Hide your rum, lock up your daughters: the trolls are coming!

Finntroll, the Swedish-singing folk/black/humppa metallers from Finland are currently on the road in Europe and will be coming soon to North America. Their 2008 tour will be supported by US thrash/death metal band Warbringer. Fans will also be happy to hear that, on their return to Europe, they are planning to record their Sept 20th concert in Amsterdam for an upcoming DVD.

Opeth: coming soon to a hall near you

Paul recently wrote about Opeth’s latest album, Watershed, so it seems only fitting to mention that they are now on tour, busy throughout July and August with a lot of festival gigs. In mid-September, their North American tour begins, supported by US bands High on Fire (for all dates) along with Nachtmystium (9/16-10/4) and Baroness (10/6-10/26).

Nightwish’s Dark Passion Play continues

After a busy summer festival season, the Finnish gothic metal act Nightwish will also be back in North America at the end of August and throughout September for the third North American leg of their ongoing Dark Passion Play tour. They are supported by Sonata Arctica, a power metal band also out of Finland.

Moonsorrow mini-tour

Also worth mentioning, Moonsorrow have announced some North American dates. A Mexican 2-show mini-tour in September and a primarily Canadian tour (with one US show so far) in November, starting with the St. Paul, MN “Heathen Crusade” festival.

Amorphis bring Silent Waters across the ocean

I was talking to an acquaintance tonight who mentioned she is looking forward to the upcoming Amorphis show, so I thought I ought to add their North American dates. Finnish Amorphis published their eighth album Silent Waters in 2007, combining death metal with progressive, gothic and folk elements. Apart from the ProgPower appearance, they will be supported by the very international combination of Swiss band Samael, German/Norwegian Leaves’ Eyes and Virgin Black from Australia.

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One of the best known bands to have come out of the Scandinavian metal scene is revered Swedish band Opeth. While originally a death metal band, in the past decade Opeth have begun to incorporate a variety of other influences into their sound, including most noticeably acoustic guitars and clean vocals in addition to the more brutal death metal sections. While this is a little bit late, Opeth released their seventh and most recent album, Watershed, this past May. Due to Opeth’s huge worldwide success, the album should be available at both your local record store as well as from major online retailers such as Amazon.

1. “Coil” – 3:10
2. “Heir Apparent” – 8:50
3. “The Lotus Eater” – 8:50
4. “Burden” – 7:41
5. “Porcelain Heart” – 8:00
6. “Hessian Peel” – 11:25
7. “Hex Omega” – 7:00