Fresh from Finland

A while back we got to experience a whirlwind of fantastic line up of post-metal and post-rock shows in Finland. First we hosted visitors from Ireland, only to be succeeded by a group of amazing Americans.

God is an Astronautins first visit to Finland lasted three days and covered three cities: Helsinki, Tampere and Jyväskylä. The show in Helsinki was sold out in advance, and judging from the crowd gathered at Tampere – it was as well. What I heard from those who attended the show in Jyväskylä – there was no lack of a crowd there either. I hope this means that we will see them in our backyards again quickly.

I attended the show in Tampere and I too was very pleased. They played a variety of songs from all their full-length albums as well as their newest EP. The stage performance didn’t knock me off my feet and the show was all in all very much in line with what you would imagine from a post-rock performance, even though now and again I thought I picked up on bursts of something exceptional. At times the double bass would hint at something a little edgier and the guitars didn’t paintbrush around the room quite as much as your typical post-rock show. Needless to say, I looked it up and my good friend Wikipedia informed me that their style is described as acoustic rock – which my experience also confirmed.

Despite this confusion, most of the audience left the venue looking like they had seen Zeus himself in action. The background visuals seemed to have made an impact on the audience (judging from the photos, you can tell I didn’t have the opportunity to pay too much attention to those visuals). As I let the music guide me, at times I too experienced a pleasant, serene presence in the crowd – almost as if the magical bassgodzilla had ravaged me in between his massive jaws, then gently pieced me together and cascaded me down to join the living, once again.

The following day another piece of heaven was discovered, farther away this time as God is an Astronaut ended their minitour of Finland in Jyväskylä and along came Isis with friends for a recap of Finland. Nosturi, in Helsinki featured the lot as Isis put on a very typical Isis show, which left me at a loss for words – and not just in a good way. Over half of the songs were from the newest album, and even though I would have preferred a more widely spread show, the show was appealing, in a “basically” way. The crowd warmers, Marmiffer and Dälek, intrigued me though.

First up Mamiffer is Isis’ Aaron Turners (among other appraised musicians) experimental side-project. I have a gut feeling that it will remain as a side-project, since it is hard to imagine a situation where one would listen to Mamiffer, even as it was more appealing than Isis’ performance. I doubt I would listen to Mamiffer at home, and even live the performance was somehow captivating, yet distancing at the same time. The first time the virgin effect made it interesting, but a lack of depth makes me question how many shows one could actually enjoy.

The unique rap duo Dälek was the clear winner of the post-rock/metal dominated evening, and week for that matter. Even as I have seen many of these born and raised New Jersey bands, the duo was still the most interesting. The aggressive style on stage combined with the captivating and capturing backgrounds worked once again.

For anyone wanting more of the multidimensional, paintbrush experiences, I would highly recommend the Finnish crew Betrayal at Bespin. The post-metal five member group from Pori released their debut last week on the Internet for anyone to stream and download. The rather heavy start slowly strays to elements of post-rock and that serene, ambiance setting. The experience is complemented with string instruments, saxophones, harmonicas, growling as well as Mexican cinema guitars.

The EP “Diary of a Dead Man Walking” sounds well-packaged and refined, even though it is only a debut. As many of the group have a past in the hardcore machine Satura Lanx, that experience is starting to show. The debut is in sync, despite the clear discrepancies between the a- and b-sides. The instrumentals and growling balance each other, and as the a-side shifts to the b-side, the heavier guitars morph almost without any hinges into acoustic guitars. The debut seems to have a subtle smooth glide to it, almost an eery feel.

If any of the mentioned descriptions tickled a fancy (or hit a nerve) I strongly urge you to visit: http://www.betrayalatbespin.com