Camargo (Vox/Bass), Moyses Kolesne (GTR) and Max Kolesne (Drums). Alex uses his mothers maiden surname for some reason.

And here are the boys!
Let's get this show on the road:

Black force domain
(Released: 1995)



The most unholy debut creation of Krisiun, "Black force domain", solely engineered withing the parameters of 90's death metal, it has it all, the endless blast beat, the pure death metal riffing, the satanic visuals and lyrics and i shall say that it's an evil piece of work. The influence of legendary "Altars of madness" can be heard in the guitar sound, riff styles and the phasing of vocals, and to no ones surprise, Krisiun has listed Morbid angel as one of they're main influences, among bands like Slayer, Sodom and Kreator. The guitar work is paving the way for the guitarist that Moyses is about to become, and when he's not delivering your solid death metal riffing, he's showing off his ability to sweep and tremolo pick.


The album even has actually good instrumental song called "Infamous glory", that features some really dark sounding bells, insanely fast and high tremolo picking, and a backing melody that's really evil sounding too, and closer to the end there's extremely evil sounding organ part too. The downside of this one would be the fact that the drumming can become a bit too monotonous at some points but overall, it's really solid death metal release.



Here's the instrumental track in all it's glory:


Favorite tracks: "Black force domain", "Blind possession" and "Infamous glory"


Apocalyptic Revelation
(1998)






The second coming of Krisiun is just as brutal and fast as the first one, all trough they don't quite have that "raw" Morbid angel sound, but it's still really steady record. The drum sound has been upgraded since "Black force domain", and now sound way, and that is highlighted during moments like the intro of "Rites of defamation" , the double bass and the snare sounds just as good as they should. The guitar work is somewhat more technical than in the first one, but not too technical for pure dm, and they maintain a perfect balance between technicality and brutality. Lyrically, the album is more "mature" so to speak, it's not so bluntishly direct as Black force domain was, but this one still has it's "satan" moments, still, the main "concept" seems to be the utter destruction of all mankind.

As it's predecessor, this one too feature's an instrumental track, called "March of the Black horde", it's different from the instrumental track of the first album, still has the epickness in it, but it's not quite as "Evil" sounding as "Infamous glory" but it's really catchy, and must be hell to play on drums :)

Not my favorite piece by Krisiun, good stuff non the less.

Favorite tracks:  "Apocalyptic victory", "March of the black horde" and "Rites of Defamation"


Conquerors of Armageddon
(2000)


Here's a great one, still improving the all ready good style of they're music, this time with some melodies, effects, even more brutality, and a bit different guitar tone, even small melodic moment's and even more memorable riff's. It's brutality the whole way through, it gives no mercy or takes no prisoners, it holds a lot of force to it, and is one of the corner stones of Krisiun's career. The cover art is the best one of the three albums, still showing hints about the blasphemy that Krisiun delivers with massive-fucking-force.

Favorite tracks:  "Abyssal gates", "Cursed scrolls" and "Hatred inherit"

Ageless venomous
(2001)

Also the first Krisiun album i bought.


What? A Krisiun album that actually has calm intro, can't say that it's a bad one either, fits well if you ask me.
 the main problem with the album is the drum sound, the double bass doesn't sound nearly as "heavy" as in they're earlier works of carnage, and the overall drum sound is quite "mechanical" so to speak, but that makes the album lot less "messy". Still, "Ageless Venomous" has it's moments of glory, for example, the riffing and the drumming in the beginning of "Dawn of Flagellation" is really great, and the slides are even greater after them. The bass is way more audio able in this album too, which sounds great, and the album features probably one of my favorite instrumental tracks by Krisiun, and just listen to it, that's the sound of walking the fine line between not breaking your acoustic and beautifully and skillfully playing it:



Overall, not a bad album at all, just a little bit different from the rest...


Favorite tracks: "Ageless venomous", "Dawn of Flagellation" and "Diableros"

Works of carnage
(2003)


Works of carnage! what can i say? The superb drum sound is back, while still keeping the "cleaner" overall production from "Ageless venomous", and during this album Krisiun started to pay close attention to song structures, and the increasing "groove" in Krisiun's music, while simultaneously not sacrificing the absolute brutality that Krisiun has formed to be. The cover art of "Works of carnage" is without a doubt my favorite Krisiun artwork ever, just look at it. awesome. The album also features a bunch of "Drop and go":s i.e in "Wolfen tyranny" which, if used the right way, just add to the brutality.


The weaker sides of this one are the "filler" tracks, called "War ritual" and "Shadows", "War rituals" has the potential to be a good instrumental track, but the feeling is gone soon after the beginning of it. And "Shadows" is just slightly above average solo. Another weak point is the outro, which just sounds damn weird and out of place. The album also features Venom cover called "In league with Satan", which is really damn groovy and gatchy, all through it doesn't fit the atmosphere of the album, or even of Krisiun at all, but it's a cover so that's in some way understandable, and "Sweet revenge" is just a really bad song in my opinion.

Favorite tracks: "Ethereal world", "Slaughtering void" and "wolfen tyranny"

AssassiNation
(2006)



In my opinion, this album is the weakest one that Krisiun has but out,  it's just slightly above your normal death metal cd, and get's pretty repetitive, but like i said, it's still above average.
The album starts up with amazingly catchy drum pattern, soon followed by the double bass and some cymbals. The next song "Natural Genocide" has this really fast and great sounding "mini-solo" so to speak. The third track has a similar thing, or close to it, really good sounding too. H.O.G has a really nice drum intro to it too, and it's my favorite track from "AssassiNation"

The instrumental tracks on "AssassiNation" fall to the same genre as the ones in "Works of carnage", they're just not catchy enough, and they lack the "meaning" of your usual Krisiun instrumental, they are both just minute long, or less, and again, feel like they mean nothing and are really out of place.

Favorite tracks: "Bloodcraft", "Natural Genocide" and "H.O.G"


Southern Storm
(2008)




Here's Krisiun, kicking they're music up a few notches, and they are clearly going to the better direction after "AssassiNation". The music on this one is overall way more groovier, and way more memorable, and have totally lost the "Mechanical" sound of "ageless venomous". The mixing is just perfection, the guitar sounds just as good as it should, and the bass drums are triggered to sound massive, and the drumming overall is outstanding. There are some extremely headbangish moments like "Sentenced morning", "Combustion inferno" or "Origin of terror" Just listen to the force of nature that is Krisiun:





Unlike the past two releases, whit they're awful minute long instrumentals, "Southern storm" actually contains really amazing piece of one minute long acoustic instrumental track.

Favorite tracks: "Sentenced morning", "Combustion inferno", "Bleeding offer", "Origin of terror" and "Whore of the unlight"

The great execution
(2011)



The great execution is probably my favorite release from Krisiun, and it's a pack of relentless onslaught, the drum work is at its absolute peak, as are every other instrument on this album. The whole thing fires up with "The will to potency" and it has a really great acoustic intro too. Upon listening to this album, i cant help but to think how much Krisiun's musical style has changed during these couple of albums, the album is in no way repetitive and it's filled with memorable moments in songs, epic sounding, yet brutal riffs and the astonishing drum work. And it wont really matter which song i will describe to you, they're all damn great.

Here's a sample:




Overall, Krisiun as a band is a force to be reckoned with, and i wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to any fan of brutal death metal and death metal. Excellent stuff!

Favorite tracks: "The will to potency", "The great execution", "Descending abomination", "The extremist", "Sword of Orion", "Violentio Gladiatore" and "Extincao en Massa"

Favorite Krisiun releases in the following order:

1. The Great Execution (2011)
2. Southern storm (2008)
3. Conquerors of Armageddon (2000)
4. Ageless Venomous (2001)
5. Black Force Domain (1995)
6. Works of Carnage (2003)
7. Apocalyptic Revelation (1998)
8. AssassiNation (2006)


That's more than enough about Krisiun. Earlier today i picked up the mail, and this package was awaiting for me:

The Faceless: Autotheism & The Faceless: Planetary Duality.
The Faceless is a band that i'm extremely fond of, and they're album "Akaldama" is one of my favorite albums ever. Say what you say about The Faceless, but i fucking love them :)

Let's end this one with "Little metal things" number 1039:


Sunday, November 11, 2012

Weekend



My weekend was really busy and fun. My weekend started on Thursday, and i drove into the city, bought new shoes from the local mall, that i could wear during the winter without having the pleasure to amputate my legs due to hypothermia. And then i drove to my favorite record shop, called "Levykauppa x" or Record shop x. 
The selection here is really good, anything from raw black metal to rock

I took my time, and bought two albums: 


The first one is Krisiun's newest album called "The great execution" and it's a great piece of Death metal, i'll do a through review of Krisiun in the future, for those not aware of them. The second one should need no introductions, "Iron maiden - Killers" Bought it because it was really cheap and i didn't have it in my collection... So far.

After that, and a cup of coffee, i headed for the same ol' venue, Devin Townsend project was playing that night, and i had tickets for it, so in i went.

Opening act for Devin was Fear Factory, they are an American industrial metal band, and a band that i don't really like at all,  i don't like they're drum sound on records (among other things) but thankfully they did not have that drum sound live. In most cases, even if i don't listen to the band at all, i still enjoy seeing them live, as the atmosphere is way different, and i'm not so damn picky that i would leave the venue just so i didn't have to listen to the music, plus, the trick to get awesome places at the venue i attend (Front row again) is to go there during or even before the opening act for the main band, then you can basically just walk to the front row, which is quite impossible during the main act. Watched through them and they were an okay band for the warm up act, not a band that i would go see alone but as an opening act they were sufficient.



Fear Factory.


The first thing i hear, and soon saw, was the fact that Dino (GTR) utilized seven and eight stringed guitars, it wasn't too hard to recognize the superbly low growling of your basic 7 string. He switched between two guitars, both Ibanez, the other one was a 7 stringer and the other was an 8.
Pittsburgh penguin fan are we? (Left leg)



Fear Factory played for about 50 minutes, and after that begun without a doubt, the most amusing soundcheck i have ever seen.




Behind Fear Factory's logo curtain, there was a huge white screen, that had all these hilarious images about Devin projected on it, there's a few of them:



And 5 minutes of the Badger gif, too, with full audio. Laughs were had.

Badger Badger Badger
As one should expect from a band as popular as DTP, the whole venue was filled, every last corner had someone standing in it, and i must say that it was one of the most energetic live shows i have seen, with the exception of Dimmu Borgir.  
That's about 1/4 of the whole crowd.
DTP played for about 1h40 mins, and all i can say is that Devin has an awesome sense of humor, he was constantly saying stuff like "Actually we are quite the romantics, with our pub bellies and small dicks" or "..And we fucking love this guy, we love his attitude and we love his incredibly unpronounceable last name... Ryan Van Poederooye"  and overall, proved to be an excellent showman.

D:

Devin Townsend project.




Yes, Devin, you.
After the show i even got to shake Devin's hand, and that concluded my day.

I had a couple of friends over for Friday - Sunday, we went trough this western trilogy, (El Mariachi, Desperado & Once upon a time in Mexico) The first one was really, really bad, and the two others were superb.




We ate tortillas, and drank Mexican beer, for that kind of became the theme of our weekend.




I have this "small" project to learn the vocals and the guitar parts of Wintersun's "Sadness and hate", i'v learned about 1/4 of the song on guitar, and it's a blast to play. Not my favorite song by Wintersun (as if they have a bad song) But this one doesn't contain any basic Jari Mäenpää sweep solos, which i obviously can't play....

The lyrics are damn amazing, and even sad:

Sad night, the weeper of starwind sky
Take me where the shimmering lights are fading out
Through the shadows of hate and through the fires of grace
I followed the voice in the night, beautiful as black sky,
But nothing I found

My thoughts are captured by the magical chants
Of the spirits, but I cannot see them with these dead eyes
Lost I am in these dismal dreams
Lost I am forever in my life

The snow is falling on the withering leaves, I am left in the cold
The shadows are crying in the moonlight
Is this night the last of my life

Have we arrived from our journey, I must ask you now
At last I can cry, 'cause these sad words are calling me tonight
My eyes bleed for you my star, my pride and the love of my heart
But why did you had to fly so far, I raged and it tore me apart
I promise to you with sadness and hate
Wherever I might go, you will know...

I give my life to the withering leaves
To the bleeding moonlight
To the crying shadows
I GIVE MY LIFE TO YOU



And there's the guitar parts i have gotten down so far....

If you are a melodeath fan and haven't for some reasons that are beyond me heard of Wintersun, i suggest that you get your hands on the closest Wintersun album by any means necessary. Any album will do, as Wintersun has never made a bad song in my opinnion. Anyways, here's "Sadness and Hate"





That's it for today...