2008 June | Metal Music Blog

Archive for June, 2008

Jun

Tracedawn - Who, What? Oh, THAT Tracedawn!

By headbanger 0 Comments

(4 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)

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Categories: Tracedawn

Holy MotherTruckers! Last Friday, as I was driving back home, I listened to Radio Rock here in Finland. I stopped my car and went to shop while Stam1na’s Susi-Ihminen was played in the radio. But as I came back, I heard something that was totally new to me. “Goddamn, what’s this?”, I remember thinking.

The band I heard in the radio was Finnish rival, called Traceadwn. I must tell you I know nothing about Tracedawn, but I WILL know more. Their “Without Walls” sounds so super good that I simply want more. Last Friday I checked the playlist of Radio Rock, searched for Tracedawn in the net and found this video and a couple of more songs. Is Tracedawn going to be the next big hit from Finnish metal scene? I bet they will.

Tracedawn sounds new, fresh, energetic, strong and passionate. They represent a new rise of heavy metal in this country filled with death and thrash metal. Tracedawn combines heavy metal and melodic death metal sounds and vocals. In fact their combination of death metal grunts and clean vocals sounds absolutely great with their melodies. Listen to Tracedawn’s vocalist, Antti Lappalainen. Doesn’t he sound like Randy Blythe of Lamb of God when singing death grunts? In fact, he has mentioned Randy as one of his influences.

Tracedawn are young dudes. Almost all of them were born in 1990, while I am already 33. Man, I’m getting old.. Anyhow, who cares. I really enjoy listening to Tracedawn and banging my half a meter hair. Tracedawn is a great newcomer in heavy metal scene. I strongly recommend you to purchase their debut album.

Jun

Roope Latvala of Children of Bodom is the First Guitar Hero in Finland

By headbanger 0 Comments

(1 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

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Categories: Children Of Bodom and Stone

Back in the mid-80’s I used to listen to Stone, one of the very first and very potential thrash metal bands in Finland. Stone was different. They were so unique and pumped with adrenaline. Since the first moment I heard their “Get Stoned“, I was their true fanboy.

Roope Latvala of Children of Bodom used to play guitar in Stone before joining C.O.B. For sure he has had other projects as well, but these two are the flagships in his career. Roope Latvala is called the first guitar hero in Finland, and many guitar players consider him as an idol. No wonder why. Just like Alexi Laiho, Roope is very skillful with his guitar. Roope is a humble man and he doesn’t really care about his guitar hero reputation. According to Roope, the main point is to be able to make living by doing what he loves the most; playing metal music.

I have heard rumours that Stone is making a comeback. People say Roope is waking up the classic line-up of Stone and that they will release a new album soon. Stone toured last time 15 years ago, and guys haven’t been playing much. According to Soundi music magazine, Stone played together pretty well after a couple of rehearsals. Soundi continues by saying that Roope had some problems with solos, but otherwise the band played well together.

Oh boy.. I might see my childhood heroes live this summer because Stone is going to play in Jurassic Rock in August. When Alexander Kuoppala left C.O.B., I remember thinking “oh man, now this band is over“. Once again I was wrong, big time. I was pretty surprised as Roope Latvala joined the band. I realized that Children of Bodom couldn’t be more perfect. Just imagine having two best guitar players and the best keyboard player of my country in the same metal band. C.O.B. today is a perfect metal band with some great punk attitude.

Although Stone is making their comeback, Roope Latvala is still busy with C.O.B. This autumn C.O.B. will tour U.S., and after that they will tour in Europe together with Slipknot. Unfortunately Children of Bodom has no time to tour in their home country. Finland is just too little market for big metal bands like C.O.B.

Children of Bodom is known from their wild touring. Every night is a party night. Guys drink a lot and literately enjoy every minute. Imagine you playing in front of tens of thousands of people and drinking every night. It must be strange to come back home which is quiet and peaceful. What would you do? I would heal myself with a bottle of whiskey.

Jun

Guitar World Provides Excellent Service for Guitar Players

By headbanger 0 Comments

(1 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

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Categories: Uncategorized

Have you been looking for guitar tabs of your favorite bands? I encourage you to check out Guitar World’s new service in which they provide lots of guitar tabs for anyone interested.

Let’s see what Guitar World Tabs says about itself: “Guitar World Tabs is the new online home for 100% accurate and professionally engraved guitar and bass tablature from Guitar World magazine. There are also tons of user tabs and user performance videos to choose from, and we encourage you to register and contribute your own. New songs are being added every day, so be sure to check back for your favorites, and let us know what else you’d like to see on the site“. Sounds like an excellent service. Let’s check it out!

First of all, Guitar World Tabs seems to be a community, not just a static website. This is great, because in a community you can get much more content because many users provide their own tabs. Additionally you can discuss and exchange information in a community, which is not possible with old-school static websites.

Front page of Guitar World Tabs seems pretty good. It’s not the most simple and fastest to learn, but it’s not messy either. Featured, top-rated, most viewed and newest guitar tabs are linked on the front page and can be found easily. You can also see interesting YouTube videos on the front page. Just guess what is the top-rated video right now? Bon Jovi’s Livin’ On A Prayer.. I know. It could rather be something like Pantera’s Cowboys From Hell.

What I find really nice is that users are also linked by top-rated, most-discussed and most-active. You can see this in the right side of the front page. Additionally the right sidebar includes lessons and videos from Guitar World.

Awesome! I’m starting to like this website! Let’s try to find some tabs to play..

I searched for van halen guitar tabs and I got what I wanted. The first one I see is “You Really Got Me”. No thanks, I don’t want to play it. I rather play the classic “I’ll Wait”.

Looking good. Let me try another search. I have been Judas Priest fan since I was 12 years old. I would like to play their classic Painkiller, so I search for Judas Priest guitar tabs. I got pretty many tabs, but by scrolling down the page I can find Painkiller.

Man, Guitar World Tabs is a great service for guitar players. What say you? I honestly find it good and useful.

Jun

Burzum Rocks - But Why?

By headbanger 0 Comments

(4 votes, average: 3.75 out of 5)

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Categories: Burzum and Satyricon

What Burzum’s classic song Det Som En Gang Var has common with Satyricon’s new song King? Old school black metal dudes might say “F*** NOTHING!”, but hold on. I think there is something common. I love both Satyricon and Burzum. Both represent classic Norwegian black metal bands, but that is not the only reason why I enjoy their music. I am into melodic music and both of these bands have lots of great melodies in their music. Yeah, I’m not talking about singing but keyboards and guitars.

First listen to Burzum’s Det Som En Gang Var, one of the masterpieces of Burzum. It’s pretty long so it has been cut to two pieces.

Wasn’t that awesome? Oh boy, I never get bored with this one.. Next the second part.

Awesome. Great simple melodies combined with cruel and brutal vocals and striking guitars. Strong, really strong piece of music. Makes me bang my one a meter hair.

Now, listen to Satyricon’s King which is much different but has something in common with Burzum.

Man I love the guitars and raw vocals of Satyricon. Absolutely great. Gotta bang my head even stronger..

What I find common in these two otherwise different bands is their “rocking” sound. Interestingly old school black metal band Burzum plays pretty rocking songs, just like Satyricon’s latest material. What I mean with rocking sound is that these two songs do not have the typical chaotic drumming and guitars of traditional black metal music. Well, some people don’t actually call Satyricon black metal anymore. Listen to Satyricon’s Mother North and you’ll figure out the reason. Anyhow, I still drop Satyricon to black metal genre.

My point is not to discuss about genre’s in general. I just wanted to think loud my thoughts of the rocking sound of these two bands. Although Burzum’s song contains much slow motion rhythm and kind of doom melodies, this second part (second video) starts with pretty much rocking sound. You can hear it from the drums.

It’s late Satyrday (heh heh.. Saturday) here in Finland and I’m thinking about this kind of issues. May be I need some more beer..

Have a great weekend all you metalheads. Rock on!

Jun

Why Finnish Music is so Popular in Japan?

By headbanger 2 Comments

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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Categories: Uncategorized

If you compare two cultures, Japanese and Finnish, you won’t find many similarities. May be the only common this is that both Japanese and Finns are workaholics. When it comes to music, I can’t see much similarity. So, why on Earth Finnish metal and even folk music bands are pretty popular in Japan? Some Finnish bands sell more in Japan than in Finland, and some Kantele (traditional Finnish instrument) are not known in Finland but sell pretty much in Japan.

Japan is the world’s second biggest single music market, straight after United States. It is bigger than the rest of the Asia and as big as UK and France together. What is the secret behind the success of Finnish music in Japan? Pale face and blue eyes? Fiercer look and Viking style? Although some Finnish bands have made it, it is not easy to enter the Japanese music market.

Bands like Stratovarius and Hanoi Rocks have been popular in Japan for some years, but new bands like Lovex and Negative are joining the group of Finnish bands performing in Japan. Kantele-artist Eva Alkula is going to have four gigs in Japan this year. So far 100 Finnish artists of different music genres have released their music in Japan. Although those Finnish bands have sold tens of thousands of albums in Japan, most of the ordinary Japanese citizens are not familiar with these bands. But what really is interesting is that a metal music expert of a Japanese record company asks “which one is more popular in Europe - Sonata Arctica or Iron Maiden“? (Source - Soundi Magazine 5/208). This is no wonder because Sonata Artica is more popular in Japan than Robbie Williams for example. Sonata Arctica has sold 70.000 records in Japan so far.

So what makes Finnish music popular in distant Japan? It is melodic music and fashion related things. Melodies of Finnish metal and rock bands sound good in the ears of Japanese people. Additionally the outfit of bands like Lovex and Hanoi Rocks seem pretty cool in the eyes of Japanese people. Japanese also enjoy music sang high, which is one of the reasons why Sonata Arctica sells well in Japan. For example HIM is not popular in Japan because Ville Valo sings low.

Other reasons for the success in Japan are related to making business with Japanese companies of music industry. Personal relationships matter very much and bands need to get high visibility in Japanese media so that they reach their target audience. Bands must be patient and tenacious. It takes time to break through in Japan.

If you are a serious metalhead, you would probably say Lovex sucks. Well, you’re not the only one thinking like that in metal scene, but guess what? Lovex has very high potential to break through in Japan and in the rest of the world. Diablo and Amon Amarth sound better for headbangers but they will never break through because the big masses don’t listen to such heavy music.

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