Turisas has divided their fans with the last album Stand up and Fight! Some fans like the new style, the other one longs for the days of Battle Metal. Folk-metal.nl spoke Turisas at Heidenfest. Though the interview was planned with Mattias, singer and frontman of Turisas, but with him being ill Jussi, the guitar player had to replace him. Unfortunately Jussi could, because he’s less involved with the creative process of an album, not answer most of our questions. Despite this, we still had an interesting conversation with Jussi.
For a lot of bands Heidenfest is the chance to reach a large audience. It’s cheaper for these bands than it is to be touring on their own. But I’m curious if the same goes for a well-known band like Turisas. Jussi says it’s fun to be on a tour like this, but they rather tour by themselves, or with a support. In that case fans come for you and it’s also less tiresome An tour of your own is often longer, but you don’t have to perform every day. It’s fun to do this with a lot of bands, but after the first show you don’t get to look at each others gigs.
Weiße Nächte Tour Melkweg Amsterdam 28 December 2011 Photography: Dorien Exactly 9 o’clock Tanzwut kicks off in the hall of the Melkweg. There’s no support act, which means we only get to hear the medieval rock sound of Tanzwut for one and a half hour. The but half filled up …Continue reading →
Eisheilige Nacht 2011 Ruhrconcress, Bochum (DE) 27 December 2011 Photography: Daemmerung-online.com 27 December, it’s time for “Eisheilige Nacht” in Bochum. A spot in the German ruhrarea which has good access to the Netherlands and which can offer a good possibility for bigger concerts, with a venue like the Ruhrcongress. Eisheilige …Continue reading →
I have to congratulate you with your album first, it has become a real success after a year. It must have opened a lot of doors for you? It sure has, we have the opportunity now to spread our work through a label with which we can reach a large audience. It opened door to ourselves as well as for the band in a musical sense. We have grown and we’re proud of it. We’re more than ready for the future!
Metalcamp Chat Hi Gur: Nice name 🙂 Sorry for the delay, there’s too much to answer 😉 Where from Norway are you from?About our origin: PsychoTroll + Per Spelemann: Tønsberg, Mr. Seidel; Kopervik, Trollmannen: Sveio, Trollbank: Lørenskog, Manskow, Oslo, DrekkaDag: Wahahaaaay up North in the cold where the sun don’t …Continue reading →
Rating: 8/10 Release: 23 December 2011 Label: Independent Finally, it’s there! The First EP from the Dutch folk-metalband Amorgen! After a demo from 2010, the five of Amorgen come with their first ‘real’ release. Amorgen is a band who plays a form of ‘epic folk-metal’, with a lot of death-metal …Continue reading →
The Music of Battlelore has evolved during the past few years, from somewhat more danceable songs to much heavier epic Metal. Folk-metal.nl had to learn more about this and spoke to Jyri Vahvanen, guitar player and text writer of this Finnish band. The Music evolves in a group process, most of the songs develop from a rough plan on guitar. Drums and bass are added to this, and after that keyboards and vocals are added. The song, created in this process, is refined until everyone is happy about it.
Rating: 5/10 Release: 15 November 2011 Label: Darkened Empire Siluria is a band not many people shall know. But their in the limelight from 2005, and have done shows with Waylander and Battlelore. The band consist after a number of changes in their line-up of only two people nowadays, who …Continue reading →
Score: 8/10 Release: 1 November 2011 Label: Spinefarm Records The guys of Metsatöll don’t sit on their hands. They release their 10th album this year, it’s ‘Ulg’ entitled, (The Howl. But if it’s related to the bands name which is Estonian for Wolf, is not clear. The album is made …Continue reading →
After a fantastic show, we meet all ‘ugly people’ (see review concert) of Chain of Dogs in the dressing room. That is, I get Olaf, Arne, Tom, Jelle and Willem. Rafke a treat to the eye on stage, but who’s giving the band a lot of extra dimension with her fine voice, had to keep the merchandise-stand open.
The people from Willemeen are good caretakers of their special guests, we were confronted with this when a employee of Willemeen was a little bit suspicious about our intentions. After an explanation we soon could enjoy a nice cold drink, which was very welcome due the very high temperatures today.
We were very curious about CODs experiences regarding their latest CD. The band told me they were very happy with it. It was fun to make another CD. And the band is very content with their label ‘Witches Brew’, which gives the band total freedom to make whatever they like. The band took care of the recordings to lower the costs. The mastering of the album was done by member Willem himself. Besides the fact it lower the costs tremendously, it gives freedom to the band to create something they like. Something that gives them the feeling they created something of their own. The band is planning to record something with others, the label gives the band the freedom to do something like this.
Remarkable with Chain of Dogs is the fact they have a mix of English and Limburgish songs. We were curious why they choose to do this. We think Limburgish fits seamless to the happy willful songs. Olaf: ‘I like English a lot and I studied it also. I love to read English books en watch English movies. A lot of lyrics are based on stories I read in all kind of English literature. It’s for me quite difficult to translate this into Limburgish. My thinking pattern is in English when I’ve read this.’ Arne adds to this, he as a pagan metal and folk-metal fan likes it to express yourself in your own language. The roots of this guys go deep into the Limburgish soil. Singing in Limburgish is a fine way to express their pride of their ‘being a Limburger’, it’s a way tot act against the feeling they’re are somewhat less civilians in the eyes of the people of the western part of the Netherlands. This is a feeling well known with the people form the eastern half of the Netherlands. But with folk-metal, bands from the Easter part hit back very hard, Chain of Dogs from Limburg, Heidevolk from Arnhem, and Baldrs Draumar from Friesland dominate the folk-metal in the Netherlands.
High on their list of wishes are partners for two band-members, some others note they should probably be coughed then. We won’t reveal the members who regard this, we think in the end everything will work out fine them too.
Another one the valid wish to become big with their own Music. A nice tour of a few nice gigs throughout the country should of course be very helpful with this. In the Netherlands the bands star is rising, recently the band had a couple of gigs in Friesland. But their still parts of the Netherlands which were never exposed to the contagious music of Chain of Dogs. The band thinks Germany limits their lust to expand, because it’s very difficult to get some gigs on the other side of the so near border. Germany is together with Finland the cradle of folk-metal and it’s much easier for a German or Finnish band to reach the venues than it is for a Dutch band. Up-till now only Heidevolk has made it to Germany. This is why the band pulls together with the Finsterforst. In this way it’s somewhat easier to get gigs in Germany. But on the other hand is simply very nice to operate next to these guys. A nice thing about Finsterforst is their in complete control of their own gigs. The Dogs learned form other bands who have signed with a ‘nice label’ or booking-agency, they have sometimes less gigs, because of the higher pricetag they have. A band like Gernotshagen attracts not many more people than a band like Finsterforst, but they cost a lot more. Together with Finsterforst they can give venues a nice deal and make it attractive for the smaller venues to book them.
Some other good news, is the fact the band is busy with the first preparations for another EP. There should be 3 of 4 tracks on it, and it should be released in 2012. They’re very busy writing and refining songs for this, there are meant to be new songs on this album.
Before we say goodbye to enjoy some Finsterforst, I’ll ask the guys if there’s anything they want to say to us. Finally they made a clean breast “Viking-metal from Italië can’t be taken seriously”. With a statement like this I grab my seat again: What do you mean by that?
Olaf likes to explain this statement. Folk-metal and related music, also because of the internet, become a genre which draws attention all over the world. In the wake of this everywhere in the World band bands are born which are involved is this music. But instead of being busy with their own roots and mixing their own folk with metal, you see more and more bands form exotic places playing Viking-metal. That is without rhyme or reason. Viking-metal from Italy…
Create something of your own. And with their true ‘Limburgish’ sound the band has a say in this matter. You can’t speak of Chain of Dogs as a band that goes along with the stream, they’re obviously doing something of their own….
And we’re proud of them!
