Review: Finnish Fire tour 12.4.2008

#42

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Korpiklaani
Battlelore

Kivimetsän Druidi

Carling Academy
Islington, London UK

This was my first solo adventure in merry old England (the rest of the time I clung to my colleague who grew up in London). I was pretty excited about the prospect of Finnish folk metal, since I doubt we'll ever see any of these bands tour State-side. I had no trouble figuring out the Tube (other than the fact that it seems to take one hour minimum to get anywhere on it - two stops or twenty) and got out at the suggested Angel station. I had a tiny, uninformative map of the venue from their web page and I finally figured out that it was inside the N1 shopping center after walking around the shopping center for about 20 minutes. I guess shows in London start pretty early since public transportation stops after midnight so I missed the first band on this "Finnish Fire" tour and got there when Kivimetsan Druidi was about half-way through their set. I'd never heard of them before, but they were pretty cool. They got chicks and stuff.

I'd heard of the other two bands from the Metal Hammer "Battle Metal" compilation discs. Battlelore was so fucking cool - ice cold! Like Finland! I highly doubt I will be that entertained again in the near future - crazy makeup and costumes, swords, the Finnish equivalent of ululation, keyboards, craziness! The crowd was pretty into them and it was a pretty long set too. At the same time I was sampling my new favorite beverage - Strongbow - which I must now seek out in the States. Yummy! I also got my picture taken with the singer, who like all Finnish people I've ever met, was super-nice.

Korpiklaani are Sami but I think may also be some kind of forest trolls. At least one of them is definitely a troll. Anyways, they had an acordion (hot!) and violin and a bunch of reindeer antlers all over the stage. Caribou metal - Yes! I doubt many people would come out to see this in the States - especially since most of their songs are in a language spoken by less than 50,000 people worldwide. It was pretty cool but not as fun as Battlelore - although my feet were killing me and I was much more interested in obtaining more Strongbow by this point.

The club itself was pretty nice and the crowd was a lot of fun too. Hopefully I'll get back to it again sometime.