It was way back in early September when I shared the details about Day 3 & Day 4 of the ProgPower USA Festival for 2020 – Instead of repeating myself, I’ll just send you HERE to examine all of the details about those two days so you can scramble for tickets if you are only just now learning this news. Today I am here to share what is happening on Day 2 of this popular Metal Music Festival. I know, it seems weird that D3 and D4 get announced first but what can you do. I was not in the Marketing meetings. Though there were some Vimeo links to share, I had some issues with them in WordPress so am leaving you kind readers with just the poster for this alert.
This past Summer one of PiercingMetal’s staunchest advocates attended the Tuska Open Air Festival in Helskinki, Finland. The mighty Stratovarius was among the many acts performing and Samuel offered up his images to the website to entertain their Metal minds. Check them out below and while sharing is caring, these may not be altered or published elsewhere without our direct permission. Enjoy.
Long time readers of the PiercingMetal site and blog know full well just how much the Command HQ enjoys the Metal offerings of Finland. Yep, for quite a few years (even before starting the whole process that you see before you) I had been enjoying the likes of Nightwish, Sonata Arctica, HIM and many more. Now a few short years ago we became fast friends with one Samuel Jyhla, who we often refer to as our “Finnish Ambassador”. We call him this based on his continual keeping this side of the fence in the loop with the goings on back home and bringing us up to date on bands that already or might pique our interest. A few short weeks ago, Samuel went home to visit and attended the Tuska Open Air Festival. This is a massive event held in Helsinki, Finland that is primarily dedicated to Metal and I while I have wanted to go for a couple of years it has just not been logistically possible for me to do so. During a recent meetup with Sammy, he showed me some of the photos that he took from the audience at Tuska and when I asked if he wanted to share them with all of you he said “sure”. I even added some notes about his overall perceptions, but kept them brief and succinct. Just click the various band logos to be taken to the full gallery of shots that he let us post.
It’s without question that Finland has been delivering some seriously amazing Metal bands to the scene for the last few years and while there are numerous favorites among the fans, I have to cite that Nightwish was my first foray into their provisions. I first heard of the band in 1999 and was not even doing my Metal Scribe thing yet but they remain one of my own personal top picks to this day. From this point I began to look into some of their other groups such as Sonata Arctica, Finntroll and so on. All of these wondrous sounds would come in handy to my mental musical palate once I began to write about it. Since becoming the Master and Commander of the PiercingMetal universe I have attended a score of concerts that the Finns have brought to our shores and based on the coverage on the site have been fortunate to meet a lot of wonderful musicians from this faraway land.
Today this bountiful provider of Metal celebrates their 94th Independence Day and I just wanted to send them all a hearty “Happy Independence Day” and raise my glass with a very loud “Kippis”. To celebrate the occasion I copied the tag for “Finnish Metal” which was used on every concert piece that features one of their bands. Clicking the Finnish flag below will launch that search and you can enjoy the findings. My hope is that most of you know all the bands already but if you do not, then it is high time to do a little research and eventual purchasing. I am pretty sure you will like what you hear. The core website can be searched for those bands via the main page.
Click The Flag To See "Finnish Metal" Postings
One day I will get myself over there and absorb a little more of their culture. Having seen some of my friends photos and knowing there is even more cool music makes me pretty firm in this idea. When I do that you can be rest assured that there will be both Metal and Personal blogs written up about the journey. Of course I will need to learn a little Finnish but luckily I have Sammy The Ambassador to help me along in that regard. Stay tuned.
Artist: Stratovarius Title: “Polaris”/”Polaris Live” Label: Armoury Records Release Date: 7/13/2010 Genre: Power Metal Rating: 4.5/5
Back in 2009, the band Stratovarius had informed the Metal masses that not only would they be back in action with the release of new material and a subsequent tour, but that they would be doing do without longtime guitarist Timo Tolki. The album was called “Polaris” and it introduced the bands worldwide fans to their new axe slinger Matias Kupiainen. The album was loaded with powerful energy and a number of its driving tracks found me slinging my own air guitar and pounding away on invisible drums as I listened. Fast forward to 2010 as the heat of the summer begins to mess with us, the band has re-issued this killer album and added a second CD that takes the bands full live set and delivers it to your living room. Having said all that I felt was necessary about the “Polaris” album in that releases review, I am representing it for you to refresh your memory about my views. After you catch up I will talk a little bit more about the live recordings that we get. Continue reading “Polaris”/”Polaris Live” by Stratovarius→
