I've just come home after visiting an awesome show performed by a Swedish Gothic/Doom metal band Draconian! And as I believe that this is a great place to share personal stuff with you, I'd like to tell you about an extremely important part of my life, which is music. I fell in love with music in general quite a long (for an 18 year old girl that I am) time ago. Music isn't something I do (I do not play any musical instruments as I totally lack talent for producing any king of art), it's rather something that gives me strength, solace, inspiration and food for thought. Music is for me my personal world where I can find rest and forget all my worries.
As I take the whole act of listening to music quite seriously and also because I'm constantly searching for those melodies that resonate in my heart and soul, I'm acquainted with quite a big number of music genres. To someone who has never listened to such music and has a stereotypical view on it might find the phrase "I listen to metal, rock and folk music" funny and the music taste of its pronoucer more or less narrow and limited. Most people (as far as I know at least, I am not the social type) believe that Metal is all about drums, screams, hatred, evil and Satan. However, that is not so. The vastness and lack of uniformity of metal music was the first thing that I discovered on my way through music. I think that I personally can name more than 20 or even 30 genres of metal music. I do not, of course, like all of them (I've never understood, for example, heavy metal or glam metal), but there are many of them that can hardly be imagined by stereotypical perceptors of this music genre. Actually, I can say that some genres of Metal music are my favorites among all the music genres that there are (Gothic Metal, Doom Metal, Viking Metal etc.)
I am also a great fan of metal concerts, more than 100 of which I've visited during the past 6 years. (The rest of this post is going to feature some photos of me and frontmen of cool metal bands (Dark Tranquillity, Alcest, Solstafir). My first metal show (the day that changed my life toward Gothic style, metal shows and all sorts of stuff like that) was on the 28th of March 2009. I was just 12 years old then (haha) but I already was a great fan of metal music and wanted to see my favorite bands live. Luckily, my mother has always shared my passion for metal and still does visit some shows with me. My friends always marvel at that, but I think it's great to have metalheads in your family. I always hears stories from my friends how their parents didn't give them money for tickets, forbade them to wear black as they thought it gloomy, dark, depressive and totally deviant and abnormal. So luckily I've never faced such a problem and thanks to that I've been able to develop my music culture to the point where it is now.
So the first band I saw live was Katatonia, a Swedish Doom metal band (at least it started as one) formed in 1991. This was the first band I fell in love with (it all started when a classmate showed me this song ) and so this show was like a dream for the 12-year old me. Afterwards I saw Katatonia three more times in different places and the band still remains one of my favorites despite their complete change of line-up and is at the head of my "Top Artists" list on my last.fm profile. Well, as long as their leader and vocalist Jonas Renkse stays faithful to his band I'll be charmed by his amazing voice - he is one of the guys at the top of my imaginary "Best Male Metal Vocals" list :D
There are many bands for which I have or had a strong liking but my most intense feelings (now they've grown weaker but still are there) were for a French band for the genre of which I have no name: Alcest. In fact I have to thank this very band for my knowledge of French. I started to learn the language last spring after their show in order to be able to fully comprehend the lyrics and, therefore, the message of the band. It is my strong believe that no translation can be as pure and perfect as the original and transfuse all the emotions concealed in it. So let's get back to the music genre of this unusual project. The tags on last.fm are "shoegaze, black metal, post-rock, atmospheric black metal etc." but none of them can even get close to wholly describe the magic music these French guys perform. Sure, they use some elements of shoegaze (such as wall of sound), black metal vocals (in the early part of their career), post-rock sound on the last album, but in general their music is all that and much much more. The thing that always charmed me most about the band (apart from the beautiful melodies, lyrics and vocals) is the concept of the band.
The guy to the right calles himself Neige (which means "snow" in French, and his real name is Stéphane Paut) and he is the founder, fronman, vocalist, guitarist and songwriter of the band. He created it when he was 14 years old, that is, in 2001.
The fact is that when Neige was a child used to have visions of the other would, which he perceived as a place where a soul rests after death and waits to be reborn. As he grew older, the memories faded but they still left a huge impact on him and his personality. So the purpose of the music he creates is to search for the mening of his visions and to find a way back there through music (you can hear him tell some of it himself in this interview ) This idea has also had a huge impact on me and I was driven crazy by this music, I listened to it day and night, I read the translations of the lyrics and tried to translate them myself with a 0 level understanding of French, I watched all the interviews I could find, I ordered old their albums and T-shirts. When their album "Les Voyages de L'Ame" was released in 2012 I also wrote a short review on the album describing the feeling and images that arose in my mind while I was listening to the album for the first time. I was only 15 years old then and the review seems really childish to me but that was what I saw back then.
The most important thing about Alcest was that I went to all their shows I could. To this moment I've been to 5 Alcest shows: April 2011 in Moscow, February 2012 in Zurich (it was my 15th birthday and one of the best in my life), September 2012 in Moscow, November 2012 in Warsaw (yeah, 3 shows a year), and finally February 2014, which I can surely name the very best day of my whole life as it was a marvellous, stunning, unbelievably emotional and unforgettable experience. The show itself moved me to tears and my whole body vibrated to the music.
After the show the band came out to chat with fans as they always do and (I was so shocked) Neige told me he remembered me from the previous show, so I got to chat with the band and take lots of photos with them for, like, an hour before the organizing staff told us that it was time for the band to pack and to go to St.Petersburg. While chatting with them I felt like the happiest girl in the world and one of the organizers noticed that I was a huge fan of the band and when Alcest left for their minivan this organizer Oleg told me that if I wanted I could go with them to see the band off at the train station. I couldn't even believe it and I think I was close to losing my senses from happiness and of course I accepted the offer. So I got an unforgettable experience of having a minivan ride chatting with all the band members and getting all their attetion, seeing them singing "La Marseillaise" at the train station, getting lots of hugs and best wishes and promises to come back. Even now when almost two years have past I am kinda crazy with the joy I experienced back then! Although I've kind of forgotten about the band a while ago all these memories and feelings sprung back to live after I've written all this. I just really love those guys!
Well, all that Alcest love story was quite a long while ago, so let's talk to what I'm listening now. As I've already mentioned, I'm just back from Draconian show, which was unexpectedly good. I listened to the band some time ago and just remembered that I quite liked it so I decided to visit the show. Despite the complete change of line-up over the past 5 years, the band performed as one and the music turned out to be superbly emotional, thought-provoking and full of pure feelings. The show made me really eager to hear their new album, which hasn't come out yet. Here's one of the songs from the upcoming release.
And on Saturday I'm going to another show which is bound to be awesome! The band performing this time is Alestorm, a Scottish pirate metal band. They visited Russia only oce in 2010 and I attended the show, which was simply crazy and full of fun, alcohol, slam and real metal! I'm really looking forward to seeing the pirates again! Yarrrr!
And oh, the most awaited show for me is now Spiritual Front (the 4th of July 2016) This is another band I fell in love with not so long ago. I saw them live in 2014 and since the day I saw them back then I've been looking forward to see them again. So, another music dream is bound to come true soon! By the way, they are in the process of production of their new album, so stay tuned with the news!
Well, I believe that his post has grown to be highly unstructured and aimless but I just felt the urge to unleash my memories and feelings rowards music somewhere. So, um, enjoy :) And don't forget to check out my last.fm profile!
Hope you'll find some bands or shows that'll catch your attetntion there!
Stay Metal! \m/
I am also a great fan of metal concerts, more than 100 of which I've visited during the past 6 years. (The rest of this post is going to feature some photos of me and frontmen of cool metal bands (Dark Tranquillity, Alcest, Solstafir). My first metal show (the day that changed my life toward Gothic style, metal shows and all sorts of stuff like that) was on the 28th of March 2009. I was just 12 years old then (haha) but I already was a great fan of metal music and wanted to see my favorite bands live. Luckily, my mother has always shared my passion for metal and still does visit some shows with me. My friends always marvel at that, but I think it's great to have metalheads in your family. I always hears stories from my friends how their parents didn't give them money for tickets, forbade them to wear black as they thought it gloomy, dark, depressive and totally deviant and abnormal. So luckily I've never faced such a problem and thanks to that I've been able to develop my music culture to the point where it is now.
So the first band I saw live was Katatonia, a Swedish Doom metal band (at least it started as one) formed in 1991. This was the first band I fell in love with (it all started when a classmate showed me this song ) and so this show was like a dream for the 12-year old me. Afterwards I saw Katatonia three more times in different places and the band still remains one of my favorites despite their complete change of line-up and is at the head of my "Top Artists" list on my last.fm profile. Well, as long as their leader and vocalist Jonas Renkse stays faithful to his band I'll be charmed by his amazing voice - he is one of the guys at the top of my imaginary "Best Male Metal Vocals" list :D
There are many bands for which I have or had a strong liking but my most intense feelings (now they've grown weaker but still are there) were for a French band for the genre of which I have no name: Alcest. In fact I have to thank this very band for my knowledge of French. I started to learn the language last spring after their show in order to be able to fully comprehend the lyrics and, therefore, the message of the band. It is my strong believe that no translation can be as pure and perfect as the original and transfuse all the emotions concealed in it. So let's get back to the music genre of this unusual project. The tags on last.fm are "shoegaze, black metal, post-rock, atmospheric black metal etc." but none of them can even get close to wholly describe the magic music these French guys perform. Sure, they use some elements of shoegaze (such as wall of sound), black metal vocals (in the early part of their career), post-rock sound on the last album, but in general their music is all that and much much more. The thing that always charmed me most about the band (apart from the beautiful melodies, lyrics and vocals) is the concept of the band.
The guy to the right calles himself Neige (which means "snow" in French, and his real name is Stéphane Paut) and he is the founder, fronman, vocalist, guitarist and songwriter of the band. He created it when he was 14 years old, that is, in 2001.
The fact is that when Neige was a child used to have visions of the other would, which he perceived as a place where a soul rests after death and waits to be reborn. As he grew older, the memories faded but they still left a huge impact on him and his personality. So the purpose of the music he creates is to search for the mening of his visions and to find a way back there through music (you can hear him tell some of it himself in this interview ) This idea has also had a huge impact on me and I was driven crazy by this music, I listened to it day and night, I read the translations of the lyrics and tried to translate them myself with a 0 level understanding of French, I watched all the interviews I could find, I ordered old their albums and T-shirts. When their album "Les Voyages de L'Ame" was released in 2012 I also wrote a short review on the album describing the feeling and images that arose in my mind while I was listening to the album for the first time. I was only 15 years old then and the review seems really childish to me but that was what I saw back then.
After the show the band came out to chat with fans as they always do and (I was so shocked) Neige told me he remembered me from the previous show, so I got to chat with the band and take lots of photos with them for, like, an hour before the organizing staff told us that it was time for the band to pack and to go to St.Petersburg. While chatting with them I felt like the happiest girl in the world and one of the organizers noticed that I was a huge fan of the band and when Alcest left for their minivan this organizer Oleg told me that if I wanted I could go with them to see the band off at the train station. I couldn't even believe it and I think I was close to losing my senses from happiness and of course I accepted the offer. So I got an unforgettable experience of having a minivan ride chatting with all the band members and getting all their attetion, seeing them singing "La Marseillaise" at the train station, getting lots of hugs and best wishes and promises to come back. Even now when almost two years have past I am kinda crazy with the joy I experienced back then! Although I've kind of forgotten about the band a while ago all these memories and feelings sprung back to live after I've written all this. I just really love those guys!
And on Saturday I'm going to another show which is bound to be awesome! The band performing this time is Alestorm, a Scottish pirate metal band. They visited Russia only oce in 2010 and I attended the show, which was simply crazy and full of fun, alcohol, slam and real metal! I'm really looking forward to seeing the pirates again! Yarrrr!
Well, I believe that his post has grown to be highly unstructured and aimless but I just felt the urge to unleash my memories and feelings rowards music somewhere. So, um, enjoy :) And don't forget to check out my last.fm profile!
Hope you'll find some bands or shows that'll catch your attetntion there!
Stay Metal! \m/
