HELL OVER PARADISE

Metalcamp did happen! Lots of stuff to tell. Thus, I think it is the best to plunge straight into what has been going on during the last week. To make the long story short: IT WAS VERY HOT AND IT WAS VERY GREAT!

Now, lets make the short story a bit longer. Metalcamp is the biggest Slovenian metal festival. This year, it was planned as a kind of metal-holidays. The place of it, Tolmin, is beautiful. Great nature, clear and cool river. Two stages: one for big and one for more unknown bands. A week of camping in nice surroundings, five days of gigs. Hell over paradise indeed.

My kind camp-neighbours and me arrived on the venue last Monday. The camping site is big: people can camp wherever they want. Alright, there could be more showers and more water-facilities . Anyway, the first task was to build the tents in the shadow. So it was done. Then, something odd happened. Some freaks came. And they dragged a carousel with them. Despite the camp was opened since morning and quite some people were already camping on that particular site. Goddamned old and rusty creature was supposed to stand just a few steps away from our tents. What the fuck, a carousel in the middle of the camp!? No go, just no go! Smelly and noisy thing; the only noise we wanted to hear was metal. The hardcore part of mine went a bit... nuts. Luckily, metalheads were not interested in having such fun, and the freaks were gone with the thing on Thursday. Another bad and sad story were those empty beer-cans people were throwing into the river... how could they be so cruel and careless, eh? Perhaps, it would be much wiser some of the bands would point out the care for the nature rather than inviting people to moshpit...

Better stuff. I will tackle the socializing part first. It was nice to see my friends. I really met quite some people. Also, it would be nice to see some more... but this is another story. Oh yes, there was also lots of cute guys with long hair to observe... However, I was surprised as there was so many foreigners. From very distant lands, like Australia. Lots of Swedes; I guess much cheaper Slovenian beer was attractive for all attending Scandinavians. Well, I also managed to chat in Finnish a bit. Yes, there were some Finns. Among those, I met one young band from Joensuu; they were called Exarch. Their gig was okay, I wish them all the best in the future.

The gigs. During the day it was just too hot to enjoy the music properly. The beach was more tempting. Thus, I did not attended as many gigs as I had planned at first. But before I tell you about the good thingies, I have to write on Metalcamp gig-disaster. This disaster is called Cradle of Filth. Oh my. Despite I have never been their fan, they had produced some tracks I have quite liked to hear. But their gig was... just a disaster. It sucked by all means: Danny was not in the mood at all. One could only flee to the small stage. As I did.

My main Metalcamp highlights: Korpiklaani, Satyricon, Pain, Vreid, Ensiferum, Immortal, Blind Guardian, Eluveitie, Die Apokalyptischen Reiter, Exarch, Ragespect, Zvier. And some others, too. It was so nice to see Korpiklaani again. Dancing and sing-a-long! Satyricon were great, sexy and very now diabolical. Pain was beyond words, Vreid were as cool as fresh Norwegian breeze in the hot afternoon, reunioned Immortal were quite spectacular midnight ghosts... while Ensiferum and Blind Guardian filled me with nostalgia. On the small stage, Ragespect proved to be emerging Slovenian hardcore.

Lots of things, as you can see. May the photos tell some more. If this post seems excited or even overdone it is because I have been really lacking good gigs lately. I have been lacking having fun and meeting people. Lots of the gigs I have skipped during the year because of my trainings. On the Metalcamp 2007 I managed to see at least some of those missed bands. All in all, music and the life there have helped me to gain back a bit of the good mood. Metal on!

The ''ringlspil'' - thanks Banshee for the photo

A part of the camp

The beach - the source of this photo is Paranoid

The main stage and the afternoon gig

The small stage and the afternoon gig

Kaneli :)