Finnish Metal Fail

Seth, myself, and Elise from Reign in Blonde were among the crowd at last week's Finntroll show, watching the interpretive moshers and wondering why a four-act show starts at 9 PM on a Thursday. I had purchased my ticket back in December after hearing Moonsorrow - who I missed when I decided not to go to Paganfest II - would be one of the openers, looking forward to seeing how well the ambiance I found on their records translated to the stage.

The answer: not so much. Moonsorrow live weren't as big a disappointment as Swallow the Sun, whose combination of Fred Durst lookalike singer, non-existent stage presence, and poorly chosen set list made me regret my inclusion of the unfortunately (in retrospect) named New Moon on my best-of 2009 album list, but there was a great deal (besides the lyrics) that didn't translate. The guitars were out of tune. The harmonies were out of tune. The keyboard - which I realized, as I gave Verisäkeet a follow-up listen this morning, is absolutely necessary for a mood establisher - was almost inaudible. Maybe the band was drunk; maybe the sound guy fucked up; maybe the acoustics in the Gramercy Theatre are far worse than I give them credit for, but on that night at least, Moonsorrow went from being a band that channeled up some really cool aural imagery to a fairly boring endeavor that only held my attention because I was waiting for an improvement that never came. Well, that and looking at their kick-ass backdrop.

Finntroll Wants to Know Their Audiences...Biblically

Not surprisingly, not everyone thought the idea of a black metal band participating in a song contest was the best of expression of tr00 kvltness. The keyboardist from Finntroll, for example, was a little peeved by the idea - or the suggestion that his band would ever participate in anything similar - and decided to speak his mind. I'm not taking any sides in this conflict, but I thought the metaphor he used was...interesting, to say the least:

Black metal = no compromise. If Keep of Kalessin wants to penetrate some unexplored areas in the homosexual community, I feel no harm done, yet we leave our crowd raped by other means than participating in vain and futile contests on something we consider a blasphemy of an art anyway.

I'll be seeing Finntroll when they come to NYC in early April, so I guess I'll see just how explicit this nightly raping really is.