The bands for NKM Metalfest are all high-class livebands from Finland, that some of you might recognize. The bands (in alphabetical order) are:

• Bloodered Hourglass (groovy thrash metal)
• Deathchain (brutal death/thrash metal)
• Dreamtale (power metal / hard rock)
• MyGrain (modern / melodic death metal)
• Kill the Romance (modern / melodic death metal)
• Kiuas (aggressive power metal)
• Pressure Points (progressive metal)
• Ruinside (thrash metal)

For all of you who are coming to Sauna, or staying at Tampere at that time, get your asses to NKM Metalfest and see some great, interesting bands from the top of the Finnish metal scene. More information, band introductions etc. at www.nkm.fi (only in finnish) and 3 day tickets are now available via Tiketti.

The heavier, the better,

The Metal Nation Crew

And what that means? Nothing. At least considering our work in the fields of Metal. But it gives us more options and freedom (business-wise) when we’re arranging gigs and other events. And of course it’s now even more easier to get people involved.  And speaking of that, we’re very glad to announce our two new members, who joined Project: Metal Nation’s flight crew: Mr. Jussi Karppinen and Mr. Niko Mattila, who are also going to be members of board of the Metal Nation association alongside with the original PMN trio.

Jussi has been doing the same work as Wellu for a while now in China: creating contacts and examining the field we’re about to step. Jussi also speaks somewhat fluent chinese, so he’s a great addition to our crew. And Niko… well, what can you say about him. He has lots of experience arranging gigs and voyages in the spirit of metal (some of you might’ve been on board on some of the famous, or infamous, trip from Finland to Wacken Open Air). Welcome to the crew guys.

Also, we’re now seriously trying to build our first big case in China. ‘Cause we have to get some name and publicity in China before we can start even thinking about the Metal Nightclub, we’re making the first landing with a heavy start. We’re going to get some bad-ass finnish metal bands, who are courageous enough to board with us, fly them to China and do a mini-tour with them. If everything goes as planned, the chinese are able to bang some head with us this fall (september-october)! We’ll keep you posted where we are with this plan and which bands are coming with us.

We saved the best for last: a comic relief presented by our very own Niko Mattila. This clip was filmed in Provinssi Rock (Seinäjoki, Finland) in 2009, where Niko’s favourite band Manowar was on stage. Joey DeMaio asked for someone to get on stage and play some guitar with them. As an outgoing and spontaneous guy, Niko stepped up and got on the stage. What happened after that… see for yourself. Let’s just say that it doesn’t have to be always that serious. Also we want to give our respect to the recently passed-away Scott Columbus (R.I.P.).

Hail and Kill,

The Metal Nation Crew (reinforced)

But now, the norsemen are taking it all back. From the depths of Valhalla (out of nowhere) is rising this totally new mixture of folkmetal, hardcore, deathmetal, punk, blackmetal and groovy sounds. Nothing like I’ve heard before. Somehow the whole thing is so twisted that it has to come from Odin himself (no man could come up with this) and it works. It’s almost as disturbed as Zero Scope’s reggae-metal, but this actually works. Song after song it sounds better, and after a few times of listening you’ll get a hang of the music. The only problem is that you can’t get rid of it. It stucks in your head until you listen the album over and over again.

Norway has been waiting this all the way from 1066: this is the year of retalition. This jolly bunch of  norsemen are taking chokehold over us all are coming to beat the living hell out of us while enjoying Mjød, ravishing our women and cutting our family-tree short. In figure of speech. They’ll do this with self-titled debut album Kvelertak, which I personally think is in the top 5 debut metal albums since year 2000. Is Volbeat on that list? No, they aren’t.

If my post didn’t assure you, listen to this song attached. Black ‘n’ roll, baby. And if you live in Finland, go see them at FME on this Saturday. Seriously.

Mosh and mosh!

-Miika / PMN Crew

2010 was revolutionary year for us. Project: Metal Nation was released in March 2010 and we’ve been doing a lot of work to make it all happen: me, Teemu and a bunch of guys in Finland, Wellu in China and all our friends around the world have been spreading the information. We’re still at the very beginning of this journey, but the first steps have been taken and now there’s only one way: to the sky.

We’ve spent the past two months renovating our new office, and we ‘re beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Hope the office will be ready until the end of this month, so we could once again concentrate on the right things (it’s hard to concentrate on anything at all while you’re living in the middle of a chaos).We’re going to call the office Tuonela 2 (named after it’s predecessor) and it’s going to be just beautiful, in all masculine senses of the word…

And of course we had to practice for building our own bar, so we decided to build a bar counter in the middle of the office. We’ll post some photos as soon it’s ready so you can decide if it’s a success or not. In this photo you can see part of the office before roof, stone wall or any other decorations. There’s also some of the renovation crew (Teemu, Rise, Miika and Wille). Big up for everybody who’s been helping us during this wearing process.

What went on 2010

Who cares? Everybody’s doing all kinds of lists what went on 2010 and what were the best albums and so on… We’ll leave that part to those ‘everybody else’, and look further in the future. Our plans are still somewhat open, but Wellu is coming back from China in January 28th. After that we can do a little recap of the past year  by ourselves and check our goals and achievements. Also, we’re going to give y’all a briefing what Wellu got to know in the other side of the world.

Well, I have to take back a few words (I just can’t resist) and mention that the year 2010 wasn’t nearly as good as 2009 in the Metal music genre: not so many great albums and a few fallen soldiers (R.I.P. Paul Gray, Peter Steele and Ronnie James Dio). I guess that most of the bands took a year off from making albums and concentrated on live shows. And I’ll have to point out probably the best livebands in 2010: Profane Omen, Sotajumala, Scar Symmetry, Insomnium and Stam1na. All of them threw multiple high-quality, high-energy, breathtaking gigs, and we’re all waiting to see them again this year. If you haven’t seen any of those bands live, start making some arrangements and make sure you’ll be there, when they’re next time near you.

I’m personally waiting a lot from this year, especially in the Metal music area. Lots of great upcoming bands like Airhead and BRHG (Bloodred Hourglass) are giving hope that we’re going to see something new in Metal music this year. There’s also some great upcoming albums, from which one rises the expectations above others: Children of Bodom is going to release new album in March! Relentless, Reckless, Forever; that quote sums up pretty good of what’s coming up. Have a Metallic year 2011.

Yours,

Miika & The Metal Nation Crew

PS. We didn’t have any time to send you Christmas greetings, but hey, Christmas is going to be this year also! While you’re waiting the next Christmas (just 346 days left), you can entertain yourself by watching SlayerBob’s Christmas lights. Now that’s something!

]]> http://www.tuoni.fi/metalnation/?feed=rss2&p=388 0 http://www.tuoni.fi/metalnation/?p=384 http://www.tuoni.fi/metalnation/?p=384#comments Wed, 10 Nov 2010 08:41:28 +0000 admin http://www.tuoni.fi/metalnation/?p=384 How the hell would you categorize this band? Alternative metal? I’ve heard the term groove metal associated with this band. (I don’t hear that much Pantera etc. in the sounds myself.) They proclaim to be a streetmetal band, whatever that term means. And actually, why-oh-why every goddamn band even needs to be categorized into a specific goddamn genre? It’s after all just a matter of opinion, and that opinion is related to one’s cultural background. (E.g. Children of Bodom has been referred as black metal band in the U.S., death metal band in Japan and melo death band in Finland.) Great band is a great band. F*ck the genres and labels.

Okay and maybe a bit background for this group. They come from Tampere, Finland and won City Rock 2008 -competition. You can spot one member also from the band Blackstar Halo, so there might be some similar sounds and melodies in the chorus-department, but over all it’s a completely different band with a different sound. The vocalist, Lauri Lepokorpi, provides quite an interesting vocal register, which reminds of 90’s grunge bands (Alice in Chains) or Faith No More. I hate use the term nu-metal, ’cause it has got nothing to do with metal (here we go, again with the genres…), but maybe there’s something Kornish in this band. Drop the prejudices and listen to Airhead’s latest single “Tomorrow is Today”. This video was released yesterday, so be careful or you’ll burn yourself. Because it’s so new. Get it? No… Well, just check out the video.

Especially in this case: I don’t like Volbeat. If you don’t know, it’s a danish progressive rock/metal band with a twist of Elvis. Seriously. I’ve never been a fan of this band but you can’t get rid of it. It’s been playing on every f*cking radiostation in Finland since their debut album. At least I feel like it.

But lately, I’ve been trying to listen their latest album via Spotify and see if there’s something to cling on. Something to bang your head with. Something to play on background. Anything. But I just haven’t found anything. It’s just the same song all over again. And you’ll get tired to it, believe me. But still, there’s something. They’re playing with straight-forward and not-too-serious attitude, and the playing is clock-tight. It must be the rhythym. Yeah, that’s it…

My friend saw their show last month in Finland, and he wrote this review from it:

“Before you ask, Volbeat concert was great. I actually saw it from four different viewpoints. After couple of drinks and watching a rather tragicomic, yet extremely exciting bingo contest at my “official” hangout bar, Public Corner, I made it to Pakkahuone.

Usually, when the posters and the ticket says the band starts playing at 21, it usually means they start around 21.30 or 21.45, but Volbeat was different, their gig started at 21.05.

I was on the left side, pretty close to the stage when arguably one of the best concerts of 2010 began with The Mirror And The Ripper from thier latest album.

Volbeat is a Danish heavy-alternative-groove-metal-rockabilly-punk-rock-’n'-roll group. They have sort of struck gold, mixing heavy metal with elements from 50’s rock ‘n’ roll swing style and rebel attitude. The concert was a succesful combination of old and new, but at one point I thought most of the people around me hadn’t yet purchased the new Beyond Hell / Above Heaven album, so they weren’t familiar with all the songs they played.

After some half ‘n’ hour, somewhere after 16 Dollars, I decided to get a beer. The house was completely full, and as usual, one had an easy access from front to back. But getting back to front is trickier. This I could have solved with a simple elbow tactics, but there were reasons why I decided to not to return to my original post: the risk of bruises, the delicious yet delicate relationship with my beer, the presence of hot, neo-burlesque pin-up style ladies and the fact that so far I had obviously been in the conservative corner of the audience. Here, people were much more “in”, fists in the air, singing along and bellowing loudly. At one point however I decided to “go over the top” and advance more forward, closer to the centre.

The band had a good connection with the audience and the little things like audience members dancing and waving Danish flag on stage, during Thanks made it even better. There was also a surprise appearance of Napalm Death “Barney” on the stage to sing (read ‘growl’) his feature song Evelyn.

I believe in encores, so I’m not among the first to leave when the band stops playing, but I had switched into another position in the background (also to collect more beer) to hear the last songs, before the concert was over. “
That’s how the crowd sees it: they come to the show, they enjoy it and perhaps they’ll buy the album (if they haven’t got one already). And that’s all that matters. It doesn’t mean what the majority ignores, but what the minority supports. That’s what it’s all about. Oh, and after all the listening, I did find one track from Volbeat I really did enjoy: Evelyn (mentioned also above). Listen to it and make up your own mind.

-Miika / PMN Crew

A young finnish talented director is executing his dream, and he’s making it big! So let’s support this kinda movie and get your lazy ass’ off from sofa and into theatres next december. Santa Claus is here and he isn’t as nice as thought! Everyone of us needs training.

Oh, and by the way: if you want to see some really interesting movie stuff, check this out. GET THIS IDEA: MORTAL KOMBAT BROUGHT TO 2000′S. The same idea as Christopher Nolan did for Batman. Just a little bit darker. We’ll just hope that this idea will get wind under it’s wings… We’ ll like it.

-PMN Crew

Wellu had some serious contacts with MIDI-fest in China and had a time to check out such bands as Frosty Eve, AK-47, Twisted Machine and many many more. If you haven’t heard of these bands before, check them out! We’ve got also some great material, but it’s up to festival organizer if we can dowload some clips with Soulfly, Shadows Fall, Loudness, Agonist, Finntroll etc… We’ll see (it’s redicilous how hard it is to publish material from bands which are well-known abroad, thought it would be a favour for them…).

All and all, Wellu’s been promoting our idea, and as far as we know, it’s been getting some uprise and positive thoughts within Chinese possible business companions. Everything’s a plus, but we need people to be sure that we’re painting the world perspective that people are sure about and they can relate to. So here it is once again:

We’d like to see a world where everything is possible and traditions are intrinsic value; every man thinks for him-/herself. In a positive way. We’re giving you guys a chance to get a bit better to know with each another from different continents, but still with same values. Religion is a religion, belief system is a belief system. It doesn’t matter. We all want the same thing: spiritual and secular world peace for everyone, right?

The world can be quite confusing these days with all this information available, but our advice is: keep your minds open and your visions forwarded (consequence: you’ll achieve). That’s it. Later on we’ll deal with how to get you to the point where you would like to be, but just now enjoy what you have around you. Right now. That’s all that matters. The people, the music, the inspiration. Just enjoy.

Just enjoying,

The PMN Crew

But what we’ve been up to lately? Miika attended the Jurassic Rock festival in Mikkeli (a huge thanks for the crew there), and met some interesting people there. Miika had also time to check out some bands (e.g. Stam1na, Mokoma, Insomnium, Sonata Arctica), make some interviews and meet some ol’ friends of the project in form of Scar Symmetry. All of these bands threw a great show for the sun-bathing festival audience, but one new band stood out.

A young quintet called BRHG (Bloodred Hourglass) wiped the floor (if there would’ve been one) with audience and just pulled an energetic, surprisingly impressive gig at saturday afternoon. If you haven’t heard of their laid-back hardcore trash metal, take a minute and check them out. It’ll be worth it. You can also see them live 16.10.2010 at Dante’s Highlight (Hellsinki) where they’re warming up the stage for the mighty Scar Symmetry.

Miika has also been on the Metal Nation anthem and we’re now settling the schedules for musicians to step in the studio. It should be around the corner, but you never know what happens… Miika and Teemu were also interviewed for a radioshow called Beijing Bop! aired here in Finland. The show presents chinese culture and phenomena for finnish people, and somehow they thought that we’d be suitable addition for the show. Well, it was fun and we’d like to thank Anniina and the rest of the radio crew.

Wellu hasn’t been just standing around either. He’s been struggling with the internet connections once again (we really don’t know whether it’s the poor connections or just inept Wellu messing around with internet), but we get a word from him every now and then. He’s still in Shanghai and he’s been working on a two different jobs to support himself, and also he’s been promoting the project, making new connections, interviewing bands, watching gigs and so on. Next he’s going to do two things: he’s going to attend the MIDI-festival (rock/metal) near Shanghai and then he’s going to do a gig himself! With a violin! In a bar!! Really!!!

Wellu just sent a message that they had to postpone the show due to heavy rains (we don’t know how that affects on an indoor gig in China…) but now he has time to rehearse some more. He told us that he’s going to atleast perform Fear of the Dark, so it’s going to be sort of a metal gig, kinda. If it sounds fun, interesting and has got anything at all to do with metal culture, we’re up for it. Stranger the idea, the better. Imagine: a finnish guy playing metal covers with violin in a bar in Shanghai! Everything’s possible.

Until next time,

The PMN Crew

As you know, Primal Fear is one of the top acts in today’s European Metal scene and their latest album 16.6 (Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead) puts them right back in the map! We’ll let you know as soon as the tickets are for sale and for the mean time, check out this videoclip from the Black Sun album.

Now I’m off to Mikkeli to check out Scar Symmetry, Insomnium, Stam1na etc. in Jurassic Rock and I’ll be posting bits and pieces from there next week.

Hell yeah,

-Miika / PMN Crew