Again to keep the score

1. AC/DC – Black Ice
2. Black stone Cherry – Black Stone Cherry
3. Meshuggah – ObZen
4. R.E.M. - Monsters
5. Jex Thoth – Jex Thoth
6. Spiritual Beggars – Ad Astra
7. Spiritual Beggars – Into Fire
8. One Man Army and the Undead Quartet – Grim Tales
9. Immortal – Sons of Northern Darkness
10. Ajattara – Kalmanto
11. Moonsorrow – Hävitetty
12. Profane Omen – Inherit The Void
13. Iron Maiden – A Matter of Life And Death
14. Before the Dawn – Soundscape of Silence
15. The Nightwatchman – The…

Sun 14 Dec – Enslaved, Audrey Horne, Kraków

Enslaved @ Tavastia-club 14.12.2008
Supporting artists Kraków and Audrey Horne

Finally long awaited evening came and 11 years waiting was over: Enslaved, Norwegian progressive black metal pioneer was about to perform again in Finland and luckily at Tavastia-club, legendary rock-hole at the heart of Helsinki. As a supports they had fellow countrymen Krakow and due to Stonegard’s splitting up, Audrey Horne (in which Arve “Ice Dale” Isdal also plays guitar). Neither of those supports rang a bell to me so evening was more than interesting.

Kraków

They played a strange type of…

Mon 27 Oct – In Flames, Sonic Syndicate, Gojira

In Flames, what a contradictory word today. On the other hand it means one of the best metal records ever and on the other hand it means pretty average and mediocre music. All in all, In Flames is one of my favorite bands and attending to this gig was inevitable. Seeing Gojira live was a huge plus.

It all started almost with the worst case scenario: it was raining cats and dogs, I had to leave my car far away so I was dripping wet while I arrived and the queue…

Fri 18 Jul – Iron Maiden

- Supporting artists Lauren "the daughter of Steve Harris" Harris and American metalcore band Avenged Sevenfold of A7X as some of us call it.

Whoa. That's all I can say. I actually never was an Iron Maiden fan and I wasn't supposed to go to that gig although IM was on my "bands-to-see-before-death" -list (I didn't have the ticket and the show was sold out too soon). Anyway a lucky incidence happened and I got to see one of the greatest stadium concerts I've seen.
Weather was once again superb, beer was cold and…

Sun 20 Apr – Dark Tranquillity, Omnium Gatherum

Dark Tranquillity @ Tavastia club 20.4.2008

We here in Hellsinki had great two weeks since one week ago Arch Enemy visited us with a top notch gig and this weekend the masters of melodic death metal Dark Tranquillity gave their first club gig within a 10 years. What could one wish more? Well… eh…money, vacation, immortality. Ok, Ok, list is endless, but still 

Arch Enemy set the standards and I was a bit curious could DT answer to them. This gig was important for myself also because I’m a huge fan,…

Sun 13 Apr – Arch Enemy

Arch Enemy visited Finland last time with The Black Crusade –tour (13. - 14.12.2007).
During that gig they had only about 25 min set due to late attachment. They promised to return Finland soon. It happened sooner I have thought and to my favorite club in the world, legendary Tavastia in the very heart of Hellsinki.

At first, it seemed that they wouldn’t have any supporting artist, but three days before The Scourger was announced. I didn’t complain. The Scourger is a Helsinki based death-thrash metal band and I was eager to see them…

This list is more for myself to keep the score

1. The Black League - The Doomsday Sun
2. Mannhai - The Exploder
3. Corrosion Of Conformity – Wiseblood
4. Corrosion Of Conformity – Deliverance
5. Mastodon - Blood Mountain
6. Godsplague – Triumph
7. Kill The Romance - Take Another Life
8. Enter My Silence - Coordinate D1sa5t3r
9. Mike Ness - Cheating At Solitaire
10. Dark Tranquillity - Skydancer + Of Chaos…
11. Dark Tranquillity - Lost To Apathy EP
12. The Defaced - Karma In Black
13. The Defaced - Domination Commence
14. Opeth - Ghost Reveries…

Mon 4 Feb – Tuska Winter War 2008

Megadeth @ Tuska Winter War 2008
With Ensiferum and Volbeat

Against the odds, Megadeth played another gig in Finland within a year (during Sauna Open Air gig last summer, Dave said they wouldn’t be playing in Finland for awhile). We fans didn’t protest this change of plans at all. Finnish promoter Welldone had managed to provide two supports: local folkmetal band Ensiferum and interesting Danish band Volbeat that has been described as “Elvis meets heavy metal”.

Ensiferum
I knew this before and seeing them live just verified my conception: this is music…

Thanks to Last.fm, I've found a lot of new, great music to listen to and the best thing is that many of them are from Finland. This means that you actually managed to get yourself in their gigs easily and the tickets are usually reasonably priced. In addition, you often can buy a CD from a gig and get the original albums that othervise could be difficult to obtain.

I'm actually surprised how many great bands are out there, who never get the attention they truly deserve. Main reason for this flaw are the market forces which pretty much decide…

I got inspired by this from a journal I read reacently. It's interesting to know what I "should" be listening to more (according to last.fm) and how many bands are already in my list but just don't fit into my top 50.

Strangely enough, there's plenty of black metal in that tag cloud - a subgenre of metal I particulary don't like. Maybe I should pay attention to it more in the future…or then again maybe not.

Thanks to Anthony once again for a fun feature!

Take the 50 top artists in your musical profile, and create a cloud of…