Finnish black metal band Catamenia will be releasing a new album called VIII on September 12th. As you might have guessed, this is the eighth studio album from the band which has been around since 1995. It will be released in 2 different versions, though the details of each are unknown so far, on Massacre Records.

Over the years, Catamenia has endured many lineup changes, the most recent of which was a change in May when their old lead singer Olli-Jukka Mustonen left the band just before a small Canadian tour. I’m not sure how this affected the work on VIII, we will just have to wait and see. You can listen to Catamenia on their MySpace page.

This was the headline last week on Maj Karma’s website. Previously the band was expecting to release their 9th studio album this August, but drummer Janne Savolainen’s dog Brutus destroyed the hard drive containing the bass and drum tracks. Some of the material was salvageable, but enough was lost that the band chose to delay the release. They are now expecting the album to be ready for March 28, 2009 with a single in January, but they are continuing with their summer tour plans. (Unfortunately for me, all dates are in their native Finland.) Some samples of works-in-progress are available in their “Studio Journal” (see section Studiopäiväkirjaa).

Maj Karma, formerly known as Maj Karman kauniit kuvat (Maj Karma’s pretty pictures), play punk-, industrial- and metal-infused hard rock with Finnish lyrics. Their 8th album, Ukkonen, was certified gold in Finland.

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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Last Wednesday I went to the club Semifinal, which is a part of the famous rock venue Tavastia, to catch Black Bile live for the first time.  Black Bile is a metal project by Henri Kuittinen, who writes all the music and plays all the instruments in the studio.  Live, however, he is joined by a live band, so it’s pretty much like what Trent Reznor has been doing with his Nine Inch Nails.  Last December Black Bile was signed for Sakara Records as the label’s first band singing in English. Sakara Records is a record label run by the wildly successful trash metal band Mokoma, and in the last couple of years Sakara Records has been quickly gaining popularity and a wealth of new artists.  At the moment they house Finnish success stories like Stam1na and Diablo and the veterans of progressive rock and punk YUP.

Black Bile’s music is metal combined with a great number of other influences like a little bit of industrial, post-punk, new wave, pop and all kinds of other stuff.  All of this is painted pitch-black by a thick layer of Nordic melancholy and desperation.  Black Bile’s debut album Great Ape Language (released 16th April this year) received mixed reviews in the Finnish music media mainly due to the huge amount of different styles Kuittinen has mixed together, others praising Kuittinen’s flexibility and the overall quality of the music, others criticizing the album for being a way too much of a jumble of elements. As for me, well, I think it’s a really interesting and complex album.  I wasn’t hooked the first time I listened to it, actually I was almost kind of angry that I had bought the album, but I just wasn’t able to resist popping it back into the stereos soon.  There was something there which made me want to listen to it again and again…

Now I can say that Great Ape Language is an very good debut album, however I do have to admit that it’s a real difficult one at first.  Even though there evidently are a ton of influences, Kuittinen has managed to create a very unique sound for his project by making all of the different elements fit each other in a blastedly interesting way.   The sound is characterized by transitions between crunching riffs and somber, sentimental acoustic guitars, minimal electronic touches, careful use of celloes and most prominently, such a level of depression that you could say it’s running rampant.  Really, it seems melancholy is the key element in Black Bile: it more or less penetrates and dominates just about every single song on Great Ape Language.  Hell, even the band’s name itself is a reference to melancholy, the word deriving from the ancient Greek words for “black bile”. This definitely isn’t music for your sunny afternoon in a car, folks.

Interestingly, while Black Bile is decidedly a metal band, it’s the quieter tracks and the numerous ballads that appeal the most to me.  Although the opener Earth Will Rise and the bleak Mute are great metal crushers, songs like the surprisingly Weezerian Light That Failed, the ballads Valerian and Emily and the dark, electronic soundscapes of Monochrome steal the spotlight.  Here the melancholy works for great effect with the mellower atmosphere, and Kuittinen’s voice is also better suited for these kinds of quieter tracks.  For example the one true in-your-face death metal track Divorced with the World is only average at the very best.  In conclusion, I’d say Great Ape Language is an honest, uncompromising album, a misunderstood and underappreciated gem.  It might be difficult to listen to at first, but grows on you rather quickly.  It’s got its fair share of flaws, but I’m sure that if Kuittinen wants to continue with his project, by the second album we’ll have a true masterpiece in our hands.

You can check out Black Bile’s music on their MySpace or the official site where the player seems to have the whole album for preview.  You can buy Great Ape Language at Record Shop X for 15,90 €, and they even ship worldwide.

Tracklisting for Great Ape Language by Black Bile

1. Earth Will Rise
2. Valeriam
3. Light That Failed
4. Infection
5. Divorced With The World
6. Emily
7. Half
8. Mute
9. Monochrome
10. Worst Case Scenario
11. Slumber

Finnish extreme metal giants Children of Bodom released their sixth studio album, entitled Blooddrunk, this past April, to largely positive reviews and excellent sales. Apparently the band were feeling especially aggressive during the writing of the album, and they ended up with something that is quite heavy as a result.

The album was released in both a standard jewel edition, as well as a digipack with several additional bonus tracks. Due to the band’s fame, both should be fairly readily available from any retailers.

For those who enjoy their metal with a touch of power and a healthy dose of thrash, Children of Bodom are worth checking out for sure.

Blooddrunk (April 9, 2008)

1. “Hellhounds On My Trail” – 3:58
2. “Blooddrunk” – 4:05
3. “LoBodomy” – 4:24
4. “One Day You Will Cry” – 4:05
5. “Smile Pretty for the Devil” – 3:55
6. “Tie My Rope” – 4:14
7. “Done with Everything, Die for Nothing” – 3:30
8. “Banned from Heaven” – 5:05
9. “Roadkill Morning” – 3:32

Bonus Tracks:

1. “Ghostriders in the Sky” (Stan Jones cover) – 3:39
2. “Lookin’ Out My Back Door” (Creedence Clearwater Revival cover) – 2:08
3. “Just Dropped In” (Kenny Rogers cover) – 2:38
4. “War Inside My Head” (Suicidal Tendencies cover)

Apocalyptica came to the US this spring in support of their sixth studio album, Worlds Collide, released Sept 17, 2007 in Europe and April 15, 2008 in North America. They’re back in Europe for the summer festival season, but they have announced additional N.A. tour dates including some “more intimate” shows at smaller venues along with some larger shows and at least one festival appearance. Tickets for most of the shows go on sale this weekend.

For those not familiar with the album, Worlds Collide augmented their signature cello-metal sound with guest artists Adam Gontier, Tomoyasu Hotei, Till Lindemann, Dave Lombardo, Cristina Scabbia and Corey Taylor on six of the eleven tracks. They really do put on a great live show and I’m looking forward to their return to NYC. I’ll be there, as close to front and center as I can get.

OK, so I can only speak from hearsay and what I have read, but it seems to me that the Finns fill their long, glorious summer days with music — with tours, of course, and huge annual festivals like Ruisrock and Ankkarock, but also with a flurry of album releases. Paul has already mentioned Turmion Kätilöt’s U.S.C.H.! but here are a few more points of interest from the land of the thousand lakes.

Apulanta are celebrating summer with their 4-track Kesä-EP released June 11 2008. This is sure to please fans of their previous album, Eikä vielä ole edes ilta, and indeed, like most of Apulanta’s recent releases, it debuted at number 1 in the Finnish music charts.

Still on June 11, heavy-metal veterans Tarot released Undead Indeed, their first live DVD (available in a 2DVD or 2CD set), including material from their recent Crows Fly Black tour, interviews with the band and a couple of videos.

Last but far from least, June 11 gave us Marraskuun singlet, a collection of the seven singles with their accompanying B-sides from Viikate’s 2007 releases Marraskuun lauluja I and II. Including gems such as their cover of the Leevi and the Leavings classic “Teuvo, maanteidan kuningas”, this is a must for any fan, or an inexpensive way for the casual listener to get a hold of highlights of two powerful albums.

But more is yet to come! Kotiteollisuus have been in the studio working on a cover-EP Sotakoira to be released August 13 and pop-rock ensemble Egotrippi are releasing their seventh full-length album for which single Hyvästi naiset is due out in July. Finally, I’ve also read something about yet another release from Apulanta planned for August, but I must admit, I have not yet pinned this down (my Finnish is poor and it makes digging for facts a little bit slow).

EDIT: I forgot to mention where you can find these albums. Unfortunately, I have not found any good North American source for Finnish music, so I recommend ordering direct from Finland. Record Shop X has the June releases already in stock (and Sotakoira available for pre-orders) and will certainly carry the others as soon as they come out.

Finnish industrial metal band Turmion Kätilöt are well known to many, both for their addictively catchy heavy metal and for their outlandish stage shows. Despite legal difficulties with current (former?) label Spinefarm, Turmion Kätilöt have released their third full length studio album U.S.C.H. last week, free of charge from new label Raha Records. For those who are fans of the band’s last album Pirun nyrkki the very heavy combinations of electronics and metal will be a welcome addition to their musical library, and for those who aren’t, there’s no better time (or price!) to get to know what might just become your new favourite band!