the twentyfifth video is path by apocalyptica. featuring four amplified cellos, nothing more. this is one of the songs which got me into apocalyptica.

this is cello rock. with just amplified cellos: no drums, no lyrics, nothing else. try it if you want.

i like it because… it’s powerful, dark, melodic, intensive, beautiful. and played only by cellos. i fell in love with it when i first heard it, and i still love it.
the first time i saw the video was when putting together this series. i must say that the video is as good as the song itself. and interesting interplay between shadows and reality, in black and white. really fantastic.
(which reminds me, i haven’t seen them live for some time. what a pitty…)

on saturday, i visited the rock 2008, a one-day festival held on königstein fortress, located in the beautiful landscape of the saxon switzerland, together with a friend. here are some pictures from the fortress:

after strolling around the fortress interior a bit, we walked near to the stage to watch the first band, krieger, a german hard rock band. usually, the first band(s) playing on a festival have the ungrateful job of killing some time, while most of the crowd hopes they’ll stop soon. often, they aren’t exactly experienced or aren’t too good. but not krieger; they played a pretty solid kind of hard rock, maybe not exactly my style, but it was good and we enjoyed it. some photos:

after krieger, a short break took place when the stage was prepared for lacrimas profundere, a german gothic metal band. the break went on pretty fast, and the band entered the stage. i haven’t heard them before, just their name. i think i have to listen to some of their albums before i can give a better judgement, but they sounded pretty good. a photo:

a very noticeable thing about this festival was that all stage reconstructions were done very fast, and the sound quality was really good all the time. i haven’t seen this combination ever before; often, it seems that the reconstruction times were eternal and the sound quality still really bad.
another admireable thing was the strict adheration of the time table. the first two bands had like 30 minutes, and the whole festival was planned to be over by around 23 o’clock, and so they managed to do. even though the doors opened a few minutes later than planned. (well, please admit it, have you ever experienced some festival or concert without any delay?)
anyway, the third band was schandmaul, a german medieval metal band. i know a bunch of people who like them a lot, but this doesn’t change the fact that i managed to not know a lot of them except a few songs, maybe. schandmaul did a very nice show. they managed to get the last bits of the party rocking and rolling. definitely a very good live band. some photos:

then, finally, it was time for the big stars of the evening, the finnish cello rockers apocalyptica. i’ve already seen them last november in zürich, and they were one of the main reasons why i travelled so far for this festival. the stage design was as usual: four large metal chairs, formed like skulls, with a huge drumkit in the middle:

their performance was, as usual, excellent. it’s always amazing how eicca and perttu manage to combine heavy head banging with playing their cellos perfectly. unfortunately, antero wasn’t playing with a burning cello this time, though. besides that, they managed to let the crowd freak out, and played lots of great songs, including some of my very favorites like prologue (apprehension) from reflections and the norwegian black metal classichall of the mountain king from cult, featuring paavo stomping around the stage while playing the mountain king. simply great. here are some photos:

after maybe one and a half hour, everything was over. we took a peek at the merchandizing booth, where the guys from lacrimas profundere were waiting for their fans to talk, being photographed, autographing and talking. then, we took the bus down to the city of königstein and walked back to our hostel, where its owner, lutz, was waiting for the concert attendees at a nice bonfire.
well, i think this concert/festival qualifies for being one of the best i’ll attend this year. the technical stuff was marvellous, the timing good (except that at least lacrimas profundere should have played a bit longer and, well, apocalyptica could have played the whole day anyway :-) ). all four bands were ranging from good to excellent, and in particular the last two made the crowd go crazy. (even though i still don’t get it why on earth one wants to have a mosh pit while a gothic metal band is playing. but then, hell, kiddies aren’t exactly predictable…)

after making a best of concerts list for this year, i decided to make a best of albums list for all albums i have bought until now. i divided this up into several categories:

• prog;
• punk/punk rock;
• trip hop, alt rock;
• other non-metal;
• metal: atmospheric;
• metal: death/black;
• metal: doom;
• metal: extreme prog;
• metal: folk/pagan/viking;
• metal: gothic;
• metal: power;
• metal: prog;
• metal: other.

note that this list reflects a snapshot of my current interest and remembrance of most of the albums. it could already be different in a few days. but feel free to comment or discuss this with me.

prog.

1. porcupine tree: deadwing.
2. pure reason revolution: the dark third.
3. frost: milliontown.
4. opeth: damnation.
5. porcupine tree: the sky moves sideways.

punk/punk rock.

1. die ärzte: die bestie in menschengestalt.
2. wizo: uuaarrgh!.
3. die toten hosen: kauf mich!.
4. die ärzte: planet punk.
5. die ärzte: 13.

trip hop, alt rock.

1. kari rueslåtten: other people’s stories.
2. radiohead: ok computer.
3. portishead: portishead.

other non-metal.

1. kari rueslåtten: spindelsinn.
2. nine inch nails: the downward spiral.
3. eläkeläiset: humppasirkus.
4. bohren & der club of gore: black earth.

metal: atmospheric.

1. the 3rd and the mortal: tears laid in earth.
2. finntroll: visor om slutet.
3. tool: 10 000 days.
4. anathema: a natural disaster.

metal: death/black.

note that i took out the prog death/prog black (avantgarde) albums into its own category, called metal: extreme prog.

1. bolt thrower: those once loyal.
2. moonspell: the antidote.
3. wintersun: wintersun.
4. amorphis: elipse.
5. childen of bodom: hatebreeder.

metal: doom.

i think this is the category where i could have made the longest list. there are many really good albums missing, for example down and love and death by sentenced, the other swallow the sun albums, sunn o))) and boris‘ altar, some candlemass albums, unholy‘s the second ring of power, and some more.

1. sentenced: frozen
2. swallow the sun: ghosts of loss.
3. type o negative: world coming down.
4. tiamat: prey.
5. unholy: rapture.

metal: extreme prog.

this category is dominated by opeth; therefore, i decided to list the top seven instead of the top five.

1. opeth: still life.
2. orphaned land: mabool — the story of the three sons of seven.
3. opeth: blackwater park.
4. distorted: memorial.
5. opeth: orchid.
6. borknagar: epic.
7. edge of sanity: crimson (part one).

metal: folk/pagan/viking.

1. moonsorrow: viides luku: hävitetty.
2. moonsorrow: verisäkeet.
3. primordial: to the nameless dead.
4. finntroll: jaktens tid.
5. moonsorrow: voimasta ja kunniasta.

metal: gothic.

1. lacuna coil: karma code.
2. tristania: beyond the veil.
3. lake of tears: a crimson cosmos.
4. poisonblack: lust stained despair.

metal: power.

1. nevermore: dead heart in a dead world.
2. nevermore: dreaming neon black.
3. symphony x: paradise lost.
4. communic: waves of visual decay.
5. nightwish: oceanborn.

metal: prog.

1. dream theater: train of thought.
2. the gathering: mandylion.
3. ayreon: the human equation.
4. dream theater: metropolis pt. 2 — scenes from a memory.
5. dream theater: images and words.

metal: other.

1. timo rautiainen & trio niskalaukaus: hartes land.
2. rage: lingua mortis.
3. samael: solar soul.
4. annihilator: king of the kill.
5. apocalyptica: cult.

i think it’s time to take a look at the list of concerts i attended this year and to list the best ones. at these two links, you can find a pretty complete list of the concerts i attended. i decided to divide the top list into two categories: prog and metal.

prog

for the third place, i cannot decide between three concerts, all which took place in pratteln in the z-7, namely, first, the spock’s beard gig on the 16.05.2007, second, the anathema & moondawn gig on the 31.05.2007, and, third, the fish gig on the 27.11.2007. all three gigs have been very good. most memorable was probably spock’s beard keyboardist, playing with both hands and feet, while his poor technician had to hold the keyboard construction together so it wouldn’t fall apart.

the second place goes to the blackfield & pure reason revolution concert, which took place on the 24.02.2007 in pratteln (z-7). i think this was the first concert where i really liked the opener, so much that i bought one of their albums. actually, i had to order it by mail, as the ones they had with them were sold out at the end of their concert (hence, i wasn’t the only one who liked it alot). the main act itself, blackfield, a collaboration between the porcupine tree frontman steven wilson and the israeli rock star aviv geffen, was also really good.

the first place goes to the porcupine tree & anathema concert, which took place on the 12.11.2007 in zürich (volkshaus). despite several people in the audience didn’t like anathema too much (“too boring”), i was pleased to see them again. for me, their music expresses simply too many emotions to be boring, eating up energy until bursting into the listener’s ear. the main act, porcupine tree, one of my favorite bands, was as good as i expected them to be. even though they played a lot from the current album, fear of a blank planet, which i don’t like as much as some of the older ones, they also played many classics. unfortunately, they didn’t played arriving somewhere but not here, which i would really loved to listen to. but, besides that, i still think this is the best prog concert i attended this year.

metal

again, as before, i cannot decide on someone for the third place, but i have two canidates in mind. the first one is the dream theater & symphony x concert, which took place on the 31.10.2007 in winterthur (eulachhallen). the second canidate is the apocalyptica & sturm und drang concert, which took place on the 09.11.2007 in zürich (volkshaus). all these bands are really good, and the shows they delivered were so, too, featuring many small details, as neat decoration. but both of these concerts also have their sides. namely, symphony x played way too short (but then, i’ll see them again next february as headliner), the location was strange (the wardrobe was outside), and dream theater could have played longer, too (i heard the rumor that the local organizer fucked this up by not registering the concert with the authorities, which in turn resulted in the police ordering the concert to be ended earlier). at the apocalyptica concert, i didn’t like the opener sturm und drang too much; they played really good and professional, but it simply wasn’t the kind of music which i really like.

the second place is filled by the amorphis, swallow the sun & insomnium concert, which took place at the 18.11.2007 in pratteln (z-7). (videos from the concert can be found here.) this concert featured three very good finnish bands, one of them, namely swallow the sun, being one of my favorite ones. their shows were good, the selection of songs was, too (i would have loved to hear some more swallow the sun songs, but then, i would probably have only been really pleased if they would have simply played all songs from their three albums, which is slightly unrealistic to expect from a co-headliner). i was headbanging a lot, met some friends, had a lot of fun.

the first place goes to the moonsorrow & swallow the sun concert, which took place at the 09.04.2007 (easter monday) in pratteln (z-7). actually, there was a third band playing as an opener, whose name i forgot. this concert was one of the most incluencal concert for me this year, not only as it introduced me to two bands, namely moonsorrow and swallow the sun, which i now count as two of my most favorite bands. besides that, the atmosphere was simply perfect, and so was the audience. i still remember headbanging with eric (a guy i met on this concert and on another one a bit later, who’s also an opeth fan), even though headbanging right next to the mosh pit can be pretty painful…

yesterday i attended apocalyptica‘s concert in zurich. supported by the youngsters from sturm und drang, which were acting pretty professional, both from their playing skills, and their stage performance. that was pretty nice, though not exactly the kind of music i like to listen to.
then, after half an hour of sturm and drang and another half an hour of stage rebuilding and waiting, apocalyptica started off with an (as usual) great atmospheric intro. well. the show was simply great. though, i’m still not convinced that drums fit in there; though some songs a great with drums, most i would prefer to hear most songs without drums, or at least with less audible drums. fortunately they played some songs without, but just a very few… at least, they didn’t started to take a vocalist along their tour…
besides these things, though, the concert was really, really great! besides playing songs from the current album, worlds collide, they also played many older songs and also some metallica covers, and edvard griegs in the hall of the mountain king, one of my very favorite songs, declared by apocalyptica to be a great piece of norwegian black metal (i think they said that on their previous concert here in zurich, around two years ago).
after two encores, they finally left the stage, leaving back a thrilled and enthusiastic crowd.

here’s a list of concerts i plan to attend during the last four months of this year. if i put a link to a bands’ homepage, this means i’m going to that concert to see this band (and as a side effect, also the non-linked ones).

• 13.09.2007: threshold, communic, machine men and serenity are playing in the z-7 in pratteln (progressive metal);
• 22.09.2007: fjoergyn, wolfchant, nastrandir und nuclear winter are playing in the dynamo in zurich (symphonic black/pagan/viking/death metal);
• 27.10.2007: moonsorrow, korpiklaani, excelsis and battlelore are playing at the viking/pagan festival in the stadthalle dietikon (folk/pagan metal);
• 31.10.2007: dream theater and symphony x are playing in the eulachhallen in winterthur (progressive metal);
• 09.11.2007: apocalyptica (with special guest not announced yet) is playing in the volkshaus in zürich (violin metal);
• 12.11.2007: porcupine tree and anathema are playing in the volkshaus in zürich (prog, atmospheric rock with metal influences);
• 16.11.2007: orchester accento musicale zürich is playing in the st. peter in zürich (classic);
• 17.11.2007: boob is playing in the helsinki klub in zürich (alternative/punk rock);
• 18.11.2007: amorphis, swallow the sun and insomnium are playing in the z-7 in pratteln (prog metal, doom metal);
• 27.11.2007: fish is playing in the z-7 in pratteln (progressive rock);
• 29.11.2007: halloween, gamma ray and axxis are playing in the stadthalle dietikon (power metal); (skipping that one because of lack of time)
• 05.12.2007: die ärzte are playing in the hallenstadion in oerlikon/zürich (fun punk);
• 14.12.2007: ensiferum, turisas and insania are playing in the z-7 in pratteln (viking metal).

unfortunately, i will miss finntroll playing in the z-7 on 05.12.2007…