Adamantra Kokkola 28.11.2009

...and onwards to Kokkola and The Rock Pub! After a decent gig yesterday at Lutakko, the possibilities to make this night a one to remember were strongly right in our hands. Sure as hell this month had been the best for Adamantra this far, and since tonight`s show was to be the finishing point on our little November-campaign the time was ripe to get the freakin` last drops of fun out of it! Having once again the Leverage sharing the stage with us, it became evident that those guys were the ones to share with us some intoxication as well!
There were some nice dancers entertaining the audience between the sets, unfortunately photos of that are unavailable.. that brought some extra flavour to the evening, had to even use the same dressing room with these flexible samples of the opposite gender...very unfortunate eh..

Extremely dampened stage, felt pretty funny as all the noise seemed to melt into the wall around the drum set. If not dampened, the result would propably have been sheer sonic chaos..
We had the same set here as yesterday, the only difference was to simply give it out even more since there was to be a quite long break `til the next gig. Don`t know about the "outgiving", but at least the songs made the stage hot like hell, forcing me to pour down couple beers extra fast. That was also kinda calculated thing because the aim was to drink our asses off right after the gig, so the thing had to be started early enough. And as far as I`m concerned, our aim was high and from heights the bottles also dropped. Below comes few shots, please serve yourselves;

Ouijeah!!


The necessary... excuse me, which one was my beer again...?


Excuse my manners, lost my towel that`s all...man, you gotta wash sometimes or what!?


In spite of the expressions in this pictures, no soap was dropped on the floor...


Cousins, Torsti (Leverage) & Juggernaut. Blood sure is thicker than (finnish?) beer!


.....


....x2



Posing with the evil metal rodents...


As a keen history researcher, I was privileged to have a chat with this lady who turned out to be a history teacher. While having a great time with her, she unfortunately couldn`t enlighten me of the mysterious Necronomicon. I was sad. But in addition to knowing she was specialised in a different areas of history, I now finally understood, that in order to get deeper into the truth behind this sumerian black bible, the only person who could assist me was...was....wa-...w--oh, the p-p--p---poison... :))


Ever heard of a certain man named Marco Polo? Allegedly he was the first western man to visit the mighty empire of China around 1271 AD. Check out for more facts via Wikipedia if interested. There you can see for yourselves how the tentacles of secret societies have blindfolded the eyes of the nations, since all the official documents concerning Mr Polo are but a massive pile of faked truth. NOTE! According to the local Kokkola peoples`s legend, he accidentally ended up RIGHT HERE in Kokkola, and because of the facial similarities between the Saame-people (who inhabited this area during that time) and the chinese, he mixed up these different races. A clear evidence can be seen on this foto, where the ship which Mr. Polo used, is shown. Note the distinctive venetian-style construction. Left of the ship is the river which leads all the way to the Mediterranean Seas. Lo and behold, dear fans of Adamantra, for the truth is to be had only through this frequently updated bloooooog!
In addition to this legendary ship, a great amount of other equally important and mystic artefacts can be seen in Kokkola. A legend has it, that a vast stone behind a hotel...
(To be continued in our next Kokkola-blog sometimes in the future)

Thanks for reading,
now let`s head out for the rocking year 2010 ADHD!
Over and OUT!!!!!

Adamantra

Adamantra Jyväskylä 27.11.2009

Alright, here we go again, dear dread Rudolf the Rednose reader-reindeers! (!?)

I just heard a mystic semi-evil whisper in the wind, telling me that Santa Claus is gonna kick my arse really hard if this blog is to be delayed any further. You-simply-do-not-wanna-mess-with-the-Santa... since almost all the incoming presents are welcomed for a poor musician! You know,

you can always try to sell that crap and use the money for some really needed music-related stuff. Exluded are the annual pile of wool sucks from your dear mommy or grandma which you will NEVER get rid off. Like skeletons in a closet, they tend to haunt you forever on, filling your shelves forever more...:)

The task to enlighten you of the rocking events from Jyväskylä, and especially Kokkola, is simply a task of utmost impossibility. In addition to all the basic drunken intellectual conversations, the amount of scenarios I studied and shared with Panu the Lore-meister (to almost everyone) is so...confusing, that even I stumble while trying to jump out of the imagined pile of overrun theories which have this far been brought over the ignorant humankind. The amazing artefacts and long lost evidences were to be seen only for those who were -ready- to see the truth....

But for now, lets have a peak of the Jyväskylä section, this time we have some pictures at hand, be welcomed;

At Lutakko the stage was known to offer plenty of room, but once we entered the place with our gear the reality turned out to be something different. The main act was having a considerable amount of different kinds of electrical devices, so we poor bastards were left to gnaw the dry bone, resulting me having the drum set next to the other guys, and the other guys themselves tried to make the best out of their own square meters. Actually this was an interesting way of having the band filling the stage, it would be fun to use the same method in the future! It gave a whole new perspective as I now could really see what`s happening there.





The start of a bass solo..? Or a fanfar(t) with a leather trombone?





The audience digitally moved behind the riot fence.
They multipied, and got nearer the stage!!!?

Once again, the songs were played from beginning to the end. How it went? Well nobody knows, nor cares...okay it went fine, and the Trophy for the Legendary Achievement of Getting Applauds @ Lutakko resulted in;


The mystical windshield cleaning potion.



First time this motley crue was given the luxury of getting their hairy asses steamed in the sauna, right after the gig. The only bad thing with it was, that because of the loss of fluids some mysterious survival instincts forced us to somehow gain the lost ones back... results are to be seen in the next few fotos;


They really had some hmm...nice `n fresh pale ale beers to serve us...


Okay, here we go (again)















The black entanglement of evil (note the demonical virgin blood drinks)

We managed to get a hold of some nice single malt Laphroaig, and made a good use of the liquid, reportedly few was poured down the hatch. Had some funny moments as the bartenders refused to offer no more than one ration per customer at a time. I couldn`t even order two Coronas at the same time `cause the other guys were somewhere else at the moment! All this was because of the regulations coming from the nasty ivory tower, namely from some strict lady in the local government who were responsible of the serving laws. Well the main thing was that we were eventually sold enough drinks, so no one had to die for sadness. Actually we came here to saw the Raskasta Joulua-tour there, and shortly met Vili later after the show.
















The axiomatic supermodels of Gillette mach 313
















Heavy oder MITÄHÄHH??!!
















Note the Jyväskylä-ghost floating between us and the camera. Perhaps some curse is upon us, dunno.

As we had our accommodation in Lutakko, it was to be our last checkpoint before f-f-f-falling to count the sheeps. The next day started with a breakfast, blowing in the alcoholometer, waiting, waiting, blowing. Once the level had decreased low enough, cohort Adamantra was ready to move to our next battlefield, Kokkola.

Kokkola coming right up, folks!

Adamantra Seinäjoki-Kuopio 20-21.11.2009

Long time no read folks!
I guess it`s about time to share some recent Adamantra-accident-stuff with you, highly noted supporters of praggressive sinfonic powder metal! Some previous gigs have been left out of the story-shit, naturally all odd things have happened, do not worry, but the electrical pencil just has been too rusty..sorry for that.
The rumour about me having a good, but short memory is hereby wiped out (again!) eventhough the remnants of steamy hangover-breaths still float strong in my memory cells, forever trying to block the events from recalling! Okay, let`s grab it out, follow me through the mist, it won`t hurt, aren`t we having the butter after all...:)

So, onward to Seinäjoki and Rokkikellari we went, young men bolstering with pure conqueror-power.
That long trip there didn`t bother that much since those two previously cancelled gigs (Helsinki & Tammisaari) made us want to get everything out of these four coming ones!
At Seinäjoki we were to play a full set, having all the songs wich we had practised with our new Keyboarder on the Deck, mr. Jukka Karinen (Thunderstone, Status Minor). Jukka had quite a many notes to play with only a few practises, but he managed to put it up pretty nicely! It`s also good to have new guys next to you, it kinda makes you feel you actually knew what you are doing with your own instrument eh..? No, that doesn`t help, you still eventually end up realising you suck..big time :))

Well the gig went fine and the crowds liked it, so we decided we had earned some beverages provived by the generous bartender, having couple guys from Celesty with us. What else you would have in Seinäjoki than Tequila? I guess it was high time to get that salt balance back, since the stage was again warm and so on..that`s what the Tequila is made for, right? Those decent rations being supplemented by the beers from backstage helped make the decision that more was needed. The "fair" angel landed to help the thirsty prog-warriors as Celesty`s singer, mr. Railio promised with his duo-mate to lead us deeper to the alcohol-fumed center of the city. As the other guys of A-team were going to hit the sack, me and Karinen were the ones to attend the invasion.

After couple whisky-experiments (that canadian one sucked) and some choir practises inside it was time to kick ourselves out of the bar. Well you can`t stop the singing if no one asks you to! So, in order to honour the true Kings of metal, at a crossroads we four greeted this godforsaken town with the only song proper for this occation; Heart of Steel! Though no one asked for a encore, we did it anyway. "Born with a..". Damn loud bastards those two acoustic duo hippies! Well Karinen sang his ass off as well, so once we eventually found back to our hotel the sleep was not far away. Sorry for the lack of pictures of this city, but maybe it`s for the best of us all...?

@KUOPIO with Leverage
After having a great breakfast at our hotel, it was time to drive those "couple kilometers" to Kuopio, the capital of Savo. In these trips one really gets to know how big this country really is, at least for what comes to the distances between bigger cities. And we weren`t even at half point of the land... Like roasted kalakukko we flew with our trusted automobil to Kuopio, and managed to find this Henry`s Pub where we would play as supporters for the great Leverage. Souncheck foreboded a rocking event tonight, the string-rippers and Tumppi at front were satisfied with their stage sound. And so it went, the feeling was overall great, had a great time on stage! Well, maybe the peak was reached at the beginning of "In Triumph" where there was "some" problems to get the pack together (if you happen to have this caught on tape, SHARE IT, anywhere), it was maybe the most hilarious moment for the band this far.. Yes, we play ALL our gigs sober, but sometimes even that is not enough;) The cream atop was me having the stick falling, the expression on Hofu`s face was unforgettable! From that on the gig went on with a style best described; Hilarious Rage.

Once the outro started running, the fast movement towards the beer was a the first priority, getting our gear out the stage came only second. Since I got to use almost completely Leverage`s drummer`s gear, a minimum amount of time was needed to prepare the drum area for the next skin beater, so they got to start their show quite fast. From that on beer flew, everyone got drunk, i wandered alone to get one of the best burgers ever from the main square, tried to get in the hotel with a wrong code, was let in and ended up sleeping tight. A teddy bear was replaced by half dozen beer bottles, once again a leather jacket proves it`s advantages jeah! Damn, the picture is lost. Later, a rumour was heard that mr. Karinen had somehow "stumbled" quite succesfully at that same hotel`s stairs an hour later...do the walls have eyes or ears, we never know...;)

In the morning, I was quite pissed since my stamina had failed me by letting the "unihiekka" to fill my innocent eyes, thus I missed all the juicy stuff in which the other guys seemed to get themselves into. I swore to the Heavens, that this was not to happen again, at least in the near future. The breakfast was excellect this time also, and the conversation was something one should never miss..the amount of intelligence in the words was simply overwhelming. Don`t know if Tumppi and Heidi (the drivers) really took my advice of eating blueberries since it helps the eyes, and enhances your sight ability. Tumppi tried to outwit me by saying it would have simply no effect on such sort time. Well, I still believe they ran to eat as much blueberries as possible in order to get the best possible sight ability for the coming. long driving! Me, the omnipotent besserwisser!

Well, an ancient heritage has it, that if you dare to leave Kuopio without having a Kalakukko with you, a terrible curse will be brought upon you. This curse is said to cause almost countless technical problems especially if this ignorant fool happens to be a metal band. So, why would we want any more problems for as than we already have? Actually, one would hope, that by buying EXTRA Kalakukkos one could decrease the amount of problems to be had in the future. That would be something eh? Nevertheless, a Kalakukko we had to have, so just before exiting this city we tried to find one. It was Sunday so there was not to be found any, at least in the near vicinity. There we froze at the main square, but then decided to leave empty handed. Come curse, fly to me...

No photos here either, lucky for you. Only hairy, beer-swollen faces to offer. Over and out.

Adamantra Pori 25.7.2009

"And so it was written, that like a howling wind a four-legged beast would carry in a horde, a horde consisting of all the three necessities for the survival of Mankind; firstly, demanding amazon-like female attitude, secondly, crude chest hair power, and lastly the most important essence of all; calculating, evaluating, perfectly sonic beauty with an eerie combination of both calmness and immense rage"...

And so it had to be done, as they shed tears and blood while loading the instruments of salvation in the beast`s belly from Grendel`s training place. Well, the guys were already done with this task once I finally got my lazy ass to show up (I really tried man), so all there was to do was to wait for couple more travellers to join the ride. Like eagles we soared in the urban region of Lunar Path, and after having the satellites themselves laughing at us for the chosen routes we succesfully ended up having LP`s gear also in. The last mission before the happyjoyjoyride was to get the A-team`s stuff in as well, and against all odds we were able to scrub the Adamantra`s brain tissue so the task was simple.
This time we chose to use the left hand path, so "kiipparisti" was to be violently pushed deeply between the other cargo. No, we are not one of those who play with death by treating a synth player badly (they are hmm, quite useful natural resource), we just haven`t baptized it/her/him yet, we even dunno the gender, but maybe it`s a she because you have to push quite a many button before the action begins!


Conquering the gas-station, using the mystic West-Indian "Drown their sewers"-tactics...

After couple stops at the gas stations and couple more stops to "deal with the leak", we entered Pori. The expectations were pretty high this time, since it was to be taken seriously that the metalheads from the ongoing Sonisphere-festival would hopefully stay eager to have some more treat for ear after the festival would close, and therefore would crawl like massed legions of chaos right down to Monttu to have some good time with us. Well, you are allowed to try to hope, boy! Assumably the Astral Peace itself got broken when A-team was finishing the meal at a local restaurant, ´cause while having our dessert cigarrettes, of all the first four pedestrians walking us by, ALL four of them had some small shit to deal with us. And with that I mean individuals, walking alone without knowing each other. The cream atop was the fifth guy we encountered while crossing the road just a minute later. Like if the darkest clouds begun to spread over the tiny A-boys...

So back to stage, everything was made ready so when the red light was lit, it was time to rumble the prog notes for the audience which was bigger than last time, but still surprisingly many of the thousands who were witnessing the festivities outdoors had skipped this show. A mystery which all the wise ones will be analyzing for the times to come..


The audience moved aside with a mystic Asian "Floating Elbow"-tactics..

The gig went pretty fine, having the same set list as before with an exception of having The Oracle as a bonus track for the warmed-up people. The aforementioned "Kiipparisti" was set free at this moment, and this last song was played without a click. Man did it feel good, because the click always adds that small "disturbance" by blocking some of the natural sound of the band from my hearing. Not that it`s a problem, it was just cool to play the song without any rhytmic guide, it would be cool to have absolute time keeping ability! That would also enable us to have all the backing tracks without that hammering beat in my head...:) But unfortunately that`s practically impossible.Meaning it is achievable!!:) Gotta start working on it...

Okay, while the other bands were rocking, I was part-time handling the merch-sales so can`t tell much about the acts. All I can say is that both of them deserved our noble company while sharing the same bus, and vice versa! Once again some interesting people met..well the one I remember (before having those sweet16-type double limonade-breezers, burp) was a middle-aged man who came close inspecting the albums etc. but eventually turned out having NO RADIO, NO TV, NO LP, NOT EVEN THE ANCIENT WHAT ARE THEY, CLAY DISCS!? How are you supposed to sell this guy ANY items we had on sale? Well we had some t-shirts (yes, he had at least clothes on him), but even after my extremely cunning sales tactics no deal was made. We went to the lowest possible level; we even tried to make him feel embarassed for not buying anything for his children ;). After we all together (him as well) realised he didn`t even remember his children or grandchildren, he did his final rejection towards our products, saying he won`t buy or support ANY of our "propaganda-stuff"!? Ok, thank you and we bid you farewell, friend :)) Maybe the reason for all that was, that as he already was heading for the toilet next to us, the urea-level must have been near his mouth or something hehee..


Trying that mystic Rastafaris`s "two breezers for one sold record"-tactics...

Once all the stuff was back in the bus (imagine twenty or so people working like drunken ants in a narrow street, luckily nothing was lost in the dark intoxicated situation) and the guys with worst condition rolled in, they road to there and back again started. Stop by stop we made our way back home. Man it is beautiful to stand at the edge of finnish forest watching the sun rise, while making some more room for the generous offers of Jallu and beer! Super!


"Tää on siististi cool!"

After the load-outs of the bands`s gear was complete, the clock was ticking at some 7 am, so maybe it finally was time to hit the sack, right? Eeeeeasy Livin`, Eeeeeasy Livin`...;)

Enuff said, folks!
c u @ t front, pizz and luv,
Mikko

Adamantra Gloria 23.5.2009

Oujeahh!


All gather up around the bonfire (or shake the mouse), for the storyteller has just finished his ale, and after a dragon-like burp is ready to share the events with You, friends and foes alike!


First, thank you goes to everyone who attended the show!
Hopefully liked it, there`s more to come!


So, this was one of those D-Days for Adamantra as we finally could celebrate the hard and frustrating battle been won. In this battle, the tricky little bloody bastard A-team succeeded in luring an innocent victim down the cave, just to be sliced in pieces by some slimy, hairy progpowermetal! This victim turned out to be SOF and it`s minion Poison Pill. Actually, the gruesome A-team started to like its prey so much, that instead of simply cooking it naturell it decided to give the prey some chances to get back to sunlight to spread the adulations towards it`s former master.


NOTE! This was a double-layered story. Find the Thruth. Search in yourself. Find what lies above and below (hmm, ceiling, carpet?). No, there`s no way you can find the secrets of this text just by playing it slowly backwards (?!). HINT! Use your ancient wisdom in order to understand, that in this case the hunter and the hunted MIGHT have been changing places...hmm...riddles in the dark...clever...or not..


However, these are the things a band have to consider when inking a deal with a record label, but fortunately in our case, things have gone extremely smoothly (like fresh Guinness down the hatch), and it truly is nice to see that the business isn`t that rotten, eventhough there has been sights of that to be seen elsewhere during the years. Yes, this is a great thing for us, but the road is long indeed and this is just the beginning. Let`s say, the shoelaces are tightened so the journey begins. May the Gods of time signatures be with us..:)
After the Intro, Panu`s and Jukka`s little hide and seek-moment(?!), and me finally finding the Play-button(WTF?!) the hardest steel claws begun to attack the audience from the stage as the oceans-moving Beyond Disillusions was released in the air. There was some inspiration flowing near since the original notes and beats were (ahem intentionally of course) occationally replaced by some futuristic arrangements. We decided not to use the same method next time, but isn`t it a commonly accepted fact, that 2 or 3 mistakes is bad but aaaall above that is progressive...?


The stage was maybe biggest this far, and with the cordless systems, A-stringboys were able to take the whole platform in use. We could get used to this! The sound policy was good at least for myself, the mixer/trigger-alliance again prevails, I had to check regularly that the vibrations at my feet were not caused by those hundred hazelnuts rolling out from my trousers and all the way off the drumraiser yijeaahhh!!:)) Maybe the guy behind the mixer saw it coming and for safety reasons, muted the bass drums from PA during Ungiven. That is so,so unforgivable.. Well for me it was no big deal since I heard all the shit via mixer anyway.


We had the same sonic menu tonight as with previous gigs, it seems to be the right one for us all,
two arsekickers, Shattered and The Oracle as the last ones WILL make it clear for everyone that this band have at least two near-perfect songs, right?;) Gotta put some video stuff as proof ladies and gents..


The other bands Soulcage and the headliner Amberian Dawn were nice suppliments for this event, neither one were so much different from our material so it was kinda compact set of bands this time, I myself missed the former one almost completely, for my bestial lust for sandwich and beer prevented me from moving nowhere else than to the entrance hall to greet the friends. And what I meant by missing -almost- the whole Soulcage gig meant that I was still creeping and crouching behind the raiser (in quest of salvaging my beloved walkers) when their intro begun...


Assumably every member of A-team was witnessing the Amberian Dawn opera-metal, the crowds were many and lots of people to talk with, so the night aviated on with darkened wings, going ever faster...or maybe it was the "yhdentähdenperhejallu" which was needed since the beer we brought with us, now tasted so lame. Also the champagne was left in Alko.


A-team has seemingly lost it`s understanding of Time, or then Alko should be open 24/7... No Bollinger, no Havana, no pus.. okay, the night went ok, it was nice to see AD with two shredders nowadays, classical melodies with beautiful interpretation and solid drumworks etc. Guys were crazy enough to start deloading the backline in the night, while in front of the stage me and Jukka were swaying with "yhdentähdenperhejallu" in hand, giving great advice of course;). No, we were not assholes, we kindly handed the bottle to AD-guys, and the liquid tension experiment was a success hehee.. From this day forward, every AD song is hereby 20bpm faster, like it or not!:)


When it was time to get out of Gloria, we headed to a certain Bevarian-style restaurant to get some additional nutrition. Once again the clock leaped to some fucked-up time since they didn`t have any food to serve us! C´mon, it was 2:30 am and the kitchen is already closed!?:) Well, that very tasty wheat bear saved the situation for a while, though it was hard because of the crappy tekno/trance/jungle shit or whatever....


So the days of Gloria were over and it was time to get healed so the next day`s heaving wouldn`t be so painful.



Is it really exactly one or two...?




Teknoa saatana!!









Once again, a big thank you goes to all you who attended the show. Now get back to order some more Revival!

With gory and glory,
Mikko
































Adamantra Donington Porvoo 18.4.2009

It was time to hit the Porvoo again, let`s say that the last time we visited here during the Fall ”the hall wasn`t filled to the top”, so we knew that there was a chance to make that Adamantra-record of a bigger audience.. The crowds weren`t amassed this time either, there has to be something wrong with the band...No, it must be the city...:) Heard by a local guy that the weekends are actually the worst dates to play, since major part of the rocking students get the heck out of Porvoo during this time. So maybe we should aim for the weekdays form now on. But as a musician, you don`t wanna stop thinking about these things because the fun of it all makes it always worth the travel! And so it was this time again.



Though there wasn`t lots of people, the ones there really made it and raised the roof with all the available hands, or at least I was hearing when the bolts upstairs were giving up eh.. I like it when there`s enough time to set things up and have a decent soundcheck, but this one was rather overtimed action over there. Unknown mixing equipment with two bands to check makes a time consuming results, so Tacere was able to start their female-fronted drama-metal assault not until 11.00 pm so it meant some night time action for us Ada-boys. And I`m not talking of something romantic stuff with our girlfriends, but some hard labour after the gig since there was no accommodation reserved this time, after all Porvoo is pretty close to Helsinki so the traveling itself wouldn`t take much time.







Tacere was quite potential with their new singer and keyboard player, but Adamantra played the best gig we`ve had this far, at least for myself. The recent gigs really have some effect on the playing, hope to get back on stage asap!
Not much time for drinking, or at least for me since I was doomed to be the driver this time.:(
Until next time, check out the video clip of the gig!
Mikko



Adamantra S-OSIS 11.4.2009

We had some great expectations towards this day, since rumours told that our headliner Machinae Supremacy had managed to put up some great gigs on their ongoing tour in Finland. When we arrived to S-Osis the swedes were already there, very cool guys, seemingly happy for the success here this far. We roughly just heaved the A-stuff on the stage and went back to our hotel to get some sleep, food, beer and shower. Got back in the scene when it was time to raise the drumkit from nothing, well nowadays it`s guite fast action since the “x marks the spot” on the carpet, so you just have to drop the rack on it`s position and start putting symbal stands etc. to it .Again the rack shows it`s advantages, 15-20 min and the set is ready (excluding hangover days when it takes double time). As I got out of the way the other guys could start their things, amplifiers on top of each other and some other bodybuilding action. Panu`s new Framus amp sounds damn good, though everything hasn`t even been done yet to get the very best out of it!


Doing the necessary.


Power. Steel. Metal. Brimstone. Peace.


The quest for the Sword of Infinity accomplished. Beware, for the Cosmos is about to faaaall...
As we were to be the first (worst?) band to play tonight, we therefore did the sound check after the two other bands. There are two positive things in playing as the first band; firstly, you have your gear ready after the check so there`s no hassling with anything, unless you happen to pull out some plugs in the middle...;). Secondly, after the gig there`s more time to search for drinks in the backstage, and make use of them fast. Okay, there was lots of people right from the start (MS really is surprisingly big in here), can`t remember the exact numbers but the place was nearly sold out. And it really seemed to be that way, the crowd was near the stage and listening closely what this new progmetal-group had to offer. We offered them our semi-complicated yet catchy material, and they seemed to take it. We just have to wait for the debut album to spread all over the land, so people start knowing the songs and can from that on bang their heads with us in 3/4, 5/4 and 7/8 time signatures hahhah!
Last check of the fretboard, no significant burn marks to be found yet...


Manipulated picture. The audience is removed in order to get the band in sight :) Actually there was people, but at this point just analyzing from afar what the hell happens on the stage. Once the Adamantra-engine got running at full speed the audience were sucked in yeah!

After us, Simulacrum played some interesting complex prog, a mixture of Dream Theater and Rush. Very talented young guys! Because of some technical problems they started their gig a bit delayed, so the tight schedule naturally forced them to leave a song or two from their list. Finally, Machinae Supremacy started their straight-on-going songs. Crowds really liked it so it was a good finale for the evening. After Adamantra-gig the beer bottles were going empty faster and faster so at the end it was time to get some more by stopping in the bar next to our hotel. For my joy I found out that Panu was a whisky connoisseur so I was enlightened by some basic facts about single malt- and blended whisky. Being an entry-level rum fan (Havana Club 7 years dominates) it`s nice to get familiar with another element of booze. Whisky seems to have that same deep, mysterious vibe in it, like it downright invited to explore the secrets in itself...:) (Thanks to the series Band of Brothers, I from now on will always have a bottle of VAT69 on the shelf ).


Master <-> apprentice. Amidst sharing deep, emotional, touching musical thoughts, I was privileged to be lectured of the differences between single malt and blended whisky.
Fortunately there was one available at the shelf so the night wasn`t ruined at all :)
So after some beer and whisky it was time to give up and get some sleep. The next day started with a minor hangover. Shower, “korjaussarja” and some rolled pizza woke the engines up. Finally we were able to pack the bags and head back home. Nice minitour indeed, if these three days were filled with minor set backs, troubles with the time schedules, accusations, laughing and some more laughing, what would a whole month on the road do to us innocent, jolly musicians? I think we certainly would like to know! ;)


"More is more" fits for everything, not only Prog metal!
See you at the front,
Mikko