#finnish metal all-stars

[submariini]

When Finland’s Käärijä took the stage at this year’s Eurovision, a star was instantly, explosively born. With an outrageous energy, infectious presence and that oh-so-catchy hook, the Vantaa-based rapper may not have won the contest but he certainly snatched the hearts of those in his home country and beyond. We ask Käärijä the million dollar question: what next?

[full article under the cut]

Last May, a peculiar frenzy engulfed Finland. Virtually all green foods – cucumbers, especially – were sold out from stores. Buildings across the land were bathed in vivid green lights. Social media brimmed with green-themed parties, while data obtained by Swedish fintech company Klarna showed a 570 per cent increase in the online sales of neon green shirts.

This phenomenon was all thanks to Käärijä, the rapper who represented Finland in the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest. His now-infamous, blazing green puff sleeve bolero – dreamt up by Finnish broadcasting company Yle’s costume design team and which he dons when performing the smash hit track ‘Cha Cha Cha’ – had taken on a life of its own, the lush hue uniting the entire nation amid the competition. “It was incredible to see it happen and so cool being part of it,” Käärijä says. “It wasn’t planned at all – it was the people who created the commotion. I’ll definitely never forget it.”

When we speak over Zoom, Käärijä, whose real name is Jere Pöyhönen, is lounging in his minimal apartment in Vantaa, a city just outside Helsinki. He appears on my screen shirtless, a chunky gold chain dangling on his neck. On his head sits a pastel turquoise cap adorned with little cat ears. As he gestures with his hands, I spot flashes of poison green nail varnish. Pöyhönen’s chosen attire, or lack thereof, is extremely fitting – he typically performs bare-chested (“It gets so hot during my gigs”) and his Instagram handle is @paidatonriehuja, or ‘shirtless rascal’.

Hot off a performance in western Finland, the 29-year-old is enjoying his first days off in a while. It’s been a sweltering summer of non-stop touring, with fans flocking to festivals and concerts nationwide to see his explosive live show. Things are not winding down either, with Käärijä heading off on his first-ever European tour this month. Some of these shows sold out in mere minutes, an indication of his immense international following. “It’s so exciting; I’m definitely jumping into a new territory with that tour,” Pöyhönen says. “But I don’t have any expectations – I’m just going to let everything happen organically rather than stressing about it.”

Although he created one of this year’s buzziest songs, the guy on my screen is humble and, save for his look, almost un assuming. I remark on the stark contrast to his fiery and flamboyant stage presence. “Through Käärijä, I get to channel all the craziness, quirkiness and hyperactivity I’ve had since I was a child,” Pöyhönen says, describing himself offstage as “just this ordinary dude”. Without delving into further details, he tells me that the name Käärijä (translating roughly to moneymaker) stems from a history with gambling. Despite the darkness of its origin, he notes that the moniker is to be taken with a grain of salt.

While it might seem like Käärijä exploded into the public consciousness from obscurity, Pöyhönen has a long journey in music behind him. Born in Helsinki but having spent most of his youth in Vantaa, he started dabbling in the medium at just three years old. Coming from a musical family (“My dad and big brother both play the guitar”), jamming sessions were commonplace in the Pöyhönen household, his instrument of choice being the drums. “I was playing with pots and spoons before I got a set of those plastic kids’ drums,” he says. “When we moved to a bigger house, we built a band room downstairs where me and my brother spent a lot of time practising.”

At that time, rap music hadn’t yet entered Pöyhönen’s life; he was strictly a self-described “metal guy”. His older brother had instilled in him a love for the genre, particularly metal icons Rammstein. Upon starting high school, his musical taste broadened and he began listening to Eminem and popular Finnish rap groups Fintelligens and JVG. “Me and my friends were filming our own music videos to old rap songs, learning the words by heart,” Pöyhönen says. “It [making rap music] pretty much started as this humour thing I did with my mates.”

Encouraged by his loved ones, Pöyhönen began writing his own songs, still playing it for laughs. Turned out he had a knack for it. “Since I was little, I’ve been an avid storyteller – my imagination ran a little wilder than the rest of the kids’ at my school,” he says. “So when I started making music, I didn’t even need inspiration; I was able to whip up the lyrics from my head.”

But then, at 15, an unexpected turning point came by way of a severe sudden illness. Rushed to the hospital with ulcerative colitis, a chronic inflammatory bowel disease, Pöyhönen underwent emergency surgery to remove his colon. Had he not been treated immediately, the complications could have been fatal. “I was writing songs in the hospital – music became a source of strength for me,” he says. “I decided that if I make it through this, I’m going to give my all to music and be serious about it.”

After over a decade of hard work and countless hours in the studio, Käärijä released his first album, Fantastista (Fantastic), in 2020, but it would take three years for him to become a household name in Finland. After snapping up the top prize in Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (the Finnish contest for new music) with his party anthem ‘Cha Cha Cha’, a song dedicated to a hedonistic night out fusing rap, electronic music and metal, he secured the coveted spot as his country’s entrant for the 2023 Eurovision, held in Liverpool. One of Pöyhönen’s craziest dreams had come true.

For Pöyhönen, Eurovision was “an amazing but immensely tough experience”. The event’s intense schedule and the little time carved out for practising surprised the artist. There was no room for errors or retakes once it was time for rehearsals. “They didn’t give much mercy,” he says. On the bright side, the long days filled with “lots of press conferences and waiting around” gave Pöyhönen a chance to get to know the other artists. “The group we had there was wonderful – there wasn’t a competitive atmosphere at all,” he says. One of the contestants he became especially close with was Sweden’s Loreen, with whom he exchanged numbers and promised to “meet up and talk about everything else but music”.

By the time the grand finale came, Käärijä’s explosive performance and infectious song had made him one of the favourites to win. Ultimately he came second, while Loreen nabbed first place. How did Pöyhönen handle the letdown? “It was a huge disappointment, but in the end, the feeling didn’t last long,” he says. “When I thought about how far I’d gotten, the incredible journey it was and all the new friends I made, I realised that these things are far more meaningful than winning.” Plus, he still achieved something major: ‘Cha Cha Cha’ made history as the first ever Finnish song to reach Spotify’s global most-listened charts. The track’s reach proved to Pöyhönen that language doesn’t matter; it’s all about creating a singular, infectious sound: “The mouth is just as much of an instrument as the piano or the guitar is,” he says.

Having made history, I ask Pöyhönen if he felt any pressure after the Eurovision bubble had burst. “Of course there are the thoughts of ‘what now?’ and ‘is this going to be it, will anyone be interested anymore next year?’ – I’m aware that the hype won’t last forever,” he says. “But I’m onto creating the next thing, trying not to feel any pressure for future releases. I haven’t done that before, so why would I do that now?”

Pöyhönen hints at a new album dropping sometime next year, but in the meantime, he’s enjoying the attention – including his Vogue Scandinavia debut. Shot at the extraordinary home of the late interior architect Antti Nurmesniemi and his wife, textile artist Vuokko Nurmesniemi, we find the space where Pöyhönen and Käärijä meet, the quiet confidence mingling with that more-is-more persona.

And while Käärijä might develop as a character (“I want to show that he’s more than just a bolero chap”), he’s adamant that he will stay true to his music and keep singing in Finnish, despite the sudden international attention. “In the end, I’m doing this for myself,” he says. “Also, why change something that works?”

Photographer: Karoliina Bärlund Stylist: Sanna Silander Talent: Käärijä Hair Stylist and Makeup Artist: Neea Kuurne Photographer Assistant: Milja Laakso Stylist Assistant: Nelli Korhonen

[argumentalist]

I don't love the original Mobile Suit Gundam. I don't think it's aged great. But it's the original, so I've certainly got to give it credit. And there's some fantastic, iconic designs - like this old-school MS-09 Dom.

My Wife got me this kit a little while ago and it's just kind of been sitting in the queue, waiting to be built. Honestly, I was kind of intimidated - it's a huge box.

This is kind of a weird kit... The original design is from 1999. It got an update for P-Bandai in 2019, and then another update and a full re-release in 2021. So the runners are kind of all over the place. Some of the engineering feels kind of dated. And there's lots of duplicate parts.

Of course I had to paint the little pilot figures... And this is the first time I've used an airbrush on gunpla. I primed them with Vallejo Mecha Color primer, then painted them all black with Vallejo Model Air, then finally topcoated them with Vallejo Mecha Color matt varnish. I think they turned out pretty well... Except for that stray bit of yellow on the helmet that I didn't notice until I was taking pictures.

As usual, I painted the monoeye with my favorite metallic pink Gundam Marker. I just love how that pops.

This whole kit is just big and chunk. Very bulky. Those legs are absolutely huge.

The fit isn't great. Those shoulders, for example, didn't want to stay together. The red and black sections kept coming apart and I wound up having to glue them

This kit has the same terrifyingly well-articulated hands as the Origin RX-78-2 I built a little while back. They're not horrible to build, but I'm terrified they're going to break.

This is certainly a well-armed mobile suit. There's the heat rod, a machine-gun, two giant bazookas, a couple weird little hand-held rockets, and then some extra ammo.

This kit actually came with waterslide decals, which is always a nice surprise. Unfortunately, after using G-Rework and Delpi decals for the last couple of kits those Bandai decals weren't great. Seems like they didn't want to release from the paper very easily.

Annoyingly... While decals were included to mark this suit for Gaia, Mash, or Ortega - the marking guide didn't indicate who gets what. And I couldn't find any good examples of what rank/number each of the Black Tri-Stars were. So I eventually just decided to make it a random Dom. Nobody in particular.

And, again, I'm topcoating this with my new airbrush. I didn't do a great job. There's a couple bits where I went too heavy and there's some waterlines. A couple bits where there's some spattering. But, for the most part, I think it turned out well. It's certainly got a very nice matte finnish.

This is one chonky mobile suit. Those legs are simply massive. And the articulation really isn't great. I really struggled to get anything dynamic out of this thing.

I grabbed a Bandai Action Base 1 to get it up off the ground... And while that certainly helps deliver better poses - it makes the whole build even bigger and bulkier.

I'm left with seriously mixed feelings on this build. It looks great up on the shelf... And I'm fairly pleased with how my first airbrush work turned out... But I didn't love the build itself.

The articulation isn't great. The inner-frame is really not impressive - it's just kind of there to hang armor on. Despite the upgrades and revisions this kit still feels pretty dated. I think calling it a "1.5" is being generous.

But it looks truly striking up on the shelf. It's big and bold. That black/purple color-scheme is fantastic. I'm tempted to put more Doms up on my shelf... But maybe I'll try the HG Origin kits instead of these old Master Grade ones.

[dolce-tenebra-toscana]

La squadra and what languages (other than italian ) i think they might speak:

Risotto ✂️: Greek 🇬🇷

Italy is very close to Greece, and i think Risotto participated to some summer camps with his church group ( his granny had some connections with the local diocese ) and so he spent 4/5 years of his childhood in the island of Corfù. He knows the basics of the language and can keep up with a conversation but if people start talking to fast his brain shuts down and start singing " Ciuri Ciuri " by Roy Paci.

Prosciutto 🍖: French 🇫🇷

Ok so with Prosciutto is a lil complicated; his mother was a piano teacher that traveled a lot in France for concerts and sometimes he hat to attend to ( or do his own recital) and being the son of two cold hearted perfectionists he was supposed to speak fluently the language at first try. At the age of 15 ( when he decided he had enough of his family and ran away to Napoli ) he decided to put his knowledge aside and speak only in italian or the sicilian dialect, cause his hate for the tongue was rooted so deep inside of him. Eventually Risotto found out about it and knows that if he needs someone to translate some documents in french,Prosciutto is the right man!

Melone 🍈: Chinese 🇨🇳

The city of Prato has one of the largest Chinese community in Italy and Melone, being the lil know it all he is, was more than happy to add this skill to his curriculum. He started when he was in university and of course the first thing he tried to do was flirt with the chinese students from the Erasmus program ( his pronounce was terrible at first and received so many slaps in the face ) but the more he practiced the more he actually started enjoying the complexity and history behind the language. Now he uses it when he has to do some hacker jobs or just finding weird sited for his " alone nights "....yes i know, this mann CAN'T be normal.

Illuso 🔎: German 🇩🇪

Illuso's father was born and raised in Dresden but during a lil trip in Torino, was mesmerized by the beauty of an italian brunette...3 months later he found himself living in a loveless marriage with her and their unborn baby. Now, he didn't love his wife but he truly loved his son and he did everything he could to teach young illuso about his german heritage: he spoke to him in german when his wife wasn't around, sang his childhood's lullabies to him, made illuso watch cartoons and read comic books in german...La Squadra's favourite narcissist may act all tough and brag about his high level skills with the language but truth is, he just remembers fondly those memories with his late father.

Ghiaccio 🧊: Finnish 🇫🇮

You just got your driving licence, you are an angry teen from Veneto and your first car is a green Panda 4x4 that you are using to run away from the police after your parents had " a lil accident ". What's the best thing you can do to let some steam out? Hide in the countryside of Emilia-Romagna, roll up a j*int and listen to Finnish heavy metal music. Ghiaccio had some really tough times before joining la Squadra, and had a lot of pent up anger to let out, so he found comfort in finnish music and while he screamed with their lead singers in a very akward imitation of their dialect he actually slowly started to learn that ancient and interesting tongue. Now he can proudly speaks a fluent Finnish and whenever he has occasion he spends time with Risotto, blasting music and doing some wild karaoke.

Formaggio 🧀: Spanish 🇪🇸

Ok cheese man here is the king of flirting, and what language yells sensuality all over the place ( in his mind at least ): spanish~ He spent MONTHS in Ostia Lido, trying to catch the secrets of the iberic latin lovers and how the get all the ladies during his adolescence and now with his arrogan-ehm confidence, roman charm and smooth talking like an italian Ricky Martin he literally has to peel girls from his body. No seriusly 2/3 times the rest of the team thought he wasn't going to get some that night but the moment he starts lowering his voice and speaking spanish, the girl is already swooning in his arms. Watch out this summer chicas~

[princesssarisa]

In Cinderella Tales from Around the World, I've now reached the various Donkeyskin tales from Scandinavia: Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland.

*In these versions, the king typically seeks a new bride who fits his late wife's wedding dress, or all her clothes. Of course, only his daughter does. Or in one alternate version, there's no requirement, but the princess puts on her mother's dress just as an heirloom, and her father sees for the first time how much she resembles her mother and resolves to marry her.

*The heroine's advisor who helps her escape is sometimes a red cow, sometimes an old woman or an old man, and sometimes her mother's spirit. Or sometimes she relies on her own cunning.

**It's nice to see versions where the mother's spirit helps her daughter, as in so many Cinderella tales. It's a refreshing contrast to other Donkeyskin tales that partly blame the mother for her daughter's plight, since on her deathbed she makes the father promise to only remarry a bride who resembles her.

*The heroine's disguise is typically a cloak of either crow skins or, less comfortably, crows' bills. Although in one version it's just a generic cloak of feathers, in a few others it's a fur cloak, in another it's a wooden cloak, and in one Finnish version, The Pig Girl, she puts on a pigskin, which magically turns her into a pig, recalling the bear transformation in Italy's The She-Bear.

*In Danish versions, there are typically just two beautiful gowns instead of three: one silver, one gold. This is sometimes true in other countries' versions too. Still, most other versions have three gowns, with the standard themes of sun, moon, and stars, or with some other themes (e.g. flowers, precious metals and stones, and the sun, moon, and stars; or silk flowers, golden flowers, and diamonds). Although oddly, in one Danish version and one Finnish version, the dress made of crows' bills is her elegant dress, not her ugly disguise, and it's her only one, which she wears repeatedly.

**In another Finnish version, The Three Dresses, the king demands the gold and silver gowns and the crow's-bill cloak of the princess rather than vice-versa. He promises that if she can acquire them, she won't have to marry him; her mother's spirit gives the clothes to her, but the king goes back on his word, so she runs away.

*The Danish variants include two without an incestuous father. In one, the king just refuses to let his daughter marry the prince she loves, so she runs away to be a servant at that prince's castle, while in another, the princess is an orphan betrothed to a prince she dislikes.

*In most of these versions, the princess becomes a scullery maid at the prince's palace, though occasionally she becomes a poultry-maid or a swineherd instead.

*Some versions include the theme of the prince throwing items at the disguised princess, others don't.

*Usually the princess wears her gowns to church rather than to balls, though a few versions have a banquet instead, or have her follow the prince when he goes to visit some other nobility.

*In a few versions, the princess's helper gives her some magic that does her chores for her, so her life as a servant isn't too hard.

*As in the Scandinavian Cinderella stories, the princes typically chats "Darkness behind me, light before!" to prevent anyone from stopping her when she leaves the church or the ball. Sometimes she also chants it when she first runs away from home to prevent her father from finding her.

*Almost all these variants have a Cinderella ending: the princess loses a shoe and the prince tries it on every maiden until he finds her. In Finland's The Pig Girl, as in some Finnish Cinderella tales, she loses her hat, her glove, and her shoe, and none of them fit anyone except her (and they fit her even in her pig form).

*In The Pig Girl, the king pursues his daughter when she runs away. But at the instruction of her mother's spirit, she throws a brush, a comb, and a mirror behind her, which turn into different kinds of walls that no one can scale.

*Also in The Pig Girl, after the shoe, glove, and hat fit the pig, the prince reluctantly agrees to marry her, because he gave his word that he would marry the girl who could wear them. Still, he comically mutters his disgruntled feelings to himself as they approach the church for the wedding. But then she changes herself back into her true human form, and he's delighted.

**I wouldn't be surprised if this inspired the ending of Sapsorrow from Jim Henson's The Storyteller, which also has a slipper-fitting, and which has the prince agree to marry "the Scraggletag" before her true form is revealed.

**This also reminds me of the scene in The Magic Flute where Papageno is coerced into agreeing to marry the "ugly old woman," only to be delighted when she takes off her disguise to reveal that she's really Papagena. Now I wonder if Emanuel Schikaneder, the librettist, might have known some version of this tale and been inspired by it. Especially because in the original stage directions of The Magic Flute, when the "old woman" first declares her love for Papageno, the disgusted Papageno throws the water she brought him in her face (though whether to avoid getting the stage floor wet or to make Papageno more likable, this is rarely done in modern performances of the opera). The prince throws water at the disguised heroine in many Donkeyskin tales, including The Pig Girl. And in several Donkeyskin tales from Italy, the heroine disguises herself as an old woman. Might Schikaneder have been inspired by some Austrian version of the tale?

@ariel-seagull-wings, @adarkrainbow, @themousefromfantasyland

[iphigeniacomplex]

sorry everyone but im taylor swifts new manager and she will put out a death metal album and then a horrorcore album and then an easy listening album which will exclusively release on elevators and then a ska album and then an album where she learns to play the singing saw and then a neo-medieval album and then a finnish acid-folk album and then she will star in and cowrite a musical adaptation of classic russian novel the master and margarita with tony-losing composer dave malloy and then she will do country rap and then she will die peacefully of old age. and you will listen to all of it.

[metalshockfinland]

BLIND CHANNEL Release Backstreet Boys Cover 'Everybody (Bloodbros Back)'

BLIND CHANNEL release their infamous boyband cover EVERYBODY (BLOODBROS BACK).After releasing their latest album EXIT EMOTIONS in March 2024, the chart-topping Finnish nu-metal stars are finally unleashing their legendary cover EVERYBODY (BLOODBROS BACK) of Backstreet Boys’ 1997 hit single ‘Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)’. The cover, which has been part of the bands’ live set-list all over the US��

[mywifeleftme]

255: Amorphis // Elegy

Elegy Amorphis 1996, Spinefarm

A woman I was sleeping with once asked me while we were lying in bed in the darkness if there was any poetry I could recite from memory. Reader, I had nothing, so I ended up sleepily intoning these words:

Truly they lie, they talk utter nonsense. Those who sing music Reckon that the kantele Was fashioned by a god Out of a great pike’s shoulders, From a water dog’s hooked bones… It was molded from sorrow. Its belly out of hard days, Its soundboard from endless woes, Its strings gathered from torments And its pegs from other ills. Truly they lie, they talk utter nonsense.

Then she wept. I’d mentioned the words came from the Kanteletar, a Finnish collection of traditional folk poems collected in 1840, but I wonder if the reaction might’ve been different if I’d gone on to say that I’d learnt them from “My Kantele,” a song from idiosyncratic death metal band Amorphis’s third album Elegy. (Possibly not; she was the sensitive type.)

Amorphis is probably my favourite metal band of the ‘90s, moving over the course of four albums and a coupla EPs from a hoarse death-doom croak to an uncategorizable psychedelic smear of folk, prog, melodic death, and goth rock. Their adolescent fascination with fantasy warfare led them to the deeper well of folklore in all its silliness and strange wisdom; they infused their wintry stomp with the druggy Orientalist prog rave-ups of fellow Finns Kingston Wall. It always seemed like those moments when they found themselves in the zeitgeist were not the result of chasing trends but a happy accident of their own path briefly intersecting the moment, as when Elegy’s bold embrace of keyboards and alternating clean and growled vocals anticipated the Gothenburg melodic death sound that was about to take over the extreme metal scene.

Elegy crunches (“Against Widows”) and Elegy thrashes (“On Rich and Poor”), but mostly it swirls, with new addition Kim Rantala's watery keys and lead guitarist Esa Holopainen’s increasingly Floydian selection of tones lapping over the album’s burly architecture. The selected Kanteletar poems that serve as lyrics tend toward mournfulness, and both growler Tomi Koivusaari and debuting clean vocalist Pasi Koskinen give appropriately panged readings, but as with a lot of genuine folk songs most of the musical settings have a playful zest. It’s an album rife with lengthy, dramatic outros (“The Orphan,” “Weeper on the Shore,” “Elegy”), the band finding a stirring melody and riding it to satisfaction, and if their sudden fascination with Eastern scales and the sitar is geographically inexplicable (why not a kantele on a song called “My Kantele”?) the songs that go that way generally rip.

There’s a fair amount of cheese to be found on Elegy, but even nearly 20 years since I first heard it as a teen, I find I’m able to take most of it in the spirit it was intended. Elegy’s still kind of way out there on its own as metal goes, doing its magic on a frozen stream that sparkles under the stars.

255/365

[disappointingyet]

Kuolleet Lehdet (Fallen Leaves) 

Director Aki Kaurismäki Stars Alma Pöysti, Jussi Vatanen, Janne Hyytiäinen Finland/Germany 2023 Language Finnish (with English subtitles) 1hr 21mins Colour

Laconically moving Finnish film

Ansa (Alma Pöysti) works in a supermarket. Holappa (Jussi Vatanen) does something that looks like involves blasting stuff off metal. He lives in a shipping container with three of his co-workers, she has a nice little flat of her own. He drinks too much – and anyone who is considered a problem drinker by the standards of an Aki Kaurismäki film must be doing serious damage to their liver. 

They sort-of meet at a karaoke night, one of series of misconnections. In the meantime, we see them individually as they experience the margins of the Finnish job market.

All of which, I realise, is probably making this film seem incredibly bleak. And yet the word hovering in my mind at the end of it was ‘lovely’. Fallen Leaves is ultimately a sweet film, one that sympathises with its characters and doesn’t patronise them. 

Ansa, especially, is strong and self-reliant. She’s quiet but not the meek and shy person others persistently assume she is going to be.

If you’ve ever seen a Kaurismäki film, you’ll recognise the style. People don’t talk much, a lot of the film happens in bars, not much happens and then there are bursts of highly dramatic events, often off screen. 

And almost everything looks and sounds like it belongs sometime between 1958 and 1962. But the film is resolutely set now – every time the characters turn on their vintage radios, there’s news about the war in Ukraine. But in contrast to recent Kaurismäki films, global events remain in the background. It remains an interesting choice, possibly being a deliberate way of preventing anyone from treating this as a wallow in a nostalgic vibe.

(When Ansa and Holappa go to the cinema, despite all the posters outside being for vintage pictures such as Brief Encounter, they see a film from 2019.)

Kaurismäki has been making films in his own very distinctive style for 40 years now and they require an audience to fully buy in to the mood and approach. But if you do, then Fallen Leaves is one of his best, funny and touching and really rather wonderful.

I saw Fallen Leaves at the BFI London Film Festival 2023

[x--daughters-of-darkness--x]

BATTLE BEAST Singer NOORA LOUHIMO Opens Up About Weight Struggles And Depression

BATTLE BEAST singer Noora Louhimo has opened up about struggling with generalized anxiety disorder and weight.

Louhimo, who last year released her debut solo album, "Eternal Wheel Of Time And Space", under the NOORA LOUHIMO EXPERIENCE banner, joined BATTLE BEAST in 2012 with no previous experience as a metal vocalist but quickly acclimated herself as the replacement for Nitte Valo (a.k.a. Nitte Vänskä).

Earlier today (Monday, December 12),the 34-year-old Finnish-born vocalist took to her Instagram to write: "Have you ever thought of losing weight? Are you depressed or anxious? I have, ALL MY LIFE.

"I have been struggling with eating disorders and my weight since I was a little child and still trying to find a balance. I have been depressed and anxious sometimes 'without a reason'. Just resently it appeared, most of this was caused by the imbalance in my body that was caused by life without routines and bad decisions. I wanted to start a journey to myself and what I COULD DO to make myself feel better in my skin and in my head.

"SO HERE, this method is worth trying:

"1. Go to sleep and wake up everyday the same time (for example: I wake up at 7 am and go to sleep 11 pm) AND sleep everyday at least 8 hours. There can be exceptions like when I have late shows. But 90% of the time my goal is to keep the same sleeping rhythm.

2. Eat at least 3 times a day, 3-4 hours between the meals. (For example I eat breakfast, lunch, dinner and evening snack) Your blood sugar stays steady throughout the day and there are less cravings.

3. Move your ass - Find your sport and do it at least 3 times a week. (For example I love dancing, gymnastics and running (with Bobby my dog.) The most important thing is that you have fun.

4. Talk nicely to yourself and avoid judging - if you keep talking to yourself as you would talk to your best friend (supporting, loving, kind way) this will make your thinking into doing eventually and you have more believe in yourself and what you are doing. It is important to be the kind parent to yourself - Sometimes it is okay to have a sweet snack or lay on couch and watch a movie. But sometimes it is time to say to yourself: Enough is enough, now go and seize the day, enjoy life. After all, we all are here trying to do our thing, trying to succeed in life, enjoy life, make life, be inventive, be something, BE HUMAN.

"Today is a good day for thinking - What kind of life I WANT and HOW DO I GET IT. OR I am part of life on this Earth, what kind of part do I want to play in it?

"Have a nice thinkful Monday".

In an interview with Metal Divas, Noora explained how she ended up fronting BATTLE BEAST: "[In] September [2012], I got a call from [then-BATTLE BEAST guitarist] Anton [Kabanen] that they want me to join BATTLE BEAST. I had heard their music and loved the sound and the vocals, so the next day I called Anton and said I'm in.

"Anton found me by accident on YouTube when he was searching for the new vocalist," she continued. "He had been looking for a vocalist — male or female; [it did not] matter. The only thing that mattered was can that [he or she could] sing his songs without compromises.

"I've been singing since I was four years old," Noora added. "While being a huge fan of heavy metal of '80s and a teenager, I had some classical singing lessons when I was 16 years old. Then at the age of 19, I started studying music in pop/jazz line. At the same time, I started doing some jam sessions at bars. There I found my first band (ADMIRAL OCTOPUS) in the blues bar. We used to play rock and blues music from '60s-'70s and Janis Joplin was the reason I got the rasp in my voice. After ADMIRAL OCTOPUS, in 2011, I took part in a singing competition ('Wanna Be A Rock 'N' Roll Star') at Henry's Pub of Tampere and won it with Janis Joplin's 'Piece Of My Heart'. That's how my single 'Relax' was born."

Photo credit: Terhi Ylimainen

[airpanic]

Long long ago I was alone. So I filled my life with music. I came to music as everyone knows through my uncle and my cousin, and somehow because of some girls. I was never a music believer, I never had a burning flame inside of me, I never wanted to be a rock star. I just wanted to forget my life, boring and negative, forget about the State I grew in and its colonists. The past was better but unreachable and all what was left were mere echoes recorded on albums.

Then I had to go the Rainy City, alone. Music was my only friend for a while. Then came the friends from Luxemburg and all the other ones. We went through it all together, we knew it all. From the soft rock of the 70s we grew in, we went through hard rock, punk, hardcore punk, deutschpunk, thrash metal, death metal, crust punk, black metal even. We played, we dug the sound, the undiscovered history. We learned about the politics, the violence. We became older and more tired. Some left, some married, some were faithful to our hard days, some changed and became morons. I have a song and a place for all of them. But the years went by nonetheless.

And after a while came the accidents, plane in Argentina and car at home, the same year. No more money, and all to rebuild. I went again to the Rainy City, studied again. But I went through all of this garbage once already, so I was not the teenager I was. The streets fed me, and their alternative sound, different from their sound shaped me. It was mere exploitation, drugs users, capitalists. We know the rest.

Then I had in Paris this dream about a lake. It might never come true, but it already shaped my life. Then I had enough of all this and run into the farms. Then I had no choice but to go on. I wanted to leave to Spain. And then I met you. We don't share music very often to say the least. My drum set becomes rusty. But do I regret it ? No. With you came a new feeling. I knew from the start you were different and we played with languages and places, with the art, the cuisine and all what makes a daily life. We built our own little thing. The friends found me different this time.

Because I don't have nostalgia with you. I don't look for something that I long after anymore. Many said to me many kind of words. Some sweet, some cruel, some sincere, but in the end all fake. You always used direct words, no bullshit. We stood together from the start. You graduated also, and we left your street that day. We know we we'll never come back there, bye bye Poblec Sec. No big drama with you, the feeling is different from everything I knew. But you have to go for your career. I know we'll see each other, you know I'd use the boat, the road, my bike... or even the plane to reach you.

Some nights ago I dreamt about a song I discovered as I started to play drums, a song from a finnish rock band only a few would remember, and even fewer in my birthplace or in Spain. Its chords sounds to my ears very similar to this sad korean pop song you sent me. The same feeling, but in the korean one they celebrate a loss of someone they knew. In the finnish version, they celebrated the loss of their nostalgia and the new start. We don't know what's next for us, where we'll be, what we'll do, in which corner of the world. But as I walked in the barrio that last time, the chapter was closed but I didn't felt that usual nostalgia. With you it has been very different. Your shadow was the longest possible with me. It's a simple love but one oriented towards the future, finally.

El mundo es tuyo. Mi corazon tambien. Vamos juntos sobre el camino.

[classicrockblog1]

Visions is the sixth studio album by power metal band Stratovarius, released on 28 April 1997 through Noise Records. The album reached No. 4 on the Finnish albums chart and remained on that chart for 23 weeks.[1] It is a concept album about Nostradamus.[5]

Steve Huey at AllMusic gave Visions four stars out of five, calling it "as ambitious as neoclassical metal gets" and saying "there are some fine moments on the record", but also remarking that "too much of the material sinks under its own weight, particularly the ten-minute title track."[5]

In 2005, the album was ranked No. 297 in Rock Hard magazine's book of The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time.[7]

Loudwire named the album at sixth in their list "Top 25 Power Metal Albums of All Time."[8] Metal Hammer also named the album in their list "The 10 essential power metal albums."[9]

[mirandamckenni1]

Liked on YouTube: The Dark Element - "The Ghost And The Reaper" (Official Music Video) || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZsuGtv3-co || Subscribe To Be Alerted When We Add New Videos - https://ift.tt/o8Wdp4K / From the album THE DARK ELEMENT. Get your copy NOW: https://ift.tt/qTbOmoi • Frontiers: https://ift.tt/ZF3EAtl (CD & VINYL) • Apple Music: https://ift.tt/R9Jrx8b • iTunes: https://ift.tt/rHN7ICd • Spotify: https://ift.tt/WlFjU4O • Amazon: https://ift.tt/EJploi4 • Google Play: https://ift.tt/rvXP0Qc Follow the "Newest From Frontiers" playlist on Spotify to keep up with all the new songs we release each week: http://spoti.fi/1rQz5Zm Connect with The Dark Element: https://ift.tt/uZB9HaW THE DARK ELEMENT is a musical project fronted by the former Nightwish vocalist Anette Olzon together with Finnish guitarist and songwriter Jani Liimatainen. The Ghost And The Reaper (lyrics) Here the stars no longer shine And bitter is the wine That flows between my lips In our garden that withered so fast Two roses, red and white The princess and the knight We’ll always be here We will be waiting for Now and forevermore We are the Eden’s curse For better and for worse For you left for your ghost And I am the reaper of souls The pyres burning bright Flames reaching for the sky Now you are gone but I’ll write the eulogy for you Cold is stream Colder my blood and Cold is the night Colder your heart Lifeless in my arms Fallen for my charms Dark tale of a dark love Poetry of poison The Ghost and the Reaper Grim verse from a grim soul History of heartless The dream and the dreamer Sour words from a sour heart Hollow and so hopeless The scream and the screamer Dead oaths from our dead lips fallen So lifeless, so silent Now lets take our final bow And let the curtain fall The stage will fade to black A life that will never come back A dark emporium of even darker dreams Where nothing’s what it seems but the shadows they call you Cold is stream Colder my blood and Cold is the night Colder your heart Lifeless in my arms Fallen for my charms Dark tale of a dark love Poetry of poison The Ghost and the Reaper Grim verse from a grim soul History of heartless The dream and the dreamer Sour words from a sour heart Hollow and so hopeless The scream and the screamer Dead oaths from our dead lips fallen So lifeless, so silent Would you please pour holy water on me For all that I want is to join with the sea I wanna go where the ocean caresses the virgin shore For once more Dark tale of a dark love Poetry of poison The Ghost and the Reaper Grim verse from a grim soul History of heartless The dream and the dreamer Sour words from a sour heart Hollow and so hopeless The scream and the screamer Dead oaths from our dead lips fallen So lifeless, so silent Connect with Frontiers: Facebook - https://ift.tt/43aLt2K Twitter - https://twitter.com/FrontiersMusic1 Instagram - https://ift.tt/9tChZ8P Web - https://ift.tt/ZHC5cpa Frontiers Rock Festival: - https://ift.tt/z1KP0Nm - https://ift.tt/69wdnM2 Frontiers Metal Festival: - https://ift.tt/ytAIZGn - https://ift.tt/x0tVme3

[whatsonmedia]

Music Monday: Top 5 Eurovision Song Selection!

Rhythmic Rendezvous: Embark on an Unforgettable Musical Voyage with Adam Humphries, WhatsOn's Maestro of Melodies! Experience a Harmonious Week of Captivating Beats and Energetic Tunes, Expertly Curated to Ignite Your Inner Dancer. Get Set to Sway, Spin, and Surrender to the Rhythm! Sam Ryder - Spaceman (2022) From TikTok to Eurovision and now a national music star. Sam's song is about being a fictional astronaut who circles round the earth but longs to feel his feet on the ground. It's also longing about wanting to be back with that special someone and saying as long as they will. https://youtu.be/udsMTb2NIak https://youtu.be/fU5cJfaX3DI Mans Zermerlow - Heroes (2015) There must be something in the water in Sweden as they know how to make great music. Mans song about searching for and embracing your inner courage whilst battling inner troubles. Heroes is about projecting positivity to others. A very good feelgood factor in there  https://youtu.be/-nbq6Ur103Q https://youtu.be/5sGOwFVUU0I Lordi - Hard Rock Hallelujah (2006) Finnish rock was certainly embraced hard/metal rock, it also showed that any genre can become part of the contest. The song has numerous biblical references and being united by the spirit of rock music. The screamo voices definitely gave more power to the performance  https://youtu.be/-6Xl9tBWt54 https://youtu.be/gAh9NRGNhUU Jamala - 1944 (2016)  Definitely caused some controversy in the neighbouring Russia simply cos of its subject matter, and Jamala well and truly stood her ground when singing it. The song is a direct reference to the conflicts between Russia and Ukraine and alleged links to Nazi Germany in the 1940's https://youtu.be/wNECV2h-y58 https://youtu.be/B-rnM-MwRHY Conchita Wurst - Rise Like a Phoenix (2014) Austrian singer songwriter Thomas Neuworth aka Conchita Wurst definitely came a trailblazer when singing about rising from the ashes admid moments of devastation and soldiering on regardless. Rise has all the elements about fighting for freedoms  https://youtu.be/EZfXVO12Pq8 https://youtu.be/SaolVEJEjV4 Read the full article

[zephiraz]

Okay, I'm home, and I'm ready to infodump, and also my tumblr is glitching out because of privacybadger not interacting well with reblogging posts containing Spotify links. Time to add more spotify links!

But under a readmore, cause this might get long.

bumblebearcompany in another reblog suggested the Turisas cover of Rasputin. They are absolutely correct!

Wow that's big. Anyway....

But on the topic of Turisas!

The Varangian Way is just about one of the most epic albums there is. Powerful vocals. Powerful strings. Beautiful melodies. A story that sweeps you right up into the Dnieper Rapids and spits you out wondering what year it is.

Now, I didn't spend near enough time gushing about Finntroll. I'll link their most recognized song—Trollhammaren—and one of my absolute favorites—En Maktig Har—but I highly recommend every one of their albums in order. To whet the appetite of those just starting to explore, Nifelvind has a cover of Metallica's The God That Failed! Finntroll sounds like a party, and they're excellent gotta-go-fast music. Out for a run, trying to finish a row while knitting, just want to get that hype up, they're perfect. One of my dearest wishes is to see these guys in concert.

(Man I wish you could resize these things to not be so tall) Fun fact, Finntroll sings in Swedish rather than Finnish as the original singer was part of a Swedish-speaking minority in Finland and felt it fit the band's trollish image more. The band suffered many losses due to illness and accident, but continued the tradition of singing in Swedish.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I did not spend near enough time gushing about Ensiferum. I already linked a playlist containing most of my favorite albums, so instead I'll gush about two that weren't included because the playlist was already quite long.

Ensiferum starts every album with an instrumental track to set the mood. From Afar's By the Dividing Streams is utterly gorgeous, and does a wonderful job precursing an equally gorgeous album. This album ends with a cover of Vandraren, with the singer from Tyr doing the vocals. Second time in this post the singer from one of my favorite bands featured on a song by another of my favorite bands!

Lai Lai Hei is my favorite track on the album Iron. This song had me in its grip so hard that I declared I wanted it to be the song I hear when I die a century down the line, and that's also how I wound up with the superstitious belief that it saved my life. I had the Iron album playing while I drove to work one day. Lai Lai Hei played, the album ended, so I drove in silence for a couple minutes, just to get t-bone sandwiched by someone running a red light! I credit my surviving entirely unscathed to the silence!

I should have done those two the other way around, because it's Tyr time now. The first album of Tyr's I heard was The Lay of Thrym...on youtube, out of order. I got so used to that order that when I found Tyr on spotify and discovered the official order was different, I had to rearrange the album in a playlist to be Correct. Whether you mix up the order or not, though, The Lay of Thrym is a gorgeous journey with an epic titular track. By the Light of the Northern Star is an equally invigorating album, and funnily enough it gets me in the mood for spring cleaning. Buckle down and go fast! Out of all their tracks, I want to showcase what I find to be a beautiful love song:

Platonic, familial, romantic, what have you. It's about finding your home in the person dearest to you.

And as fate would have it, today is the first day of Tyr's Battle Ballads North American tour!

Speaking of tours, Korpiklaani is will shortly start touring in North America as well!

I mentioned above that Finntroll sounds like a party. Going hand in hand, Korpiklaani sounds like fun. Just look at those guys partying on the beach up there! Manala is an excellent album to start with, and my pick to showcase there....

Metal Ievan Polkka? There's nothing better.

To round it out as I'm once again running out of time (where'd the evening go???????), I'm going back to the Youtube guys. I'll link Jonathan Young's playlist of the shanty metal collabs below. He joined up with Colm McGuinness, RichaadEB, Bobby Bass, Caleb Hyles, Annapantsu, and Peyton Parrish for most of these. They're all insanely talented and each worth a look into their own works.

And that's all he wrote!

Hey pals please recommend me your favorite metal bands/songs

[sammybc]

Even Obama was familiar with Finns' enthusiasm for metal music, but what has happened to the popularity of heavy rock?

The middle-aged audience cherishes their memories and old favorites. The strongest candidate for the star of the new generation is Blind Channel.

Helsingin Sanomat 18.4.2022

A short summary of the article:

The show and festival program for the coming summer will delight the lovers of heavy rock. A huge number of heavy rock legends and the most important metal bands of the 21st century will be seen in Finland. The list is impressive: Iron Maiden, Scorpions, Megadeth, Korn, Deftones, King Diamond, Bullet for My Valentine, Five Finger Death Punch, plus all the Finnish bands from Nightwish to Blind Channel and so on. And that is completely natural; Finland is an internationally known metal country with the most metal bands per capita in the world. Even Former US President Barack Obama knew the fact and told it to the whole world.

A couple of decades ago, the most listened songs of the year were heavy metal and rock songs. After the biggest hype, metal music remained among us, but little by little it disappeared from the hit charts. In 2020, there was not a single heavy or rock song on the chart of the most listened songs.

Laura Vähähyyppä, the radio personality of Radio Rock, sees the growing popularity of the Blind Channel as a sign of change: “Such teen hysteria hasn’t been seen since HIM’s big years. Girls are waiting outside hotels screaming.” Vähähyyppä says that logos and band shirts are still a key part of metal fanation. The logo of your favorite band can be tattooed on your skin, even quite large.

Most of the audience for Finland's largest metal bands is abroad. Nightwish has the largest audience, with the smallest venues on the tour being around 2,000 people. Bands of the younger generation, such as Blind Channel, have not yet reached the arena series, but usually perform in smaller clubs for a couple of hundred people.

Blind Channel's record company is Ranka Kustannus, whose CEO is Riku Pääkkönen. In addition to Blind Channel, Pääkkönen's current stable also features Cyan Kicks, who was seen at this year's UMK. “I went looking for younger bands that go through streaming and don’t think of physical records. The target audience is so young that they haven't even seen a CD or a CD player,” tells Pääkkönen. There are now crucial times for Blind Channel's career. If all goes well, the band may be so popular in two years that it will only perform on its world tours in sports arenas.

Blind Channel represented Finland in Eurovision Song Contest last year. In the picture are the singers of the band Niko Moilanen (left) and Joel Hokka.

[arlenianchronicles]

Fire and Smoke. Wrath and Grief.

Throw a pair of star-eyed twins in there, and you got yourself the Third Kinslaying!

On a more serious note though, it’s generally thought (within the story) that the twins are in danger when the Fëanorians first pick them up. Elrond and Elros must surely believe it when Maedhros and Maglor take them. But then this scenario popped into my head while drawing: if the twins were found during the carnage, they were likely (and objectively) safest with Maedhros and Maglor than anyone and anywhere else in Sirion. The Fëanorians were probably thought unbeatable by any Elf at this point (not including Morgoth loll), so none of the soldiers would be able to touch the twins if Maedhros, and especially Maglor, stood in their way. And I’m sure the Orcs wouldn’t stand a chance at all, either.

I don’t know if that makes sense loll But aside from those thoughts, I also kinda imagined little scenarios to go with these pieces. To start with, we have Maedhros and Elrond. I usually pair Elrond with Maedhros since this pairing is quite uncommonly done in fanart and fanfiction. As you’ve probably guessed, Maedhros is fire and wrath here, but though Elrond may fear both, he is in fact safe from both. Maedhros’s wrath is directed at things beyond Elrond’s control, and he shields Elrond from the flames with his red cloak.

As for Maglor, he is smoke and grief. Grieving for Amras (and Amrod if you don’t go with the Losgar version of canon), the Silmaril’s loss, and a whole bunch of other things. Smoke blows all around them, both from Sirion’s destruction and his men and brothers’ funerals. He turns his face to the smoke, deserving the pain of breathing in the putrid stench, but keeps Elros facing away from it. It’s also a bit hard to see, but Maglor’s hair shields Elros from the smoke as well.

While drawing this, I listened to “Lai Lai Hei” by Ensiferum, a Finnish melodic folk metal band. It probably doesn’t fit the tone of the paintings, but I felt that it did click most with Maedhros and Elrond’s piece after a while XD