Norther have somehow not gotten the attention they deserve yet. After having released 4 albums and 1 EP they are still not playing many shows compared to other bands, neither in their home country Finland nor abroad. In the beginning of their career they had to fight being labelled a Children of Bodom rip-off. In 2003 they then managed to get the job for the support act of the Dimmu Borgir/Hyprocrisy tour but after that things got somehow stuck. So long story cut short, when two Finnish shows were confirmed for the same weekend, I knew that I couldn’t let this chance pass. Thanks to German Wings (cheap flights) the plan became reality, thus I found myself in the 35.000 inhabitants’ town of Seinäjoki about 400 km north of Helsinki. The size of the town made me a little worried if even a decent amount of people would show up – but all worries were in vain since the venue was more less a bar and as we all know, Finns like to drink.

Therefore everyone was in a fairly good mood when Norther finally started their show around 12.30. The space in front of the stage was packed – which is no wonder as there were only approximately 3 metres room. The mood was almost too good to believe for a Finnish crowd, which is notorious for watching gigs motionless and showing its appreciation by nodding at the most. The reason for this (the good mood) is not at least due to the fact that Norther have their fan base among rather young people. Hence, this cheerful audience on the one hand and the small “venue” on the other hand created the kind of cosy atmosphere that makes up a special concert.

From the opener “Throwing My Life Away” to the last song “Hellhole” you could watch a good humoured band, of which especially Heikki was sticking out with his everlasting smile behind the drum kit. In contrast to him, Tuomas with his typical keyboardists-are-the-coolest type of look was in his very own world, which he only escaped to show the crowd a mischievous smile. The rest of the band offered just as much entertainment: guitarist Kride tried to feed Petri “Mr. I can scream long enough to make your ears ring” some beer for his tortured voice chords but in vain as he wasn’t looking (maybe the sluts at the bar had finally managed to get his attention). Last but not least band jokester Jukka: since he couldn’t move much on the tiny stage as usual, he had to occupy himself with little shadow games at the spotlights during the breaks.

All the show of course would have been in vain if the band didn’t have anything to offer musically: up-tempo songs with catchy melodies and solos for the most part but also some mid tempo songs and ballade-like pieces. I was quite surprised that especially their faster material came along with a thrashier impact than on the records. These were all represented by at least one song: “Released” from the debut album “Dreams of Endless War”, “Blackhearted” and “Of Darkness and Light” from the follow up “Mirror of Madness”, “Going Nowhere”, “Nothing” and “The Cure” from the 2004 release “Death Unlimited”, “Day Zero” and “Hellhole” (f*ck yeah, what a highlight live) from their “Solution 7” EP and then finally 5 tracks from their current piece “Till Death Unites Us”: “Throwing My Life Away”, “Omen”, “Evil Ladies”, “Scream” and the band anthem “Norther”. As you can see, the set was well-balanced, although I would have loved to hear for example “Mirror of Madness” or “Death Unlimited”.

Exactly one hour and some massive head banging later Norther finished their regular set – and people just left without shouting for an encore! Mind my good words about this crowd, this was simply unbelievable.

Oulu, Finland @ Club Teatria, Saturday 07 / 10 / 2006

The Howl played some Slayer inspired Death/Thrash metal, which also shone through from the bassist’s Slayer guitar belt. Unfortunately, they had to meet the destiny of most support acts: no one was interested in seeing them. They surely didn’t deserve this and with a little more variation and musical autonomy this will hopefully change in the future. A little consolation at least was that there was some prominent face in the “crowd”: The Duskfall singer Kai Jaakkola.

Darkcrowned, however, had a warmer welcome. Quite a few people had gotten up from the various benches so that you could actually speak of a crowd now. With typical Finnish (or at least Northern) melodic death metal the still very young band earned itself some steady applause. Although they don’t reinvent the genre, they still provide an interesting approach: the melodic parts result mostly from the keyboard which is contrasted well by the guitar and bass section. Musically, I was impressed, only their singer made a rather unappealing impression on me and his dull screaming couldn’t convince me, either. A little more variation won’t hurt here. Nevertheless, Darkcrowned presented themselves well and absolved a solid gig.

So, Norther part II. While the band had been cramped together on that tiny stage the previous day, they now had plenty of space. Tuomas’ keyboard was placed further in the back than usual, right next to the drums to be exact, so that the rather introvert keyboardist was even more in the background. The “mobile” part of the band was, however, enjoying the new freedom and especially bassist Jukka was running around the stage like he wanted to check out every single spot of it. It was a pleasure to see Jukka and Pete – whom the foreign fans get to see more often with their other bands Wintersun and Ensiferum – interact with each other as they were constantly teasing each other. Pete’s usual announcements like “What’s up Oulu?” were spiced up with some rather funny interjections like” How much did you drink last night?”. As the crowds shouting wasn’t loud enough he concluded that it couldn’t have been as much as the band drank the previous night. Haha! Finns!

After “Hellhole” the band left the stage as the day before in Seinäjoki but this time I was sure that we would get to hear some “Death Unlimited” or “Mirror of Madness” for an encore. But no! What is it with the Finnish crowds that they don’t want to hear an encore??? To be fair, there was a small amount of people that half-heartedly screamed for some more songs but it wasn’t enough after all to bring the band back on stage.

Set list at both shows:

Throwing My Life Away
Day Zero
Of Darkness and Light
Going Nowhere
Omen
Evil Ladies
Scream
Blackhearted
Released
Norther
The Cure
Nothing
Hellhole