The Finnish Metal Festival was awesome! Swallow the Sun, Moonsorrow and Finntroll all put on excellent shows.  m/

Friday night was fantastic fun with Finnish Folk Metal band Finntroll.  Yes, Friday, April 9th, 2010 was a night that I had waited a long time for. The Finnish Metal Festival came to Worcester, MA with not one, but three of my favorite Finnish Metal Bands.

Headlining the show was Finntroll one of the most original and creative Finnish folk metal bands that mix Finnish humpa music ( a sort of polka), folk and melodic death metal.  Also on tour was Moonsorrow a progressive Finnish metal band and Swallow the Sun, a Finnish doom metal band.  My son and I drove out in the rain to be at the Worcester Palladium when the doors opened at 7:00. The show was upstairs in the club room, which holds about 500 people. First my son and I went to the balcony to check out the merchandise.  He picked up a new Finntroll T-shirt and Finntroll hoodie featuring album art from Finntroll's new album Nivlund.  I got a new Swallow the Sun Tour shirt, featuring the album art from their latest album New Moon and tour dates on the back. I also got a Moonsorrow T-Shirt featuring a Viking swinging a battle ax at a Knights Templar Crusader and the Finnish Metal tour dates on the back.   We went downstairs and ran into my friend Mikko (who first introduced me to Finntroll years ago) and his friend, a young lady who had never been to a metal show. (she enjoyed it)  The crowd was already gathering by the stage.

Swallow the Sun 

My favorite death/doom metal band from Finland would have to be these guys. They just released New Moon (not to be confused with the vampire film) which was excellent.  The singer, Mikko Kotamaki (not to be confused with my Finnish friend Mikko who also attended the show), hit center stage. In the back was Kai Hahto on drums.  I was right up next to the front stage monitors to Mikko's left, so guitarist Markus Jamsen was right in front of me. He looks extremely pensive as he plays guitar.(he is also as bald as I am!) Bassist Matti Honkonen was right next to him slamming out the low brooding bass of the bands tunes.  To my far left (stage right) was Aleksi Munter on keyboards and Juha Raivo on guitar.

Swallow the Sun mostly performed from their new album, started their set with These Woods Breathe Evil then Falling World.  These Hours of Despair was performed from Hope.  Sleepless Swans was as huanting as it sounded on New Moon. From the album Plague of Butterflies, they performed the title track.  They also performed the title track of New Moon. Swallow the Sun's final song was Swallow from The Morning Never Came

I was pleased to be able to get my photo taken with singer Mikko Kotamaki (red shirt drink in hand), bass player Matti Honkonen (in back at right of photo with black hat), guitarist Markus Jamsen (in back of me with glasses doing metal yell) and keyoard player Aleski Munter (fist raised in photo to left) between sets, as the band was hanging out by their merchandise stand upstairs. They are a nice bunch of guys, and were pleased to be touring in the United States.  They were also glad that I was wearing a Swallow the Sun T-shirt!

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