An Evening at the Finnish Metal Tour

So the night of February 10th, 2011 I find myself yet again standing in line at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco, CA. For my own off the wall reasons, I paid the extra bit and went for the meet and greet with (what I thought at the time) the whole of Fintroll and Ensiferum. Initially, the crowd outside was pretty minimal and when I got there about 5:30 there was already a line of about 10 or so people. By the time we got to where they were going to let us in for the meet and greet, it appeared that there were about 20 or so going in for that, and I couldn't see how many people were in the regular line.

I'll be the first to admit, I have a rudimentary knowledge of these two bands as far as their music is concerned and I couldn't pick any of them out of a crowd. The same could be said for the opening acts, I've never even heard of Barren Earth or Rotten Sound but I was there to support these bands though and I'm well aware of how some of these shows can turn out (the Tarja one a few years ago was the worst, with only about 100 or so people there). I wanted to do my part to keep these bands coming back to America.

Devil's Interview with Barren Earth's Mikko Kotamäki

Photo by Chris Liz

So last night we had the webcast for the Ensiferum, Finntroll, and Barren Earth show at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco. I hope everyone that watched enjoyed it. The one band on the bill that I was interested in was Barren Earth seeing as The Curse of the Red River was one of my favorite releases of last year. Draeden was attending the show so I threw together about seven questions just in the off chance he would be able to speak with one of the band members before the show. As luck would have it vocalist Mikko Kotamäki was on hand to not only accommodate Draeden with my interview questions but as you can see he autographed my copy of the cd that I had Draeden purchase for me. So here you go, here is the interview in all of it's 3 and a half minute glory.



Thanks to Draeden for doing all of this for me. Thanks to my son for the photo and the use of Movie Maker to rotate the video. And thanks to Mikko for chatting with us. Be sure to check out Baren Earth's music and also Mikko's other project Swallow the Sun. Another fantastic band.

Devil Music Live: Ensiferum,Finntroll,and Barren Earth at the DNA Lounge

That's right, it's been a couple of months since I've had a live show from the lounge on That Devil Music. Tonight it's the Finnish Metal Tour with Ensiferum or Finntroll headlining and one of my favorite bands, Barren Earth opening. There is another band called Rotten Sound but I know nothing about them. Draeden is at the show tonight so he should be near the front row. See if you can spot him. Just click the play button on the embedded player and get your Finnish folk metal on.

Watch live video from DNA Lounge on Justin.tv

Barren Earth and Some Other Finnish Bands to Tour the U.S.

Barren Earth has announced dates for the Finnish Metal Tour 2 in the U.S. They will be opening for Rotten Sound,Ensiferum, and Finntroll over the span of 30 dates. Personally seeing as I'm biased I really only want to see them as they were one of my favorites from last year. So I most likely won't be able to make this show. But if you're into any of these bands at all here are the dates and locations after the jump.

January
31 - Orlando, FL - The Club at Firestone

February
1 - Atlanta, GA - The Masquerade
2 - Louisville, KY - Headliner’s Music Hall
3 - Tulsa, OK - Marquee
4 - Austin, TX - Emo’s Alternative Lounging
5 - Dallas, TX - Ridglea Theater
6 - Amarillo, TX - The War Legion Underground
7 - Tempe, AZ - Clubhouse
8 - Los Angeles, CA - Key Club
9 - Ramona, CA - Ramona Mainstage
10 - San Francisco, CA - DNA Lounge
11 - Portland, OR - Hawthorne Theatre
12 - Seattle, WA - El Corazon
14 - Calgary, AB - The Republik
15 - Edmonton, AB - Starlite Room
16 - Regina, SK - The Exchange
18 - Minneapolis, MN - Station 4
19 - Chicago, IL - Reggie Rock Club
20 - Detroit, MI - Blondie’s
21 - Cleveland, OH - Peabody’s
22 - Toronto, ON - Opera House
23 - Quebec City, QC - Imperial de Quebec
24 - Montreal, QC - Metropolis
25 - Rochester, NY - Montage Music Hall
26 - New York City, NY - The Gramercy Theatre
27 - Worcester, MA - The Palladium

March
1 - Philadelphia, PA - The Trocadero
2 - West Springfield, VA - Jaxx
3 - Charlotte, NC - The Casbah
4 - Raleigh, NC - Volume 11

Keep in mind if you can't make the dates I will be broadcasting the show on February 10th on That Devil Music via webcast from the DNA Lounge.

In the meantime here is a message from some of the guys in regards to the tour.

Shuffled Playlist Random Thought: 01-03-11

Going back over alot of old articles I realized.....HOLY SHIT! Has it really been almost a year since I did one of these things?!?!Since the news is still dead (I don't care who is on tour in Europe and neither should you unless you're European)and I don't want to blow my wad on reviews in one day so let's recap what this is and do another one shall we? No? Tough. Alright here's the deal, I have my handy dandy Winamp at the ready and loaded with all of my music. I will then click next on the shuffle and whatever comes up I ramble about. Now the trick is that it may very well land on a guilty pleasure or something not even remotely rock or metal. Because let's face it, life is much too short to just listen to the same style of crap day in and day out. I've already been outed once on this thing because I don't cheat so lets see what comes up after the jump.

Cool, it's Barren Earth's 'The Leer' off of the Curse of the Red River album. Which as it so happens was one of my top picks of the year last year. It's funny because I was asked to be a voter for the TNOTB's 1st annual Numbies Awards and originally I picked Mortemia's Misre Mortem album as my pick for album of the year. Mainly because I thoroughly enjoyed it from beginning to end. Well as it would happen there was no consensus on album of the year so I offered to change my vote to Barren Earth because while it was enjoyable it had alot more traits you look for in an album of the year. Plus I didn't think my vote would matter. That whole thing turned out to be such a clusterfuck that none of our votes mattered anyway and Ihsahn's album took it. Oh well I think I was noble and self sacrificing. Anyways, good ramble and it actually feels good to be doing one of these things again. Here is 'The Leer' in case you want to hear the track. It's good.

Devil Music A-Z: Barren Earth

I've had to go a bit back in the alphabetical corner for this mainly because I discovered this band a few days ago while perusing some other sites. Have I mentioned lately how much I love metal bands from the viking lands? There was a huge stretch of Sweden but now Finland is starting to make some noise too. What Barren Earth brings to the Finnish scene is a collaboration from various Finnish musicians in other projects. So this is a side project supergroup of sorts. You have representatives from Amorphis,Moonsorrow,and Swallow the Sun to name a few bands.

What kind of sound do they bring? It's a form of melodeath with a progressive approach. You have keyboards, flutes, clean harmonized vocals and of course the growls. The music though is so dense that you have to listen more then once to really absorb everything that is going on. But it all flows well and is very engaging.

So far they have an EP and a full length album called the Curse of the Red River that just came out this year. Go to their Myspace page to check out some of the music. In the meantime here is the title track to get fully what I'm describing after the jump. If you love dense well composed music then check these guys out.