Masterstroke takes a good sleep

{mosimage}Masterstroke is one of the new Finnish metal bands deserved to be highlighted. These guys from Tampere bring good melodies and a classy style with their new album: Sleep. Jussi, the keyboard player, tells us more about them.

Tell us a bit about the origins and foundation of the band.

Masterstroke was formed in 2002 when Janne Juutinen and Niko Rauhala wanted to do something of their own, after having been in different bands for few years. The band started out as more "traditional" power metal band (same line that Gamma Ray or Stratovarius) but our style has been moving towards more aggressive styles. We've gone through some line-up changes over the years, but now we have a band that just works.

You are from Tampere, aren’t you?

Yes, we're from Tampere! We've done shows in Hellä and Rusty Angel is a sort of regular haunt for us (and especially Marko…).

What are your main musical influences?

My background is in electronic music, Vangelis, Kraftwerk, Jarre, Tangerine Dream, etc., but now I've been listening to Evergrey, Katatonia, Symphony X, Ayreon, In Flames… I like metal that has a lot of feeling to it and strong melodies, harmonies etc.

What was the reason for Niko leaving the vocals, and coming back later again in substitution of Jani Tiura?

Niko never left the band, he just concentrated on playing the guitar while Jari was singing. When Jari left, it was obvious pretty soon that Niko should start singing again. We did try a few other singers, but they just didn't seem to feel right for us.

Tell us a bit more about that experience of having your debut album only published in places like Russia and Japan. Was it frustrating?

It was really frustrating, because we had no way of knowing what was going on. It was doubly frustrating for me, since I had planned to use it as a sort of calling card for more recording and mixing work… We've been talking about releasing the album again at some point, but so far it's just been talk, nothing concrete. It's pretty hard for any band from Finland to go and play in, say, Japan, much more so for a relatively new and unknown band like us. So we didn't get the chance to play there… yet.

Is it too hard the competence in the Finnish metal market? It seems that nowadays 1 out of 2 Finnish young guys plays in a metal band. Do you have other activities apart from music?

I think it is since there are a lot of bands. But I feel that since competition is hard, only the best and those who are willing and able to work for what they believe in will succeed. I've pretty much dedicated my life to music, but I try to find time for books, movies and friends.

Any favourite tracks in the new album.

At the moment I like Final Journey, for the feeling it gives while playing it. That might change tomorrow however…

I see that you into the voting process to be selected for playing at the Sweden Rock Festival. Are you excited about it? It must be the best metal festival in Europe (if not in the world) and an excellent promotion for you.

I have to admit being totally oblivious to the whole European festival "scene" so, sure, I'm excited if that comes true, but only because it would be great to get out and play in festivals.-How has been the popular response to Sleep?

Are you happy with the results so far since November?

It's still too early to tell any numbers and all that and I haven't even asked. So far the response and reviews have been positive, a bit reserved. That's natural for a beginning band such as us.

What can the people expect in your incoming live shows?

Good music and a kick-ass show!

Any plans in the long run?

Gigging, making new songs and a new album somewhere in the horizon. Oh, and world domination in 2014, of course!  So Support your local metal-scene! Come to the shows and buy the records! Check out our website and write to our guestbook!

Legendary nightclub closes its doors

The nightclub closed because it couldn’t compete any more with the ever growing number of other nightclubs in the Finnish capital. Last Saturday (26.1) was the discotheque’s last club night, a special night open to all, to which members and other regular customers had been invited by SMS.

Celebrities and yuppies

Hotel Helsinki’s nightclub opened its doors on Hallituskatu (nowadays Yliopistonkatu) under the name ‘Helsinki Club’ in 1971. Before that, the hotel had run a restaurant under the same name and the hotel’s nightclub was called 'Helsinki-by-Night'.

For a long time, the club attracted especially lots of celebrities. As late as in 1989, even the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger went to party at the Helsinki Club after a gig.

In the 1980s the Helsinki Club got a yuppie image, when the well-off could become club members and walk straight past the cues outside for 500 marks (about 83 euros) per year. Later, the membership became free of charge.

Downs
The Helsinki Club, for a long time one of only a few nightclubs in the capital, saw many ups, but also had its downs. During the early nineties there were often fights reported at the club. Once a man was even beaten to death in front of the premises. Some racist customers harassed people with a foreign background. Also notorious were the arguments between taxi drivers.

The Helsinki Club changed its image and interior many times, and last reopened in September 2006.

Since then, the nightclub still managed to attract enough costumers during weekends. But
on other days visitor numbers just were not high enough any more to
cover the high rental costs of the A location property in the capital’s
centre.

Future
In the future, some of Helsinki Club’s bars will be open on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. On other days the former nightclub can be booked for private occasions. In February the place will renovated and prepared for its future purposes.

Helsinki Club (in Finnish)

360° virtual tour

No Reservations

{mosimage}Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart are a sensual couple of chefs sharing the same kitchen… and a couple of tips about the flavours of good food and good love.

Love in the kitchen is trendy in Hollywood. You can check it out in an animated film like Ratatouille or here, in No Reservations (in Finnish the title is Rakkauden resepti) by director Scott Hicks, featuring the always sensual welsh Catherine Zeta-Jones as a dedicated chef totally concentrated and even obsessed on his work in the kitchen, with no other private life. But some happenings are going to transform radically her life. The sudden death of her sister in a car accident that makes her being in custody of her nephew Zoe (Abigail Breslin, the girl in Little Miss Sunshine) and the entrance in the kitchen of a new chef with a particular style and charm “made in Italy”: Aaron Eckhart. Chemistry works pretty well between the couple, but nevertheless the plot is too obvious and there is hardly any time for surprises: Fights, falling in love, reconciliations… all is too predictable. The best parts maybe come when little Abigail Breslin is into scene and both characters try to gain her sympathy. The relation with the little girl has even more punch that the love relation between the main characters, and brings a bit of rhythm to the film.

A good story for the lovers of good cuisine and romantic stories cooked inside the kitchen, but do not expect any big surprise here.

Rating 3/5

Back to old Tampere

{mosimage}



For several reasons, it happens that
the editorial team of FREE! Magazine has moved to Tampere for some time. Tampere was the first Finnish city where I have
lived; I came back for first time here in Autumn 2001, so it will always have a
special place in my heart. I get impressed about how fast the city has changed.
Now there are many more foreign students here and more pubs and discos,
although the essence of the city centre remains almost the same. Tampere does not have the advantage of sea
access like Helsinki or Turku, and its architecture is honestly
quite ugly: just brick buildings that shows clearly the working class origins
of the city. But those same origins make Tampere people quite open and
friendly, maybe not so nose-up as in some of the other biggest Finnish cities.
Although also being located in the geographical south, Tampere is a kind of Finnish heart that
puts in contact most of the important regions in Finland. And it even has space for a decent
industry. Although obviously far from the big Helsinki area, Tampere is still more attractive than Turku for industries, specially IT
companies, that have opened headquarters in Hervanta area surrounding the giant
of the giants: Nokia. Hervanta is the zone of Tampere that has grown more
brutally in just 6-7 years. Before there were just some buildings around the Technical University, and nowadays the visitor cannot
almost recognize it. And expansion goes on…

Maybe, if you are looking for a
beautiful city with amazing architecture, Tampere is not for you, but if you are
student and you are deciding a good destiny, this city has a lot to offer. Tampere is buzzing with student activities,
parties, courses, etc. It is big enough not to be boring but also small to have
easy access to everything, and student life is organized, but relaxed. If you
can visit here, do not miss the chance to visit Telakka, a peculiar place in
the whole Finland: a wooden house with two floors,
having been founded and ruled by actors. In the first floor you can enjoy a
nice coffee or a delicious meal, while in the second there are often theatre
plays. One of my favourite places to kill time, with a great atmosphere.

Hostel 2

{mosimage}Hostel was one of the nicest surprises in the horror and gore movies genre during last year. Now director Eli Roth tries to repeat the formula again.

It seems that Tarantino appears lately in every film project bathed with blood. This time is not about crazy drivers terrorizing young ladies on the wheel, but with an active collaboration in the script of the second part of Hostel, a film that revitalized the horror movies genre, applauded by millions of cinema fans and not so beloved in Slovakia whose reputation does not exactly “shine” when you end up watching these films (remember other close examples like Borat and Kazakhstan…).

But the surprise element is missed this time, and the movie turns to be boring and predictable. One of the most significant changes is that this time the main characters are girls instead of the boys of the first movie. The cast is decent, with the three American girls perfectly counter partnered by the two male sadistic businessmen, but the trick of swinging the personalities of the bad guys when the blood is spilled is nothing new and not surprising at all anymore. A couple of visually shocking moments save the action, like the unforgettable scene with the naked woman receiving her bath of blood, or the cannibal Italian police officer tasting carefully one human leg while his poor owner screams in horrible pain, but apart from that, do not expect anything extraordinary. Even the sensuality (and sexuality) of the first part has decreased here, except for the always splendid view of the sensual Vera Jordanova.

The only issue that can keep on ringing inside your mind is “Can a place like this really exists in real life?” We hope not, but in any case, watch out if you meet a guy with an Elite Hunting tattoo in a train towards Central Europe…

Director: Eli Roth

Cast: Lauren German, Heather Matarazzo, Bijou Phillips, Vera Jordanova, Roger Bart, Richard Burgi

Rating 2/5 

Finnish game industry

{mosimage}Video games are not children’s games any more. They belong to one of the major entertainment industries in the world. With almost a hundred companies developing games, Finland is becoming an important player in this sector and it delivers one of the country’s specialties: mobile phone games.

 

 

 

 

 

It is a Tuesday night in a pub in the center of Helsinki. The place is crowded with young people playing… video games. It is the monthly gathering of the Finnish chapter of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA Finland). This time there are free drinks sponsored by an international computer processor manufacturer and the attendees show their skills in a competition playing the racing video game Project Gotham Racing 4 and the popular Guitar Hero 3.

It is a young crowd, most of them are in their mid or late twenties, and it represents the fast growing game industry. In Finland there are around 80 companies developing video games in any format, from mobile phones to the latest generation consoles and PC. The oldest game firm was established in 1994, so the Finnish game industry is still relatively young. Nevertheless last year, the turnover of the industry was around 75 million euro and the number of employees was more than double than in 2004. Nowadays around 1,000 people work in game development, in offices in Finland and outside Finland.

KooPee Hiltunen represents Neogames, the member organization of the industry. According to him, there are very easy reasons that explain the success of this sector in Finland: “There is a good gaming culture, and good technology and infrastructure that secures the product delivery and a good price-quality ratio”, Hiltunen explains. “Also we enjoy good subsidies from Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation”.

During 2007 Tekes supported the industry with 6 million euro. This means that Finland invests in the game industry more any other country in Europe. Public investment in the games industry relative to the population is now 1.1 euros per head, compared with about 4 cents in the EU region.

The quality of Finnish games is well represented in the production of international hits. Espoo-based game studio Remedy Entertainment is responsible of the successful Max Payne saga. The first part of this third-person shooter video game was published in 2001 and it became a best seller world wide that even reached Hollywood. The production of the Max Payne film is about to begin with Mark Wahlberg in the lead role. Meanwhile in Espoo, Remedy is well into the production of a long awaited new title which might be released this year. Developed exclusively for Xbox 360 and Windows Vista, Alan Wake is described as “psychological action thriller”.

Another success in the brief story of the Finnish game industry is the online game Habbo Hotel, developed by Sulake. It started as a free-time project in 1999, but nowadays Habbo is recognize as international brand, localized in 31 countries with six million users visiting the Habbo communities and playing the game. The company employs around 300 people in 14 different offices around the globe.

With these successes in mind, the industry is growing fast and Neogames predicts that the game industry will become a major export sector in the next few years. “Most of the Finnish game companies are growing faster than the market”, Hiltunen explains.

{mosimage}Pocket gaming

One of the characteristics of the industry in Finland is that game developers have chosen mobile phones as the platform of choice. Due to Nokia’s strong presence, Finland has been a pioneer in mobile games, a market that is expected to grow over the next few years.

Many Finnish companies like Digital Chocolate / Sumea, Rovio, Universomo or Mr Goodliving are among the top developers of mobile games and they served their games to operators across the world. These companies produced several titles a year and they must  port them to the hundreds of difference mobile phones models.

Markku Hakala is the managing director and one of the founders of Universomo. For him, developing mobile games was the logical path to follow. “At the beginning, we did not have any prior experiences in the game industry, so PC and console game was too far ahead us”, he says.

Mobile gaming opens the doors of game development for a young generation of gamers. Hakala mentions the demoscene culture and Nokia as the main reasons that lead programmers and developers to the mobile games. Demoscene is a computer art that specializes in producing non playable demos of games to showcase programming and artistic skills. Finland hosts Assembly, one of the largest international demoparties that gathers around 5,000 participants every summer. Since 2007, the event has also a winter edition which this year will be held in Tampere from 22nd to 24th of March.

Established in 2002, Universomo is the only major game developer outside the Helsinki area. The main office is in Tampere, although recently the firm opened a new one in Helsinki. “When we started, we didn’t think we would grow so much, so Tampere was fine”, admits Markku. Indeed Universomo has doubled its personnel every year and developed games for well known brands like Star Wars and the film 300. In 2007 the company was acquired by THQ Wireless, one of the major mobile phone publishers.

Sumea is another mobile games developer that has attracted foreign investors. Sumea was founded in 1999 and in 2004 it was acquired by Digital Chocolate, a California based company founded by Trip Hawkins, one of the pioneers of computer games and founder of Electronic Arts back in the early eighties.

Digital Chocolate is one of the top 5 mobile phone publishers and its main office and game studio remains in Helsinki and it employs more than 100 people coming from many different countries. Soon the company will also start operations in India. This rises the question if game development might move to more affordable countries. KooPee Hiltunen sees no threat: “India is at the moment very good place to make large volume,"bulk" games, but only European game developers can make European (Western) games. This is a little bit like film industry. Making Hollywood films in Bollywood would make economical sense, but still that doesn’t happen”.

The game industry in Finland is flourishing and growing at a fast pace. “We are a visible industry already and we get the attention we deserve.However, we are still a small business and we would like to get more investors that truly understand the peculiarities of this industry”, concludes Markku Hakala.

All What You Can Get: English-language theatre in Helsinki


The fresh comedy, written by Romanian Ioan Peter and directed by David Kozma, tells the story of three Romanians on their way to the England of their dreams. They wait for instructions at a train station. While many trains are rushing by, they get orders from a certain ‘Mr. Polonius’ through a public phone. The bones of Hamlet and Ceauşescu and the statue of Lenin lead the threesome from one situation to another. Ultimately they find out whether the grass is really greener at the other side of the fence.

All What You Can Get, described as 'a comical mixture of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, a road-movie and a satirical thriller', is performed daily until the end of January (except on Thursday the 24th and Monday the 28th).

 

ALL WHAT YOU CAN GET
European Theatre Collective

23.1, 25-27.1 and 29-31.1

at 19:00

KokoTeatteri [website, in Finnish]
Unioninkatu 45
Helsinki

Tickets: 15 / 10 €
Groups (min. 8): 8 € /person

  • All What You Can Get

  • Director: David Kozma

  • Dramaturgy: Markus Alanen

  • Performers: Romulus Chiciuc, Timo-Pekka Luoma, Salla Kozma, David Kozma

  • Music: Lauri Wuolio

  • Choreography: Mari Koponen

22-Pistepirkko – (Well You Know) Stuff Is Like We Yeah!

{mosimage}Espe, Pk and Asko are back with a new studio album, still kicking ass after more than 25 years in the music industry!

22 Pistepirkko is one of the best-known groups outside Finnish
borders. Considered a cult band in many European countries like
Germany, they never get tired of going one step farther and pushing the
limits of their non-stopping creativity (that leads them to play in
side projects or to concentrate on other aspects of art such as
painting).

(Well You Know) Stuff Is Like We Yeah! has been produced teaming up with American Mark Kramer and turns into an excellent sample of all the different registers and genres that the band is able to offer. From the kicking first single and starting song Suburban Ladyland to the moody Lizard, 22 Pistepirkko exhales that special kind of confidence of a veteran band not worried neither ashamed to do just what they want.

When we visited the Keränen brothers 1 year ago at their studio in the centre of Helsinki, it was impossible not to notice their passion about music and their mastering in the use and mix of different techniques combining the old with the new. And their new release is just about it: catchy guitars and lyrics in Zombie, experimenting sounds close to the psychedelic era of The Beatles in Garbage Land or flirting with the latest British pop sounds in Summer Triangle, all their musical skills are poured into their new album, and the result is superb.

One of the best works in the entire band’s career. A must get if you want to understand one of the most fundamental band in Finnish pop-rock scene.

Rating 5/5

Mokoma – Luihin ja ytimiin

{mosimage}Mokoma, one of the most popular thrash and death metal Finnish bands has recently published their new album with a very catchy orange cover: Luihin ja ytimiin.

The five guys from Lappeenranta release their sixth studio album: Luihin ja ytimiin, and once more stitched to their powerful lyrics in Finnish language (another excellent work from Markko Annala, the lyrics writer, who by the way, does not like to include cursing words in the songs, quite an unexpected achievement in the genre…). But do not expect a classic and straight typical trash metal album here. Mokoma has quite a big cross-over style, and likes experimenting in the new album, mixing the rough with the smooth. The result can sound strange at the beginning, but after a couple of times listening the record you can realize how enriching the registers of the band are. For example, you can find in the four track Entistä Ehompi a style that resembles pretty much to Apulanta's latest soft punk rock, but the next track Kolmannen Asteen Kuulustelu is again pure thrash metal in your ears!

Nevertheless my favourite song of the album is Marras, with excellent guitar riffs and great vocals by Annala, closer to classic rock than to trash.

Maybe for the fanatic thrash music fans, the album can be a bit of a disappointment, but for those of you who like heterogeneous works with different styles and registers to explore, Mokoma has been able to reinvent themselves efficiently one more time. A must to hear if you like Finnish metal music!

Rating 4/5

UltraMayhem – Jeremiad

{mosimage}Another debut album from another metal band from Riihimaki, Ultramayhem, featuring Jeremiad.

It seems that Rihimaki's metal scene is boiling lately. Added to the shocking debut album of Widescreen Mode, reviewed also in FREE! Magazine, here comes Ultramayhem and their first studio album Jeremiad. The band was formed in 2004 and had released previously some Eps.  but previously some members already had experience with a band called theReedGreenBlue. And similarly to Widescreen Mode, MySpace has been again a great source of promotion, with 15.000 visitors.

The music style can be placed closer to other Finnish bands like Suburban Tribe, United Underworld or Mokoma, and international ones like Faith no More or Pantera. Vlad Tepez on vocals starts strong and convincing in the opening track Cactae and they will be perfectly accompanied by excellent background vocals all over the album. Violent guitar riffs and non-political correct lyrics not aimed at fans of Nana Mouskouri.

But nevertheless the "amateur touch" is still tangible in the album starting from the CD box design, and continuing with the production and the sound of the band. Not a bad effort though for being the starting point of a more serious career, but the band still needs to find their own path and think bigger, far from easy imitations, otherwise they will be swallowed by the ferocious competence.

Rating 3/5

Also stopping by in Finland: Rihanna, Juanes, Foo Fighters, Deep Purple and Nazareth

Popular R & B star Rihanna will fill Helsinki’s Hartwall
Areena on the 14th of March. Tickets will cost 49 and 46 euro and will
go on sale on Tuesday at 9.00 via Lippupalvelu. Latino heartthrob Juanes
performs at Helsinki’s Jäähalli (Ice Hall) on the 31st of July. Tickets
costing 53 euro are available via Menolippu.fi or from Thursday (24.1)
via Lippupalvelu.

Also Deep Purple and Nazareth are heading to
Finland as part of their 40th anniversary tour. The legendary British
rockers play the Jäähalli in the capital on the 12th of August
(tickets: 57 euro) and the Kuopio Hall in Kuopio (50 euro) the next
day. Tickets can be bought via Menolippu.fi or from Friday (25.1) via
Lippupalvelu.

For more info and more foreign acts playing in the country, check Coming to Finland

UPDATE: The organisers of Provinssirock in Seinäjoki, held for the thirtieth time during the second weekend of June, have announced this year's first big international act performing at the festival. The Foo Fighters will take the stage on Sunday, the 15th of June. It will be the first time the American rock group lead by Dave Grohl play in Finland at a publicly accessible event.

Leverage – Blind Fire

{mosimage}Leverage introduce us their second studio album: Blind Fire, turning to be one of the most interesting Finnish melodic metal bands nowadays.

After the success of their debut album Tides in 2006, it was about time for Leverage to come back thinking big with another studio album, released by not others than Frontiers Records, one of the most important metal record companies in the world. Pekka Heino, Marko Niskala and the rest of the band offer excellent lyrics and melodic songs, without an excessive orchestration, just simple good metal, but very catchy.

The opening track Shadow in the Rain or King of the Night sounds classy, reminding the good metal melodies of the 80s. Heino has really great vocal skills and the keyboard does not overwhelm the rest of the instruments, with some good and hooky guitar solos here and there like in Stormchild or Heart of Darkness, and just creates the perfect atmosphere to enjoy Pekka’s exquisite voice.When having an excellent first album, it is difficult task for many bands to continue with the same high level of creation.

But Leverage has been able to make the transition to a mainstream company and release just less than 2 years later a very recommendable follow-up. Do not expect great surprises, but just enjoy some good melodic heavy metal.

Rating 4/5

The Wombats – A Guide to Love, Loss and Desperation

{mosimage}The Wombats do not come from Australia but from Liverpool and are ready to make you move your body in the dance floor.

The Wombats were born in 2003 in Liverpool, being the band composed by “Murph” Murphy (vocals, guitar, keyboard), Dan Haggis (drums, vocals) and Norwegian Tord Overland Knudsen (bass, vocals). They introduce us their debut album: A Guide to Love, Loss and Desperation, that surely will not make you feel indifferent.

A lot of humour starting from the songs titles, in tracks like Kill the Director or in the off-kilter waltz Party in The Forest (Where is Laura?), but also with a certain touch of sadness and not taking themselves too seriously, like the singer Murph himself recognises: “It is fun, but with dark undertones thrown in there. There’s a fair bit of self-deprecation going on”. And certainly there must be a mix of both for mixing successfully concepts like dancing in a discotheque and the melancholy of Joy Division in a song like Let’s dance to Joy Division.

No band had had the balls to join such concepts before!  In a way, it is the same old story written with a softer and not so serious touch, the life of some young guys full of lost love, parties and some small mischief. Nothing better to resume the philosophy of the band that the first track’s title: Tales of Girls, Boys & Marsupials. At some point their rhythms can remind you of the Swedes The Hives, adding the perfect doses of nostalgia to be very well received by the Finnish audience. Definitely one of the best and freshest debut albums of the last months.

Rating 4/5

Avantasia – The Scarecrow

{mosimage}Third Avantasia album by Tobias Sammet, the leader of the German metal band Edguy. Once more, with an amazing list of collaborators to create another great metal opera.

The fans had to wait a lot to see a new Avantasia album on the stores, since 2002, when the second album of Avantasia, The Metal Opera Part II, was released, so no wonder that The Scarecrow has become one of the most commented releases of the recent times in the metal industry. After the success of the previous two parts, but also after the efforts of congregating the right musicians, Tobias Sammet took a long break before planning everything carefully and come back stronger than ever with the third Avantasia's album.

It was worthy to wait, and impressive to take a look at the list of collaborators: Alice Cooper, Eric Singer, Kai Hansen, Amanda Somerville, Bob Catley or “le enfant terrible” and metal renegade Michael Kiske are some of the names that have helped Sammet to create this new metal odyssey. The album is a bit more eclectic and softer than previous ones, with Sammet flirting with a wide range of metal styles: from the classic songs that will be more than welcome by the old-school fans Shelter From The Rain or Another Angel Down to the catchy ballads of Carry Me Over, What Kind of Love or Cry Just a Little or extravaganzas like The Toy Master (vocals courtesy of the always dangerous and exciting Alice Cooper) and also space for a more commercial sound in Lost in Space.

All in all, The Scarecrow is a great album, well produced and orchestrated, that will satisfy to all the open-minded metal fans. Just the chance to listen to Kiske singing heavy metal songs once more deserves to get it!

Rating: 4/5