Tag Archives: Korpiklaani

Metal Memories: The Time I Discovered Faith No More and My Life Was Forever Altered

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It had been rumored and speculated about ever since the band first announced that they were reuniting several years ago, but early last month it became 100% official: for the second time in less than a year, one of my favorite bands ever will be releasing a new album for the first time since I was in high school. Of course this is exciting news (that, until about five or six years ago, I would never have guessed would ever be happening again), and — with some amount of trepidation — I’m really trying to be optimistic about it. But that’s not what I’m here to tell you about.

By this point, I’m assuming any of you who would care at all about this band’s upcoming seventh album have already seen most of the information currently available — and probably even listened to one of the two pre-released singles that have come out so far. So I’m not really intending (or expecting) to inform anybody here. Instead, I’d like to take this opportunity to share an anecdotal description of my own discovery of the band, dating back multiple decades; perhaps to offer a little bit of insight into myself as a writer and a fan. I don’t know whether anyone will actually care about any of this, but considering how influential this was in my formative music-listening years, I felt like I ought to take the time to write it.

 

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Vesperia Now Have A New Guitarist; New Album On The Way Soon!

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Good afternoon, readers! I hope your day is going well. In my opinion, this Monday doesn’t seem to be coming to an end nearly quickly enough! All I’ve wanted to do all day is go back home and get back in bed. Oh well, only a couple more hours before I’m able to do that.

In the meantime, I’d like to share some news with you. It’s been a few months since we mentioned Vesperia — the Canadian black/folk/pagan metal band who used to be called Bolero — and as you might have guessed, they’ve been as busy as ever during that time!

Following the release of their first demo EP under their new band name, the re-release of their 2011 full-length album, and the announcement that they were searching for a new guitarist, it turns out that they now have filled that missing spot in their line-up, and have been spending this winter working on more new material!

 
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Vesperia – Voyage from Vinland (FREE DOWNLOAD, LIMITED TIME ONLY!!)

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Vesperia – Voyage from Vinland (self-released, 08 January 2011)

 
Ladies and gentlemen and whoever else might be out there reading this:

This coming Saturday — the 20th of October — blackened folk/pagan metal band Vesperia are headlining a show in the band’s hometown of Oshawa, Ontario (city motto = “Prepare to be amazed.” I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.) Also appearing will be Battlesoul, Will of the Ancients, and Unbowed, and for more details on the event you can check out this page.

Anyway, in celebration of this occasion, Vesperia wanted to do something special for their fans. Giving away downloads of their new demo EP from earlier this year (The Swordsman) wouldn’t work though, because they’ve already done that (see here for a full write-up about that release) — so instead they’ve decided to give away their previous album for free!

Voyage from Vinland was actually the first (and only) full-length album released by Bolero (in January of last year), prior to that band changing its name to Vesperia. But the whole thing — all eleven tracks, forty-five minutes of it — has been re-released digitally under their new name on their Bandcamp page, and for this week ONLY you can download all of it absolutely FREE! This is only supposed to last until Saturday’s show, though, so ACT FAST!!

 

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Out Last Month: Ne Obliviscaris – Portal of I

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Ne Obliviscaris – Portal of I (11 June 2012, Code666 Records)

 
How’s it going, Dear Readers? I’ve got another amazing album I would like to share with you. I’ve been so fortunate with how much good stuff I’ve been coming across lately, I only wish that I had more time to write about it all so that you could have the chance to read about it and listen to it sooner! I guess what I’m saying is, it makes me feel guilty that my brain and fingers don’t work quite as fast as my ears sometimes…

Anyway, here we have Portal of I, the (relatively) new album by the Melburnian sextet Ne Obliviscaris. I usually have a pretty good memory when it comes to my history with specific bands, but to be honest I have no idea where or when I discovered these guys. Chances are, I probably read something about them over at No Clean Singing, or possibly at The Number of the Blog, since I’ve made an awful lot of discoveries through both of those places.

Oh and by the way, for all you former TNOTB readers who have been grieving since that website was lost in cyberspace, I hope you’ve started reading Oculus Infernus, the new home of head editor and writer Grover XIII. In case you haven’t seen it yet, the new blog can be found here. (And while we’re at it, No Clean Singing is over here.)

As I was saying, sometime, somehow I came across this group of Aussies, and I found them intriguing enough to “like” them on Facebook. Fast-forward to this May, when the band invited all their fans to “International Ne Obliviscaris Sharing Day” — when they planned to reveal an advance single from their then-forthcoming new album. I wrote about that impromptu holiday, and then shared the song (“Xenoflux”). Based on previous experience I had expected it would be good, but as it turns out, it was amazing!

To make a long story short, soon after that, the album was released in Australia and New Zealand on Welkin Records, a small, independent label run by one of the band members; right around the same time it was announced that Ne Obliviscaris had signed on with Italy’s Code666 Records for the rest of the world. This made perfect sense to me, since I’ve always found that Code666 tends to work with very good — and very unique — bands. So then the album was available all over the world, and about a month later, it’s finally time for me to share this masterpiece with you.

 

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More News About Upcoming Releases: Video Teaser for New TrollfesT Album

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Good morning again, Readers! We’ve already had some great news today involving details of an album due out via Noise Art Records this August, but there’s another exciting release scheduled for around that same time, on that same record label!

If you recall, about two months ago we learned the title, tracklist, and the narrative behind TrollfesT‘s forthcoming fifth album Brumlebassen, and at the same time we were treated to a glimpse of the cover art (reproduced at the top of this page).

 
Well, now there’s more treats for your eyes and ears! The band has put together the following video teaser, which contains a large dose of nature scenes, hiking, and picnic lunches, though a very small amount of either metal music or information about the actual album…

 
Coincidentally, following the release of this album, TrollfesT will also be taking part in the Heidenfest tour across Europe, alongside Korpiklaani and Wintersun, as well as Krampus (as reported earlier today).

 
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TrollfesT: Website, Facebook, Myspace, Reverbnation, Soundcloud, Webstore

Coming Soon: Krampus Reveal Title, Artwork, Release Date for Debut Full-length!

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Well, good morning!  I’m still half-asleep, or perhaps even less-than-half, but this little piece of news grabbed my attention anyway…

Italian folk-metal band Krampus, whom we’ve discussed in terms of their two EPs from 2011 (here and here), have been working on putting together their first LP.  Today they’ve unveiled the cover art (see above) as well as tracklist for the upcoming album!

Survival of the Fittest, which seems aptly named when you consider their typical subject matter of the eventual reassertion of nature’s dominance over humans and their technology, will be available on CD and digital download through NoiseArt Records on 24 August 2012.

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Let’s Start the Day with More TrollfesT News!

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Good morning!  Tuesday’s post about the release of a new TrollfesT song attracted a lot of attention, which is great — I’m excited to hear some new music out of these guys, and I’m glad to see so many other people feel the same way.

Well, guess what!  Since then, I’ve stumbled upon a whole treasure trove of new information — including the track listing and the story behind the new album Brumlebassen (due in August from Noise Art Records) plus the cover art (see above)!  Additionally, there’s been a bit of a line-up change in the works which was just made official in advance of the band’s performance at Inferno Festival (which is taking place later today in Oslo).

 

So!  First things first, here is how the band describes the concept for their upcoming fifth album:

Like all TrollfesT’s albums, Brumlebassen tells a story about one of the characters that inhabit the fantastical universe created by the band.  This time the story is about Brumlebassen the Bee Keeper, whose task it is to care for the bees and brew the Honey Mead that is much loved by the Trolls.  Brumlebassen adores his bees so much that he would secretly like to become one of them himself and he is therefore depicted wearing a bee costume!

I don’t know about you, but to me a story about a troll who wants to be a bee sounds awesomely hilarious.  I can’t wait.

 

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Now Hear This! Previously Unreleased TrollfesT Song Now Streaming

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Over their nearly-decade-long existence, TrollfesT (who inexplicably describe themselves as “True Norwegian Balkan Metal”) have really built a name for themselves, as much for their unique folk instrumentation as for the drunken party environment that surrounds everything they do. By all accounts, their live performances are truly something to behold — and for those who live in Europe you just may get a chance to witness this, as they are playing at Norway’s Inferno Festival this Thursday (05 April) before embarking on a tour with kindred spirits Korpiklaani this month, as well as dates in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland as part of MetalFest in July, Slovenia’s Metalcamp in August, and finally the Heidenfest tour in October and November.

For those of us who live elsewhere and aren’t lucky enough to be able to attend any of these festivals or tours, we can take heart in the knowledge that sometime this summer the band’s fifth album Brumlebassen will be released by Noise Art Records, but maybe that isn’t quite enough for you — perhaps you are still feeling left out?

Sadly, I can’t magically make the band appear in your city (although they did mention on Facebook, a while back, that they’d love to come to the U.S. — they just need enough people to go to their local venue owners and concert promoters and demand it! ask politely), but what I can give you is a sneak peek at a song that was previously only available at live shows!

 
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Just Released: Enid – Munsalvaesche

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Enid – Munsalvaesche (28 November, 2011 – Code666 Records)

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Last weekend, my wife and I traveled to enemy territory* to catch the Korpiklaani+Arkona show.  Because my mother’s farm is about three hours closer to Cleveland than the Valley of Steel is, I had arranged for us to spend Thanksgiving weekend at her place.  Well, I think mom saw through my thinly veiled ruse, because in exchange for a couple days’ worth of free food and shelter within easy driving distance from Peabody’s, she decided that I needed to help put up her Christmas tree and hang the lights on it (she has an enormous nine-foot artificial tree, and lately it has become more difficult for her to get up and down a ladder). 

Anyway, during all this decorating nonsense, we were treated to a variety of Christmas-themed music from mom’s extensive collection.  This included a number of albums by Mannheim Steamroller, a multi-platinum selling, new-agey, electro-orchestral project of which she’s always been fond.  Anyway, during the process of assembling the tree, my wife remarked to me that some of the music we’d heard the night before (i.e. the concert) was not too far removed from what was being played at the house that morning.  I can see where she was coming from here — for example, the incorporation of traditional folk melodies and styles, and instruments such as the flutes and bagpipes used extensively by Arkona, into a more modern format, might superficially resemble the methods employed by Mannheim Steamroller.  However, to me the pagan/folk metal movement seems to take the folk/traditional instruments, melodies, song structures and attitude, and directly blends these with metal instrumentation (and often, metal vocals). On the other hand, the traditional folk Christmas carols that are reinterpreted on the albums we heard, seem to be rearranged in more of a classical orchestration and then reproduced with modern, synthesized instruments. I would be more inclined to compare this with something like Wendy (née Walter) Carlos‘ Switched-On Bach series of albums, although the correllation would be more apt if it were electronic versions of works by classical composers who, unlike Bach, often incorporated traditional folk tunes (either of their own cultural heritage, such as Dvorak’s “Slavonic Dances,” or those picked up elsewhere, such as Tchaikovsky’s “Cappriccio Italien”).

Anyway, all of this rambling is leading up to my review of the latest album, Munsalvaesche, by German epic/fantasy/symphonic metal artist Enid, which was just made available last week (28 November) through Code666 Records/Aural Music. Continue reading and you shall see (and hear!) why this album should appeal to fans of the folk-metal approach as well as the modernized folk-music-via-classical-arrangement approach.
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Rescheduled! MorgueMart CD Release Show on Black Friday

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Click here for the official Facebook event page.

This was supposed to be going down last Saturday, but then some sort of last-minute problem came up and forced them to postpone.  Well, the party is back on and rescheduled for Black Friday night (November 25) at the 31st Street Pub in Pittsburgh.

$5 gets you in the door and also includes a free copy of the new MorgueMart disc.  Their debut, Ten Cent Cadaver, was an excellent slab of local (well, local to me- these guys hail from Charleroi, PA, just across the valley from here) grindy crusty punky awesome, so I’d highly recommend getting to this show if at all possible!  Unfortunately I will be out of town that weekend- already got my tickets for Korpiklaani and Arkona in Cleveland- or I’d be there for sure.  However, I’ll see what I need to do to snag myself a copy of the CD, so you can probably look forward to a review sometime in the near future.

For more information:
MorgueMart official page
MorgueMart on Facebook
31st Street Pub page
31st Street Pub Facebook page