Scandinavian Metal

Oh yea….I have a blog. Not that much happens around here. Making games and writing paper – read: Chamber-recluse.

But then this. On the 25th of November some Metal bands came to a Stage in Copenhagen. Musikens Huset Vega. A concrete building on the outside but full of wooden stages, floors, bars and balconies. This would be the stage for 5 hours of loud music so Scandinavian some observations must be made by an outsider.

Why was it so Scandinavian?
It was bloody cold outside, so that’s Iceland Covered. The first band, Týr is from the Faroe Islands, officially part of Denmark. The second band was Korpiklaani a Finnish folk metal band (Think Accordeon, guitars, violins and barefooted Dread wearing performers). Finally, Sabaton is as Swedish as they get. Also, there probably were some Norse folk as well…

So how does that work?
In Copenhagen, the party starts outside. Vega is right next to an Aldi so before the doors opened people had stocked up on crates of beer. Some guy with a Ghettoblaster was blasting Sabaton and beer all around.

Folks
In general, the audience in Copenhagen was considerably younger than in the Netherlands. Whereas here most Metalheads were around my age, in the Netherlands the average age is late thirties.

Wait What?
Usually some music is played while the acts are set up. Apparently this venue thought Nickelback was a good warm up….That wasn’t that great.

Tyr
To up the Nordic nature, Tyr is named after the Norse god of War and Valour. They sing about vikings, Asgard etc. The happy Bassist was way too happy to make everyone clap along. I noticed that Danes suck at keeping rhythm. Then again, so am I so who am I to judge.

Korpiklaani
Folk bands always do well live. Remember that song where a girl twists a leek. They do that, but then metal. Also they did some stuff from their new album. Apparently the singer wasn’t all too sure about the song, for he had a page with the lyrics stuck to the floor. They sing in Finnish so it doesn’t matter really…

Switches
The time between acts was like, what?, 15 minutes. That shit was tight.

Sabaton
This was actually the first show of the new tour and they were surprised so many people showed up on tuesday evening. The singer commented on how happy he was ‘we were all fucking crazy’. Lots of people crowd surfed, lots of people were piss drunk. But yea, what did you expect IF YOU BRING A BLOODY TANK WITH YOU!

Swedish
Sabaton has one album they also did in Swedish. If there is ever any animosity between Danes and Swedes, it is not so in Metal lyrics. People could choose whether they’d sing songs in English or in Swedish by shouting loudest. My minor English shouts were nothing compared to the wall of Sound wanting Swedish talk. Still cool though.

So yea….that was awesome

How was the hair afterwards?
Not good.