Finnish Metal veterans Children of Bodom have announced their welcomed return back to the UK for a full headline tour this October.

The quintet will play seven shows around the UK and Ireland as part of the ‘Halo Of Blood Over Europe’ Tour, starting in Bournemouth on 7th October and ending at the prestigious Shepherds Bush Empire in London on 15th October. One of Finland's biggest musical exports, Children Of Bodom are firing up to release their 8th studio album ‘Halo Of Blood’, their first since returning to their original label home Nuclear Blast.  

Children Of Bodom + special guests TBC  

Mon 07.10.2013 Bournemouth Academy
Tue  08.10.2013 Bristol Academy
Thu  10.10.2013 Dublin Vicar Street
Sat   12.10.2013 Sheffield Academy
Sun  13.10.2013 Newcastle Academy
Mon  14.10.2013 Manchester Academy
Tue   15.10.2013 London Shepherd's Bush Empire

Tickets go on sale April 15th and ‘Halo Of Blood’ is released via Nuclear Blast on 10th June

http://www.cobhc.com
https://www.facebook.com/childrenofbodom

Century Media have done it again, they have gone back in time and gathered together a whole host of entire demo recordings done by Finnish Death Metal masochists Necropsy. The band started out in the late 1980's / early 1990's and was firmly part of the Death Metal scene, regardless of it's miniscule size at the time. Alongside the band, names like Sentenced, Amorphis, Demigod and Adramelech but to name a few, they were pushing Finnish Metal into greater areas. Sadly they did not captivate a huge audience until 2008, then everything changed and in 2013 it will change again...

“Tomb Of The Forgotten – The Complete Demo Recordings” (to be released on 3rd June, 2013) features the band’s complete demo recordings, from the first demo “Mental Disturbance” (released in 1989) until the last recorded tune “Anointing Of The Sick” (released in 1993). The entire material has been carefully remastered at DMS Mastering Studio (Morbid, Asphyx, Grave etc) from the original tapes.

The cover has been designed by César Valladares (Asphyx, Krisiun etc.) and perfectly captures the spirit of the ancient death metal demo days. Timo Hanhirova of Miasma Mag (Finland) has done a detailed interview with Necropsy’s main man Janne Kosonen and former guitarist Aatu Holma telling the entire story of the band. And of course the release is stuffed with loads of old and never-seen-before photos, demo art, flyers etc.

“Tomb Of The Forgotten – The Complete Demo Recordings” is going to be released as a 3CD Jewelcase with o-card and extensive booklet as well as on limited 4LP and as digital download.

Check out www.cmdistro.com to get your hands on a copy of the super limited colored vinyl version.
 
 
“Tomb Of The Forgotten – The Complete Demo Recordings” track-listing:
 
CD1

1.     Mental Disturbance
2.     Extricate From The Life
3.     Slippery Games
4.     Intro - Appearing Lunacy
5.     Scars Beyond Recovery
6.     Fetchers Of Soul
7.     Imminent Prophecy
8.     Curse
9.     L.G.I.
10.  Intro - Sanctify The Crucifixion Ritual
11.  Dust Thou Art
12.  Allienced With Darkness
13.  Fall-Out
14.  G.A.B.G.
15.  Chronic Agony
16.  Formal Absurdity
17.  Charge Of Undead
 
Tracks 1-3: Taken from “Mental Disturbance” demo (1989)
Tracks 4-9: Taken from “Curse” demo (1990)
Tracks 10-17: Taken from “Indigestion” demo (1990)
 
All tracks previously unreleased on CD and vinyl
 
CD2

1.     Never To Be Forgotten
2.     Dark Fantasies
3.     Refusal Of Cross
4.     Under The Masses
5.     White Perfect Fume
6.     Locked
7.     Born And Begotten In Sin
8.     Dance Among The Dead
9.     Cross Of Deceased Flesh
10.  Garden Of Rotting
11.  Cold Inert Mass Of Meat
 
Tracks 1-2: Taken from “Promo 1991” demo
Tracks 3-6: Taken from “Another World” demo (1991)
Tracks 7-11: Taken from “Go All The Way Of Flesh” demo (1992)
 
All tracks previously unreleased on CD and vinyl, except tracks 1 and 2 that have been released on the “Never To Be Forgotten” 7inch EP (1992)
 
CD3

1.     Intro
2.     Blasphemous Degradation
3.     White Perfect Fume
4.     From The Depths
5.     Under The Masses
6.     The Morass
7.     Implicit Confidence
8.     Shattered
9.     Rune Of Suffering
10.  Black Dyed Dawns
11.  Martyrdom
12.  Anointing Of The Sick
 
Tracks 1-6: Taken from the split LP with DEMIGOD
Tracks 7-11: Taken from the “Promo 1993” demo
Track 12: Taken from the “Monoheads” compilation
 
All tracks previously unreleased on CD, except track 12
Tracks 7-12 previously unreleased on vinyl
 
http://www.necropsy.fi
http://www.myspace.com/necropsyfinland
 
www.centurymedia.com
www.youtube.com/centurymedia
www.twitter.com/centurymediaeu
www.facebook.com/centurymedia
 
www.cmdistro.com

Karhu have just announced their 2013 tour, a string of 17 dates will see them performing across the UK from 10th to 26th May. London, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Sheffield, Bristol and Gloucester are just a few of the UK cities and towns that will be experiencing 'The Karhu Groove'.

Following on from the enthusiastic reception of their 2012 tour, the band have changed the management team and gone full steam ahead into the tasks of band promotion. The first album "Survival of the Richest" has been polished up with improved vocal and guitar parts, remixed and mastered, with a DVD including a couple of bonus tracks and a documentary to accompany the CD.

The UK element of the band which now includes Hampshire based Jake Archer is rehearsing through March and April. Finnish guitarist and growling vocal, Osku Kinnunen, flies in the week before the tour to polish up the performance.

Karhu's Manager 'The Glove' wants to:

"Thank all the Promoters and Agents that have been involved in the setting up of the 'Reality 2.0 Tour 2013'. Due to the costs involved in flying Osku in from Finland, the band has not been able to make use of the Battle of the Bands route to recognition within the British Metal Music Industry. We are grateful that some of the UK's Promoters have taken a chance on Karhu and given the band a fantastic opportunity to play to the Metal Heads of this great Island."

The band have also put together their own record label 'The Karhu Groove Ltd' and a sister company 'Great Bear Promotions Ltd' for the touring side of the business. Joseph Parry, clean vocalist and guitar, said "The response from the fans is one of pure enthusiasm. We had a great time touring in 2012 and aim to take the band and it's music to anywhere the fans want it."

Various bands will be joining the shows including, Tyrant, Disfracture, Headstone Down, Forbear and Italian hard rock Easter Before Christmas will be teaming up for a couple of dates, to name a few.

The gig will be streamed live from the Snooty Fox on the 22nd May, check out http://www.snootyfoxlive.com/

http://www.facebook.com/TheKarhuGroove
http://www.thekarhugroove.com/tour.html
http://greatbearpromos.com/KarhuMay.html

(Clockwise from above, Lordi (Finland), Terasbetoni (Finland), Eldrine (Georgia) and maNga (Turkey).

Is it a strange phenomenon that is occurring or is it simply a new idea by European music industries to promote their metal music scene?

Ever since Lordi graced the stage of the Eurovision song contest back in 2006 and won it emphatically with their song 'Hard Rock Hallelujah', this was to become the first Heavy Metal entry in Eurovision history and consequently the first one to win the competition. Post-Eurovision the band were congratulated from many alike from the Mayor of Helsinki to the President of Finland at the time, even producing Christmas stamps with the band members masks on them as well as coca-cola delivering a Lordi style product. Their winning song 'Hard Rock Hallelujah' was then released on their sensational album 'The Arockalypse'.

Forward a year and as Lordi opened up again with their winning song succeeding a spine-chilling introduction showing the Finnish part of the article circle (in fact the vocalist Mr. Lordi was born in Rovaniemi, the administrative capital of Lapland - could Santa Claus really be a demonic rocker?) and the band playing on an icy and snowy backdrop which features iconic Finnish cultural symbols, such as the pine trees, the wolves, the frozen landscape and of course Finnish Heavy Metal.

It then was the turn of Finnish Power Metal band Teräsbetoni, whom of which currently is on a hiatus as of 2011, signed to Sakara Records (previously signed to Warner Music Finland) the quartet embraced the cold winter storm of Helsinki's Hartwall Areena and the passionate Finnish Metal scene followers that valiantly waved their national flag along to the music, but what possibly made the band end near last position may rest with the choice of song, 'Missä miehet ratsastaa' which in fact progressed the band to the final in the 2008 edition of the Eurovision, even so it is a fabulous song, full of oomph and gusto, even so the final interval act was even more sensational, the Cello Metal legends that are Apocalyptica

Forwarding a few years to 2010 and it was Turkey's turn to enter a metal band, sure it was not as heavy as the previous bands but it still carried enough riff kudos to land maNga a second place finish in the Final, losing out unfortunately to Germany's Lena; to this day most music fans still claim maNga should have been the winners since their song (and themselves consequently) were unheard of relatively in Europe, whereas Lena and her entry was already massive hit on the European music scene, still maNga put up a damn good performance with their song 'We Could Be The Same', which aptly is a good slogan for the global metal community, we are the same as it would seem. maNga in fact had gained popularity through their song 'Bir Kadın Çizeceksin' as it was featured on the 2006 edition of FIFA and came from their debut s/t album, the album was later re-released as 'maNga+' with additional songs and adapted artwork, still keeping maNga's recognizable creature. Then their second album came out 'Şehr-i Hüzün' in 2009, still keeping the band's trademark sound of Anatolian melodies and Nu Metal. Their latest album is 'e-akustik' and was released last year, overall in my opinion they were the real winners.

Consequently 'We Could Be The Same', the Eurovision entry that maNga went with, was the first ever English song they have done, since then they also released the single 'Fly To Stay Alive'.

Forward on a year and the Nu Metal / Alternative Rock trend carries on, this time it is the Georgian band Eldrine to grace the Eurovision song contest and 2011 was to prove to be another humdinger for metal as the winning song was far from rock or metal. But none the less to see a Georgian Metal band in Eurovision is a shock since the scene itself is relatively minute, with only a handful of bands actually getting known in the Caucasian region, but none the less they brought the Nu Metal sound once more, even with costumes that may even represent traditional values in terms of dress style.
Heavy Metal may need that, just 'One More Day' to reshuffle and deliver another lashing on Eurovision to win the title of the most competitive music song contest on the planet.

So where does this leave the relationship between Heavy Metal and the Eurovision Song Contest? Maybe some day a variation of the contest may be made to suit metal music, maybe Sweden or Norway may send a Black Metal band in, who knows. But what happened in the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest did not happen in the final of the competition, during the semi-finals and the voting stages to vote acts to the final, from Switzerland the duo act Sinplus of whom play Post-Punk, New Wave and Alternative Rock music sadly did not get through, nor did the Israeli rock band Izabo, sure it is not metal music, but the latter is just an evident sign that rock is still represented, more so another act not to make it to the final was the Slovakian artist Miroslav Šmajda of whom plays Alternative Rock / Heavy Metal. However on a side note, the French entry Anggun is of Indonesian origin and as I found out when interviewing her, she takes influence from Heavy metal music, yet sings pop music, weird eh? So what will 2013 bring....

As Eurovision Song Contest 2013 rolls onto our screens on the following dates (NB for the UK semi-finals will be on BBC Three and the Final on BBC One - commentators Scott Mills and Ana Matronic, Graham Norton respectively):

Semi-final 1 - 14 May 2013
Semi-final 2 - 16 May 2013

Final date - 18 May 2013

There are a number of rock / electronic music entries that should be watched out for.

Representing Albania is the Rock duo Adrian Lulgjuraj and Bledar Sejko
Representing Armenia is the Rock band Dorians
Representing Italy is the Pop Rock artist Marco Mengoni
Representing Lithuania is the Indie Rock artist Andrius Pojavis
Representing Macedonia is the Pop Rock artist Vlatko Lozanoski
Representing Norway is the Electro / Pop Rock artist Margaret Berger
Representing Spain is the Pop Rock / Celtic Rock band El Sueño de Morfeo
Representing The Netherlands is the Alternative Rock / Pop Rock artist Anouk Teeuwe
Representing The United Kingdom is the Pop Rock artist Bonnie Tyler

The closest musically to metal music would be between the Albanian, Armenian and Spanish entries.

Lets start the show.

_Ektro Records have announced the release date as September 5th for Finnish Death Metallers Arkhamin Kirjasto's debut album, "Torches Ablaze". Following a well-received self-titled EP in 2010, "Torches Ablaze" features Finnish eccentric Jussi Lehtisalo, owner / operator of Ektro Records and who vast musical activities include Circle, Pharaoh Overlord, Ektroverde, Split Cranium, Slussenanalys, and Rakhim.

Above is the cover art for "Torches Ablaze".

Ttracklisting:

01 The Cult of No Return  
02 Knights of Torment
03 Sleeping Beauty
04 Sea of Madness 
05 Bitch from Hell          
06 Thousand Snakes         
07 Speed, Yog Sogoth       
08 Golem Made of Flesh    
09 Synthetic Death 
10 When the Light is Dead and Gone

Streaming audio clips of Torches Ablaze can be found here:

http://soundcloud.com/ektrorecords/arkhamin-kirjasto-sleeping
http://soundcloud.com/ektrorecords/arkhamin-kirjasto-speed-yog

www.ektrorecords.com

_ Finnish veteran Folk/Viking Metal warriors Ensiferum are set to unleash their fifth release 'Unsung Heroes' on the 27th August 2012 via Spinefarm Records.
Produced by Hiili Hiilesmaa (HIM, Sentenced, Apocalyptica, etc.), this is the hour-plus follow-up to 2009’s ‘From Afar’, and sees the Finnish quintet push their signature sound to bold new heights of drama and excess.

With the 16 minute-plus ‘Passion Proof Power’ epic showing that when it comes to the epic statement, Ensiferum are very much in the front-line, swords at the ready.

The band comments:

“We’ve tried to push the different aspects of what we do as far as we can,” reflects the band, “the sonic scope is wider than ever. The folk elements go further down that path and the metallic parts will absolutely rip your face off!”

Once again, album art has been supplied by Kristian Wahlin, with special guests including members of Apokalyptischen Reiter plus legendary Finnish singer & actor, Vesa-Matti Loiri.

Album Tracklisting

01. Symbols
02. In My Sword I Trust
03. Unsung Heroes
04. Burning Leaves
05. Celestial Bond
06. Retribution Shall Be Mine
07. Star Queen (Celestial Bond part II)
08. Pohjola
09. Last Breath
10. Passion Proof Power

A video is currently being planned for the track, ‘In My Sword I Trust’.

SEPTEMBER: UK / Irish dates (part of the extensive European ‘Bearers Of The Sword’ tour):

18 O2 Academy, Islington, London
19 Moho, Manchester
20 Button Factory, Dublin, Ireland
21 Rescue Rooms, Nottingham

Special guests on the tour are fellow Finns and fellow Spinefarm artists, Profane Omen.

RHYS STEVENSON