Bands from Lands Far Away! Korpiklaani and Tyr rock the Worcester Palladium 01/08/2010 Jan 10 '10 (Updated Sep 19 '10)    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet Popular Products in Music The Dirtchamber Sessions, Vol. 1 by The Prodigy From $11 Jersey Boys [Original Broadway Cast Recording] by Original Broadway Cast From $8 The Bottom Line Scandanavian Metal Rocks! See Korpiklaani and Tyr on their North American Tour! From far away in the land of Finland, Korpiklaani is well known as the other folk metal band (after Finntroll, the band that influenced them).  From the Faroe Islands out in the Norwegian sea comes TYR, a viking metal band!  They came to the shores of Massachusetts last Friday and traveled inland to the Worcester Palladium for a great show! My son and I both love Scandanavian death metal, and the Northern Lands produce a variety of great new metal groups given all sorts of genre names.  The Worcester Palladium is metal central for Massachusetts and $20.00 bucks is your admittance to an evening in the mosh pit watching 4 or more metal bands in an intimate club setting. Warm Up Bands! The first band on stage right at 7 in the small club at the Worcester Palladium was White Wizard a medieval fantasy sort of metal band.  They put on a competent show and got the crowd warmed up.  Their style was more of a power metal style, but as you may have guessed from their name, the lyrics were of the fantasy sort. I did not hear Gandalf's name mentioned, but you get the idea. The singer had a Dio like voice, and the lead guitar player had some decent chops.  They stuck around after the show to sell merchandise and I got a chance to say hi and shake hands with them. Up next was Swashbuckle, a pirate metal band. Before they went on the crowd began to chant Sponge Bob Square Pants, Sponge Bob Sqaure Pants! much to my amusement. I had mentioned Swashbuckle in my Ensiferum concert review, and had expected them to do this song, because they reminded me of the pirates in the Spongebob SquarePants movie. Apparently I was not the only one.  The band looks silly, but it is obvious that they have fun, and they deliver a fun straight forward metal show while dressed as pirates.  The lead singer, a huge man with long black hair and a full beard and crazy eyes plays the bass while he directs the mosh pit into various forms, circle, wall of death, free for all.  My son and I stood a bit to the side for most, but joined the fray in a couple wall of death moshes. In wall of death, the audience divides into two sides, and when the word is given, each side rushes into the other like a football game.   Swashbuckle isn't popular enough to have their own Wikipedia entry, but you can check them out on Youtube. TYR Tyr is a great band I discovered from the Faroe Islands.  I knew where these islands were, but had no idea that they produced a Viking metal band.  Tyr is quite good too, they have a folk viking sound and many songs are sung in Danish (The Faroe Islands are a principality of Denmark).   They sing songs based on Norse Mythology, their name is that of the Norse God of single combat. They also sing songs of drinking.  Many songs have a beer hall chant like sound to them.  In short, Tyr is a fun band to listen to.  We all sang along with the English songs, although the verses are complex stories, the choruses are often easy to sing along with. Terji Skibenaes hit the stage first, blond hair flowing, tatooed arms and guitar in hand.  In the middle of the stage was the band's founder and singer/guitarist  Heri Joensen. He has a slightly raspy accented but clean vocal style. When he sings in English, he is readily understandable.   Looking incredibly enthusiastic was Gunnar H. Thomsen on the six string bass. He just looked so enthused to be playing to his fans in the United States. I am hoping that the Palladium website will post photos of the show soon, they always have professional photographers take photos of the shows that do a better job than I could.  I couldn't see the drummer Kari Streymoy but I could clearly hear that he was there!  At one point during the show, Joensen chastised a young man near the front row for giving a woman a hard time. He actually stopped singing, and said Excuse me young man, that is not very nice behavoir  Stop that and apologize to the lady.  The crowd cheered.  Although uninitiated people may consider metal fans a rowdy bunch of hooligans and visigoths, there is an unwritten code among us, and if it is broken, there are consequences.  I was quite pleased, the band sounded as great as they do on their albums, and I was even able to pick up their latest two albums, Land and By the Light of the Northern Star.  The band played many great songs like the Saga of Sinclair (a song sung in Danish, but it begins with a great vocal only chant) and fan favorite Hail to the Hammer.   They also performed songs from their new album and their first How far to Asgaard.   My son and I had a great time as did the crowd jammed into the small venue.  The fun wasn't over yet though! Korpiklaani Korpiklaani is a Finnish folk metal band fronted by Jonne Jarvela. You can't miss him, he is tall and has long blond dreadlocks. He also sings in a clean style and the songs alternate between English and Finnish lyrics. The word Korpiklaani means forest folk in Finnish. On violin was Jakko Lemmetty on the right side of the stage. It was a cool looking violin too, one of those small electric ones. Juho Kauppinen was on the accordion on the left side of the stage. (If you think its unusual for a metal band to use accordions or violins, you haven't heard Turisas or Finntroll)  Next to him was their bass player Jarko Aaltonen. He was actually in the crowd enjoying drinks during the Tyr set.  Rounding out the band was guitarist Kalle Savijarvi and drummer Matti Johannson. The band looks quite disparate on stage with their varied appearances, but they have a great sound together.  By the end of the night, my son and I had moved out of the mosh pit to the balcony. I was right by the stage looking down and I thought singer Jonne was looking right at me. I pumped my fist, and he smiled and pumped his fist back.  It is a lot of fun to be that close to a band in a small venue!  Korpiklaani's Finnish folk roots show through in their songs. Vocal harmonies, the violin and the accordion definitely bring the folk elements forward, but it was metal enough for the Palladium crowd to mosh and stage dive to.  The only problem at the show was there was no where to go for stage divers. There was no barrier between stage and crowd so when someone crowd surfed to the stage, they frequently landed on the stage. One embarrassed fan knocked over the singers elaborate horned skull and spine microphone stand. Jonne jumped back and the fan and a security guard placed the mike stand back up right. Korpiklaani sing of mythology, Finnish folklore and drinking! Many of the crowd favorites were songs about such Finnish icons as Vodka and Beer!  In fact, one of the concert T-Shirts featured a cartoon version the Antler helmut wearing Viking of their album covers passed out with a bottle of vodka in hand.   Korpiklaani played until 11:30 p.m.   We drove home from Worcester playing Korpiklaani on the ride home wearing our concert T-Shirts and with a couple new Tyr albums to check out.  A good time was had by all. If you think all metal sounds alike, you haven't heard Korpiklaani or Tyr.   There is a lot of great music coming from Finland, Korpiklaani is one such band.  Tyr is the best band to come out of the Faroe Islands since.... well ever!     This show marked the first stop of Korpiklaani and Tyr's North American Tour.   See them if they play near you. Check out a Tyr album Tyr - Land (CD/DVD digipack) If you love metal concerts read about Other metal tales from the Worcester Palladium! Ensiferum, with Ex Deo and Blackguard Korpiklaani and Tyr Arch Enemy and Exodus Devil Driver, Behemoth, Suffocation, Thy Will Be Done and more Epica, Blackguard and Threat Signal Atticus Metal Festival with Unearth & more Finnish Metal Festival! Finntroll, Moonsorrow and Swallow the Sun New England Metal and Hardcore Festival 2010 Hypocrisy, Scar Symmetry, Hate, Blackguard and Swashbuckle Fear Factory, Silent Civilian, Prong, Thy Will Be Done and Acaro Dream Theater Transmission Festival Hell and other places Mayhem Festival 2010 - Korn, Rob Zombie, Lamb of God & more OzzFest 2010 - Ozzy, Motley Crue, Rob Halford & more Rush - The Time Machine Tour Children of Bodom - Live at Lupos or just think that Vikings are awesome Vikings - Journey to New Worlds Nova - The Vikings

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