Norway (part 2/3) - Gothic from the Fjords

Another genre very strong in Norwegian lands, is Gothic Metal, the feud of female metal singers. The pioneer of this tendency in the country was a band called Theatre Of Tragedy, where the vocals where in charge of Liv Kristine (since 2003 in the German band Leaves' Eyes), that came to an end just this year. They were the first, and who likes this genre should really listen to their records.

But in these chronicles I avoid talking about bands that no longer exist, especially when the ones that exist give us plenty to talk about. This is the case.
There are several good heirs from the Theatre Of Tragedy legacy still in activity, like Tristania. Still trying to achieve the musical level they had until 2001, when Vibeke Stene was the voice of Morten Veland wrote the songs.



Morten Veland that in 2001, when he left Tristania founded another Gothic Metal band, Sirenia. I prefer Sirenia due to the quality of Morten's compositions, and in spite the band being in its third female singer in 9 years of existence.



Trail Of Tears is another Gothic band worth listening, although in this one the harsh male vocals have more airplay than the female vocals.



Midnattsol was founded by Carmen Elise Espenaes, sister of the mentioned Liv Kristine from Theatre Of Tragedy, and I'm not sure if they play Gothic Folk Metal or Folk Gothic Metal. Anyway, is Folk, is Gothic and is definitely Metal.



Next: Norway (part 3/3) - It's not just Black and Gothic

Norway (part 1/3) - Homeland of Black Metal

Black Metal is not one of my favourite genres. I like a few bands and some assorted songs, but I'm definitely not an expert.
So it was a real surprise for me that Norway is currently the Black Metal country. The amount of Norwegian bands in the group of most popular Black Metal bands is simply smashing. Therefore, not dedicating the first part of the Norway chronicle to this genre, was really not an option.

To write this chronicle I simply listened many of the main Norwegian Black Metal bands and choose the ones that I liked the most.
And from those, the main one is definitely Dimmu Borgir. Their Symphonic Black Metal makes them by far the most popular of the genre.



Another good and popular Black Metal band is Immortal. in spite having a more rough sound.



One of the first Black Metal bands that I listened to was Old Man's Child, and still like it.



Finally, a recent band, founded in 2004, the one from those that I didn't knew that I liked the most, called Cor Scorpii.



But besides these four bands, there are much more well known Black Metal acts from Norway, like Emperor, Burzum, Mayhem, Satyricon, Enslaved, Darkthrone, Gorgoroth, Ulver, Borknagar or Carpathian Forest, just to mention bands that are currently in the top 30 of popular Black Metal bands.

Next: Norway (part 2/3) - Gothic from the Fjords

Denmark - The poor brother of the nordic family

I honestly don't know why Denmark, being surrounded by countries with a high number of bands playing great Metal, is such in a poor status in what new bands with strong presence are concerned.

You get the picture if I tell you that the most popular Danish Metal acts are still King Diamond in his solo efforts and with his band Mercyful Fate, both with more than 25 years of career. And Mercyful Fate's last album release was more than 10 years ago.
So, even though I don't like it much, the first video of a chronicle about Danish Metal has to be of King Diamond.



Don't get me wrong. If Denmark was in other part of the world (heck, even in other part of Europe), I would probably think they had a pretty decent Metal scene. But they are in the core of the golden area of Metal innovation in Europe, so decent is far less than I was expecting.

Nevertheless, you have a good Gothic Doom band like Saturnus.



Or Mercenary, a band that started in the Trash/Death genre, but has evolved to a more Gothenburg/Heavy style.



And finally a band that started very promising, with a tremendous first full length, but that in later releases never really managed to fulfil completely their early promises. It's the Power Metal band Iron Fire.

Germany (part 4/4) - Something for every taste

Germany has such a rich group of Metal bands that there are always new projects and new sounds being released.
This last part of the German chronicle is about those sounds, which are not Power Metal, don't have a Folk sonority, but are definitely worth listening.

The first one is one of the most successful German bands today. Rammstein play Industrial Metal, sing almost always in German, but that hasn't stopped their aggressive sound to attract worldwide fans. I had the opportunity to go to one of their shows in Lisbon and beside the great music, the concert was a show in itself, with lots of pyrotechnical effects.



Another great band is Leaves' Eyes. With the ethereal voice of the legendary Theatre Of Tragedy ex-singer, Liv Kristine, and a set of solid musicians, they play a very atmospheric Symphonic Metal.



If you think Metal has to be fast paced to be heavy... think again!
Here's Ahab, a band of Funeral Doom. It's slow, but so heavy that, if you put your sound system loud enough, you will feel a pressure in the chest like you are having trouble to breathe.



To those who think that everything was invented in Metal... well, before this guys existed, it wasn't!
Van Canto is a band of A Capella Power Metal. Yes, no Guitars, no Bass, just a Drum and five powerful voices. Don't believe it? Just watch the video.



Other bands also much worth listening are: Xandria, Lacrimas Profundere, Deadlock and Flowing Tears. They were just victims of my need to keep this German chronicle in four parts, so I can try to reach the end of this European tour not much after the end of the year.

Germany (part 3/4) - Kings of Folk Metal

Another very strong genre in Germany is Folk Metal, with numerous bands exploring the mix of Folk music with many Metal sub-genres.
I’m a huge fan of using traditional instruments in Metal bands, so you can expect more detailed chronicles about this genre in the blog, after I finish this European tour.

The first band today, is the one man band of Vratyas Vakyas since 1989, Falkenbach. Currently preparing his fifth full length to be released next January, has conquered numerous fans with it's consistent Viking Folk sound.



Suidraka, a band formed in 1994 has filled their Melodic Death Metal of Folk-ish influences witch gives them a distinctive sonority.



One of my favourite Folk Metal bands was founded in 1995 and has a complete distinct medieval sound, with four of the bands seven elements playing all sorts of medieval instruments, like bagpipes, harp, schawm, nickel harp or citer. Their name is In Extremo, and although they have a few songs in English they mostly sing in German. But if you don't speak German, don't let that stop you from knowing an excellent band. I don't understand a word o German and it has no influence on my ability to enjoy In Extremo's music.



The last band of this post was unknown to me before starting to investigate the German bands, and what an excellent discovery it was.
Equilibrium was founded in 2001 and has an incredible Viking Folk Metal sound. I love it, and if you like Folk and don't have issues with harsh vocals, you will love it too.



Besides this four great bands, there are two more that I can't finish this post without mentioning: Wolfchant and Finterforst.
They are definitely worth listening and weren't allowed a video and detailed description only because I want to keep these posts in a readable size.

Next: Germany (part 4/4) - Something for every taste

Germany (part 2/4) - Always reinventing Power Metal

One of the main genres of Metal music in Germany is Power Metal, and many of the great musicians and bands in that genre come from there.
In the veterans chapter we talked about Helloween, that set the rules of the genre with Walls Of Jericho and Keepers Of the Seven Keys (part 1 & 2), but many excellent bands followed, many of them capable of adding something unique to those standards. I'll talk about some of them.

Founded in 1984, Blind Guardian is one of those bands. For one, there's the voice of Hansi Kursch, one of the few metal singers that I can clearly identify by his voice when he appears as a guest in other bands, and also the music as a distinct sonority in it, that makes pretty easy to identify a new Blind Guardian song for someone familiar with their music.



Gamma Ray was the band founded by Kai Hansen, after leaving Helloween. The sound is more epic and more complex, with choirs sometimes. They have some pretty catchy songs but, in average, I still prefer early days Helloween.



And then appeared the one I call the Mozart of Power Metal, Tobias Sammet. Currently with 33 years old he has 14 full length albums released.
Nine of them, with his band, Edguy, that he founded with schoolmates at the age of 14 and where he was in charge of the vocals, bass and keyboards. They released the first full length when he wasn't 18 years yet.
This one is from their 2004 album, Hellfire Club, and is one of the best Power Metal songs I have heard. Edguy is definitely one of my favourite bands.



The other five albums were released with his solo project, Avantasia, that debuted in year 2000, when at the age of 23 he managed to assembly a superb cast to record a two CD epic work called The Metal Opera, which was launched in 2001 and 2002.



In 2001, a group of experienced Power Metal musicians that wanted to give a more progressive sound to their music started working together. In 2003, the project called Masterplan saw the light with a first album with the same name. They were an immediate hit, and since then they have edited another three full lengths.



Besides these great bands, much more could be mentioned, but I don't want to make this series of posts a band catalog, so I will just mention two more bands are really worth listening: Freedom Call and Iron Savior.

Next: Germany (part 3/4) - Kings of Folk Metal.

Germany (part 1/4) - The veterans

Germany is one of the biggest Metal markets in Europe. The second source of origin of Heavy Metal in the seventies, just a couple of years after the first wave of bands in the UK.
But opposite to the British market, that has stagnated in terms of innovation during some periods, the German market has kept a vivid rhythm in the appearance of new bands and new sounds.

Being the country of origin of many of my favourite bands, it was very hard for me to choose which bands to show. The best that I managed to do was restrict this to a four part chronicle.
Yes, I know it's long, but please bear with me, I promise it will be worth it!

Starting with the veterans of German Metal, we begin in 1971 when the band Accept was formed by a group of teenagers. They lasted 25 years until they split in 1996, but since then have occasionally reunited. They rejoined the band in 2009, with a new singer, and recorded a new album that hit the streets last August. Here is one of the songs of the album.



We move forward until 1976 when Rolf "Rock N'Rolf" Kasparek at the age of 15 founds Running Wild. They play pure Heavy Metal with historical war-like and piracy themes. The band had several line-up changes throughout the years, and ended up disbanding in 2009. Here's one of my favourites, from the album The Rivalry of 1998, Ballad of William Kid.



In 1978 two teenagers with 15 years, that would become two of power metal legends, Kai Hansen and Piet Sielck, founded a band called Gentry. Then they met Ingo Schwichtenberg and Marcus Grosskopf and founded Second Hell, later changed to Iron Fist. The band split because they had no place to rehearse.
After Kai met Michael Weikath, in 1984, he decided to re-found Iron Fist, again with Ingo and Marcus, but without Piet. Soon enough Iron Fist would become... Helloween.
With this line-up, and 2 years later with Michael Kiske in the vocals, to allow Kai Hansen to focus on the guitars, they release three full length albums that changed the world of Heavy Metal.



In 1988 Kai Hansen left Helloween and the band wanders for some years, trying to find its path without its founder and main composer. After two poor albums, a new change of line-up bring a new singer and a new drummer, and slowly the band returns to a path of good music and solid releases, that is still going on today.



Founded in 1980, Grave Digger have now 30 years and 15 full-lengths always remaining faithful to their Heavy Metal roots, and always being distinctive through the voice of their all time front man Chris Boltendahl.
Their best releases were in the second half of the nineties, from where I selected one of my favourites, the title track of the album Excalibur.



Next: Germany (part 2/4) - Always reinventing Power Metal.

Going international

To increase the blog's visibility, from now on, its official language is English.
I will be translating the old posts on an free time basis :)

Austria (part 2/2) - Metal Symphony (part 2)

Besides the ones referred, there are other bands worth being mentioned in Austria, always with that unique Symphonic touch in their songs.

Summoning have a really Black sound, slow, heavy, but very folk and melodic.



Edenbridge have a more Symphonic Power Metal sound, even if the female singer has a more Gothic side in her voice. I like her voice, although her body language is not very Metal, as you can see in the video below.



Estatic Fear play Symphonic Doom Metal, with the clean female voice opposing to the more heavy male voice.



My greatest discovery, when investigating to this chronicle, was the band Serenity. The style is Symphonic Power, somewhat similar to Sonata Arctica.