It is an unfortunate fact that here in New Zealand we have it pretty crap when it comes to Summer festivals. This is partly to do with our isolated location and partly the fact that the general populist has some pretty bad taste in music (sorry New Zealand, its true). To celebrate the start of June and the start of the European music festival season I have decided to go over some of the festivals that make Big Day Out look like a small gathering.
Whilst there are hundreds of festivals taking place in Europe over the Summer months, many of which feature the odd rock or metal act due to its intense popularity, I’m going to focus on the ones the specifically cater to those who prefer things heavier.
What better place to start than the God of metal festivals, Wacken Open Air. Wacken Open Air started off in the small German town of Wacken way back in 1990 as a small gathering for some German bands, but by the late 90’s it had grown into a colossus featuring over 70 bands from around the world and attracting fans from just as far. Its capacity of 70,000 over the three days now sells out months in advance, with the 2009 edition setting a sales record, selling out over 200 days before the start of the festival. 2008 saw names such as Iron Maiden, Nightwish, Children of Bodom, and Holy Moses grace the stages, with 2009 already boasting acts such as Motorhead and Doro its set to be just as big and successful as its predecessors.
Next is a personal favourite, Tuska Metal Festival, held in the middle of Helsinki Finland every year for the last 11 years. It focuses somewhat on Scandinavian acts, which nowadays isn’t that hard as they now dominate the metal scene. Along with the rest of the European metal scene, Tuska has grown steadily each year since its start and has found added success from the metal-crazy Finns. 2008 saw it sell out for the first time in its history, hitting its capacity of 36,000 attendants who got to see Amon Amarth, Dimmu Borgir and Slayer.
To finish on a lighter note you can find Rock am Ring and Rock im Park, two festivals run simultaneously normally with the same line up. Usually counted as just one festival, together they form one of the largest music festivals in the world with an attendance of over 150,000 annually. Rock am Ring and Rock im Park have the most mixed acts of the festivals I’ve talked about, featuring alot more American and rock acts than Wacken or Tuska, but still getting in a large amount of metal acts like In Flames, Iron Maiden and Strapping Young Lad.
If you are ever in Europe during Summer and fancy some hearing some awesome music, I highly recommend you check out atleast one of these festivals. They are value for money compared to the Big Day Out and will be the experience of a lifetime.
This is the last column of the semester. There will be new ones in about a months time. Stay tuned!!
6/12/2009
6/02/2009
Issue 12 2009
This week I’m going to talk about a genre of metal I quite enjoy, Norwegian black metal. Some people take this genre of music deathly seriously (literally, but more on that later) but for the life of me I just cannot. Don’t get me wrong, I love the music, but everything associated with it just makes me laugh.
First things first though, what exactly is black metal? Black metal is at the extreme end of the metal spectrum and features fast tempos, unconventional song structure and shrieked or screamed vocals. Black metal is also heavily reliant on imagery, both in their personal appearance and stage props. It is not uncommon to see a stage covered in animal blood at a tro0, kvlt black metal concert and musicians wearing the obligatory corpse paint (black and white make-up which is used to give a ‘corpse like’ appearance).
But black metal in Norway has become more famous for the activities that have taken place outside of the music rather than the music itself. In the early 90s over 50 historically significant, early Christian churches were burned down by members of the Black metal scene. The reasoning behind these varies between the claimants, but it is generally accepted that the burnings were to reinforce an anti-Christian message. Today these burnings are looked down on by some members of the community, such as Kjetil Manheim of Mayhem but others such as Gaahl of Gorogroth support them.
However church burnings seem to pale in comparison to other things that also took place in the early 90s, the first of these being the suicide of ‘Dead’ vocalist for the band Mayhem. Dead was found with a shotgun wound to the head by fellow Mayhem member Euronymous. Deads suicide note infamously read "Excuse all the blood". Before calling the police, Euronymous went to a nearby store and bought a disposable camera to photograph the corpse. One of these photographs was later stolen and used as the cover of a bootleg album. Don’t Google it unless you have a strong stomach. It was later rumoured that Euronymous made a stew with pieces of Dead's brain, and made necklaces with fragments of his skull. Mayhem denied the first, but confirmed the second...
Finally in 1993 Varg Vikernes of Burzum who has been described as the most notorious metal musician of all time, murdered Euronymous by stabbing him 23 times. It was speculated that the murder was the result of a power struggle over record profits, but Vikernes claimed that Euronymous had attacked him first and the large number of cuts were a result or Euronymous falling on broken glass during the struggle. Regardless, a few months later Vikernes was sentenced to 21 years in prison for both the murder and church arsons. In a chilling display, Vikernes smiled at the moment his verdict was read.
On May 22 2009 Vikernes confirmed that he had been released from jail.
Welcome to the wonderful world of Norwegian black metal.
First things first though, what exactly is black metal? Black metal is at the extreme end of the metal spectrum and features fast tempos, unconventional song structure and shrieked or screamed vocals. Black metal is also heavily reliant on imagery, both in their personal appearance and stage props. It is not uncommon to see a stage covered in animal blood at a tro0, kvlt black metal concert and musicians wearing the obligatory corpse paint (black and white make-up which is used to give a ‘corpse like’ appearance).
But black metal in Norway has become more famous for the activities that have taken place outside of the music rather than the music itself. In the early 90s over 50 historically significant, early Christian churches were burned down by members of the Black metal scene. The reasoning behind these varies between the claimants, but it is generally accepted that the burnings were to reinforce an anti-Christian message. Today these burnings are looked down on by some members of the community, such as Kjetil Manheim of Mayhem but others such as Gaahl of Gorogroth support them.
However church burnings seem to pale in comparison to other things that also took place in the early 90s, the first of these being the suicide of ‘Dead’ vocalist for the band Mayhem. Dead was found with a shotgun wound to the head by fellow Mayhem member Euronymous. Deads suicide note infamously read "Excuse all the blood". Before calling the police, Euronymous went to a nearby store and bought a disposable camera to photograph the corpse. One of these photographs was later stolen and used as the cover of a bootleg album. Don’t Google it unless you have a strong stomach. It was later rumoured that Euronymous made a stew with pieces of Dead's brain, and made necklaces with fragments of his skull. Mayhem denied the first, but confirmed the second...
Finally in 1993 Varg Vikernes of Burzum who has been described as the most notorious metal musician of all time, murdered Euronymous by stabbing him 23 times. It was speculated that the murder was the result of a power struggle over record profits, but Vikernes claimed that Euronymous had attacked him first and the large number of cuts were a result or Euronymous falling on broken glass during the struggle. Regardless, a few months later Vikernes was sentenced to 21 years in prison for both the murder and church arsons. In a chilling display, Vikernes smiled at the moment his verdict was read.
On May 22 2009 Vikernes confirmed that he had been released from jail.
Welcome to the wonderful world of Norwegian black metal.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)