It's Christmas time

I think it's time for a Christmas song. After all, Christmas is only a few days away now. This song has been a Christmas favourite of mine for many years now. Combining an all time favourite Christmas song with one of my favourite metal singers. Since this is most likely my last post before Christmas, I wish you all a Merry Christmas. Now, lean back and enjoy this song.

And finally, since this is possibly be my last post of 2012, I'd like to wish you all a Happy New Year too.

/H

Just a teaser...

Yesterday I saw the first pictures from the Hilastherion photoshoot, these first ones looked very good. I can't post them here just yet, but as soon as I can, I will. So, more to come shortly.

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Hilastherion, another update

I'm anxiously waiting for the pictures from the Hilastherion photoshoot, we should get them any time now. We have a design for the cover art for the upcoming album, the old band logo felt a bit old school, so we're updating it to something a bit more modern looking. And it's still too early to say exactly what the cover art will look like, since the logo will probably be visible on the cover art.

More updates to come...

/H

Hilastherion photoshoot

I'm watching Quantum of Solace, although I should be going to bed. Tomorrow (or should I say today, since it's already past midnight here) it's time for a long awaited Hilastherion photoshoot. I really should get a good nights sleep, since I have a cold and I don't want to look like it in the photos. I would also like to take this opportunity to invite fans of Hilastherion to like our Facebook page. News about the band or the upcoming album will be posted in this group.

Well, that's about it for this time, good night and I'll see you later.

/H

What a weekend

I had a great weekend. I had been looking forward to a larp workshop, but a week ago the workshop was cancelled, due to too few participants. However, this didn't matter too much, I had time to do some chores at home instead. It was good to finally get some of these things done, after postponing them too many times.

Saturday night a very good friend of mine had a Birthday party. As usual, it was great. We had some serious discussions and many not so serious ones. And the second most delicious chocolate cake I've ever tasted. And a very unexpected suggestion that I had to consider seriously. And we briefly discussed our upcoming Hilastherion photo shoot next weekend. And we also babbled a bit about some Renaissance music concerts, if I remember correctly, I think they will take place in April 2013.

Yesterday was rather fun. Just before noon I sat with my laptop, waiting to register for next year's upcoming anniversary LARP*. In 2 minutes and 28 seconds after they opened the registration form, 15 people had already registered! And I got the character I wanted. Or should I say, I got my first choice. We were told to choose three characters. The character we wanted to play, one backup if we didn't get that part, and a third one if the second character was also taken. All this since it might happen that several players want to play the same character. But now, I'm SO ready to rock as this character.

/H

*I've linked to the "Briefly in English"-page about the LARP, but if you understand Swedish and want to know more about it, you can read more here.

Band pics and roleplaying

Well, it's been a while since my last post. Work has been pretty crazy lately, which leaves very little time for blogging. At least when I spend a lot of my spare time making new characters for a vampire tabletop role-playing game. And play in a band. And try to have a life somewhere in the middle of all this. However, I'm not so fed up with things anymore. But the vampire characters turned out really great.

Vaguely related to these vampire characters, the two lists of roles for next years anniversary Larp have been published. And the type of character I've been considering for quite some time was on the lists. I did mention my thoughts quite some time ago to one of the game masters, and to another one just a few weeks back. So they knew I was interested in playing this type of character.

On the band front, the mastering for Hilastherions second album is done. Next up: taking new band pictures, we're currently trying to find a time that's ok for everyone in the band. And we need new pictures, two of the members have been replaced since the first album (I'm one of the new members). This, of course, brings us to the eternal and very important question: What to wear...?

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TV Series/Movie Marathon?

I'm home alone this weekend, and I'm thinking I should do a TV Series or Movie Marathon. I have a few ideas, but I can't decide what to pick. My suggestions are:

Marvel movies. I can't do them all, that would take all weekend and more, but I could do a selection of the Marvel movies I have, e.g. Spiderman (1-3), all the X-Men movies (1-3 + Wolverine + First Class) or something else.

Star Wars. I don't have the Clone Wars animated series, but I could watch all the Star Wars movies, from the beginning to the end (so far). I'd like to take a moment to state that although I prefer the original trilogy, I think episodes 1-3 are better than many people say.

Lord of the Rings. The LotR trilogy is always a good choice. And an even better choice when S isn't at home, since she doesn't particularly like it.

Sons of Anarchy. I have seasons 1-3 on dvd, but I haven't watched them from the beginning for quite some time. It could be nice to watch them from the beginning again.

Suggestions?

/H

Enchanting

Lately I've been listening very much to the latest Wintersun album Time I. And I'm really loving it! It's Epic, Enchanting and Excellent. It's even better than I had imagined, and I'm even having a break in listening to a few other albums right now, in favour of Time I. I really like those albums as well, but they'll still be there when I'm done for now with Time I, so I'm not worried. But here's an example of what has to stand back for a while yet.

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Characters

Last weekend was all about different characters. I took part in a Vampire setting tabletop role-playing game with elements of live action role-playing (Larp). Everything started out really well, my character made a lot of new contacts and even established a position in the town he was visiting. But it seems that everything ended in mayhem. I had to leave before everything ended, but I read that other characters were killed.

And at home, I have an alter ego that I call Agnieszka. She is from Poland and takes care of our household. My wife has an alter ego called Viljar. He is from Estonia and works as a gardener and property caretaker. And last weekend we had two new additions to our staff. Our two sons have alter egos as well now. Pedro and Miguel, they are from Mexico and they basically help Viljar with the property.



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Envy - but not so much

I wish I'd been in Toronto last night, at the Air Canada Centre. I've read a few comments about the show, and I'm a little envious. If you don't know what show I'm talking about, here's a little tip. But on the other hand I'm rather happy anyway that I'll be seeing the band in the UK in May. I'm not as hardcore as many other fans who would travel the world to see them. I actually *shudder* considered skipping this tour altogether. Luckily, my family is absolutely wonderful and did something I never could have dreamed of. Last May, on my birthday, they told me we'd be going to London next May as a birthday present.

Do I even have to say that I love them?

/H

Busy

A lot going on right now. But I'm not complaining. I actually (kind of) enjoy it when I have a lot to do, for some reason I get more things done when I'm really busy. Which is really weird...

Tomorrow my parents are coming over to visit us for a few days. It's been a while, so I'm looking forward to seeing them. Today my father sent me an e-mail from, it was a link to an exhibition in the Museum of Cultures in Helsinki. The exhibition is called Fetched from afar and features one of my ancestors. (Unfortunately, these pages are available only in Finnish). He travelled the world and donated objects from his journeys to museums. I really enjoyed this exhibition and reading about him. Then again, I'm interested in genealogy and history, so it's really not that surprising.

/H

Nice Wednesday

Breathe.

Breathe.

Breathe.

Don't forget to breathe...

Have a nice Wednesday, all of you.



/H

Final mixes done!

I have now heard the final mixes for the second Hilastherion album. It sounds great so far, and now it's time for mastering. More updates to come as soon as there's any more news.

/H

Music and Talent

Last Friday and Saturday there was an event here in Vaasa called "Musik och Talang" (which is Swedish for "Music and Talent"). There was a lot of workshops and stuff, and a lot of concerts took place. I didn't participate in any of the workshops, but I knew some of the musicians who were playing, so I wanted to go listen to a couple of them. On Friday three different bands played in a club called Doo Bop Club.

The first band was Icons of Elegance. Their bass player, Anssi Växby, was my first bass teacher back in the days when I started playing. During their set, I couldn't sit still in my chair. I did sit in my chair, but I wasn't still for a second. Their sound is influenced by the sixties, but it's still fresh.



The second band was Jerry Lindqvist and The Grace. Back in the days when I studied music, I shared an appartment with their drummer, Sam Fröjdö. Soulmates. Nothing more to say, really. Oh, the band...? Their sound is influenced by country, but with a Fenno-Swedish twist. They were better than I expected.



The third band was The Northern Governors. I had never heard of this band before, but they were a pleasant surprise. What a band! Funky, groovy and tight. By the end of their set I was dancing like crazy, and I wasn't alone.



All in all, an awesome night out with good friends. I couldn't have asked for more.

/H

Hilastherion update

This morning I noticed that we had got the "final" mixes for the upcoming Hilastherion album. So now I'm listening to all the tracks to get a better idea of the sound. And of course, there might still be small changes if there's anything wrong with any of these mixes. So far this sounds really sweet, I'm excited!

/H

Countdown

It's been a while since I posted anything Rush related here. Now, I know there are a lot of people who like Rush, but don't like their song Countdown. I'm not one of them. I love listening to it when my working week approaches the end, as it does right now. I love how it builds up towards the end of the song. Gets me in a good mood every time. Have a great weekend, everyone!



/H

Soon enough

I think the final piece in the Hilastherion album puzzle fell in place today. I won't say anything more at this point, all shall be revealed soon enough. Here's some music while you're waiting.



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A little bit of soul

Today is a good day for some soul music. A good friend of mine plays in a band called Project Soul, and they played this on a local radio station last Tuesday. An old classic, but still a great song.



I love soul music, there are some absolutely awesome basslines in soul. In fact, even though I mostly listen to metal and rock, my favourite bass players are soul bass players.

/H

Languages

I thought I'd mention that although I write my blog posts in English, you're more than welcome to comment in Swedish and Finnish. Of course you can try commenting in other languages as well, but I reserve the right to remove all comments I cannot understand.

I'd love to learn more languages, I speak enough German to order food or to avoid being sold as a slave, but not much more than that. I understand some Spanish, but not enough to speak it myself. The way I see it, languages are the key to understanding people (d'uh!). But not just in the way that you can understand the actual words, I think you can understand a bit more about your mother tongue at the same time. And you might also earn some respect if you only know a little but try to speak the language anyway. I know that it's true, because it's happened to me a few times.

Right,that's about it, now we need some music. This is not the kind of music I normally listen to, but The Prodigy is the exception that confirms the rule. This is the song Breathe.



/H

Batman

Yesterday I went to see The Dark Knight Rises together with my two sons and my brother-in-law. It was a great movie. Not as good as The Dark Knight, but that one's hard to beat, Heath Ledger is so absolutely amazing as the Joker. Anyway, while watching it, I realised that I just have to try making a Bane mask. Yes, I know there are Bane masks out there to buy, but I bet it's a lot cheaper to make one yourself. Not that I think I'll ever be able to use it anywhere, but I want to try anyway.

There was one scene in the movie that I kind of anticipated before it happened. And it wasn't because anyone had told me anything about this movie, it was because I had read a copy of a Batman magazine when I was a kid. You see, reading comics can come in handy later in life. I don't want to spoil for anyone who might read this blog, and hasn't seen the movie yet, but it has to do with Ra's al Ghul.

And of course, we need some music to get through this day. Here's one I must have heard a thousand times, but it suddenly really clicked last week. This song is awesome, it's Action de Grâce by The Hellacopters.



/H

Time for a short update

It's been waaay too long since I posted here. Still enjoying Clockwork Angels. I still haven't been able to print my tickets for Rush' O2 Arena gig in London. I'm not really worried yet, but I'm wondering what the problem is. Well, as long as I can print the tickets before May 2013, I'm ok with that. We still have to find plane tickets and some place to stay, but I'm sure we will. After all, it's not the first time I'll be going to London, and this time I should be able to ask some advice from my TNMS mates.



Almost all the recordings for the upcoming Hilastherion album are done now. I think there are some spoken parts that still need to be recorded, but that should be it. We started practicing again after a summer break, and it went better than I expected. Of course I didn't nail all the parts, but at least I remembered most of them. And some parts I even remembered better than I thought I would. This is going to be a great album.

There's also a pretty big Larp coming up next summer. Dark Paths' End is Eloria's 10th anniversary Larp. Eloria is a Swedish-language Role-playing association, where I'm a member. I'm really looking forward to this Larp, it's not only for one evening or even for one day. It starts on a Thursday with preparations and prebrief, the actual Larp is on Friday and Saturday, and it ends on Sunday with a debrief and disassembling the camp and everything around it. Actually, preparations have already begun, and will go on all the way until the Larp takes place. There will be a lot of different workshops building up to this Larp.

/H

Vaasa Night of the Arts 2012

Last night I went to the "Night of the Arts" in my hometown Vaasa. It was absolutely brilliant! I got a few tips on genealogy, I saw a little demonstration of medieval fencing by Vaasan Miekkailijat. My very good friends, the wonderful Ulvens döttrar performed (together with two additional musicians, both of them also good friends of mine), a "fire dance group" Titinki tulitanssiryhmä performed some beautiful fire dance routines, and finally another good friend of mine (and guitarist in one of my current bands) performed with another of his bands (Divine) on a stage in the town square. Most of this in excellent company, a bunch of good friends from the Fenno-Swedish Role-playing association Eloria. By far the best Night of the Arts ever for me. And very inspiring too, I got a few ideas I really want to try. If any of these ideas should work out, I'll be sure to tell you more about it later.

/H

Hilastherion

The second part of my vacation starts officially tomorrow. This year I decided to take two weeks vacation, work for one week and continue my vacation two more weeks. It's worked fine for me, I feel great. And I feel even better after my recording session last Friday. I recorded some clean vocals for Hilastherion's second album. Here's a YouTube clip with some samples from the drum recordings.

This album is going to be better than the previous one. And I'm not saying that just because I joined the band only after the first album, I'm saying it because it's a fact. However, the first album is really good too. On this page you can listen to some samples of it. If you happen to like it and would like a copy, you can buy it here.

Well, that's enough self advertising for today. Updates will follow as soon as there is anything to update.

/H

Vacation coming up

Only a couple of days left now, then I'm off on vacation. Naturally, I'm not going to spend a lot of time online. I have better things to do, like reading, swimming and thinning a little in the forest at our summer cottage. And what could be a better setup for a Rush video? Here's The Trees.



Enjoy! I'll be back some time in August.

/H

TNMS

I would like to take this opportunity to mention one of my favourite places on the entire web: TNMS - The National Midday Sun, the home for European Rush fans. I have been a member on this site since 2004, and it has brought me lots of joy and interesting discussions through all these years. The atmosphere is just how I like it, the tone can be a bit harsh from time to time, but if you just remember not to take comments and/or posts to seriously you'll be just fine. It was through this forum that I managed to get 7th row seats at Rush concert in Stockholm in 2004. So if you live in Europe and you like Rush and a bit of banter, come join the fun.

/H

Other music

I listen to almost any kind of music, as long as it's good. But there's one genre that I can't stand, and that's the Swedish "dansbandsmusik". I'm not even going to soil my blog by posting any more about it here.

But lately, apart from the obvious listening to the new Rush album, I've been exploring older music. And I don't mean older as in 70s or 80s, I mean even all the way back to the 20s and 30s. Early blues, jazz and all that stuff. And along the way, I have found other stuff that I've really enjoyed. Some of it has been bands that I've already heard, some of it bands that I've only heard of, and the rest has been entirely new stuff for me. For example, yesterday I realised that I've never really explored Rockabilly, even though I like Stray Cats. So now I've started with them and I'm working my way into the happy world of Rockabilly, Psychobilly and that sort of music. One of the first interesting acquaintances i came across was Reverend Horton Heat.

So here we go with one of the songs I've listened to lately:



/H

O2 - May 2013!

I'm excited, last night I bought the tickets for Rush concert at O2 Arena in London May 2013. That's the biggest part of the puzzle done! The rest should be a piece of cake. Plane tickets and some place to stay over that particular weekend should be much easier to arrange. Well, now it's time for some breakfast.

/H

Comparing

I've been meaning to post something in here for a couple of days now, but I never seem to come around to actually doing it. Since my last post I've been listening a lot to Clockwork Angels. I posted on TNMS (The National Midday Sun - The Home for European Rush Fans) that CA is their best album since Hold Your Fire, and yesterday I decided I had to compare the two. When I first got into Rush, I wasn't too keen on their output in the 80s. I thought everything before Moving Pictures was great, but I couldn't see what was so great about Signals, Grace Under Pressure, Power Windows and Hold Your Fire. Since then I've discovered so much in those albums, that I love them too. And that's one of the reasons why I love Rush. There's just so much to explore and discover. But at the same time, this means that these albums are nowhere near safe from upcoming contenders like CA.

Anyway, back to my comparison. Before I posted that CA is their best album since HYF, I didn't compare it with the albums in between the two, since it was so clear to me that CA was better than those six albums (Presto, Roll the Bones, Counterparts, Test For Echo, Vapour Trails and Snakes & Arrows). And I stick by that opinion without comparing them. But HYF is such a strong album that I had to draw the line there. Then I started thinking, what if it's even better than HYF? So, yesterday I finally compared them. And I came to the conclusion that Hold Your Fire wins, for now. I prefer the sound on CA, and CA rocks harder, but so far the songs on HYF are still slightly stronger on the whole. I'm not too sure I'll prefer HYF in the long run though...

/H

On second thought...

Change of plans...I've skipped my planned playlist for this week, in favour of something brand new instead. And what a stunner the new album is! So far I'm loving it, and I've noticed that I even enjoy Caravan and BU2B more than I've done when listening the single versions. Someone said that the album versions are remastered, it wouldn't surprise me if they are.

Anyway, I haven't been this excited about an album since the first time I heard Exit...Stage Left (My first contact with Rush, and a live album that will always have a special place in my heart.). Sure, it isn't old Rush, but it's new and revitalised Rush. They sound like they're having fun playing. In my book, that's a good thing.

I'm really looking forward to the tour next year!

/H

Marathon

Although Rush is my favourite band of all times, I don't always listen to Rush. My listening seems to go in cycles. Sometimes I listen very little, sometimes very much. With the upcoming album release approaching, I tend to listen more. Last time they released an album I decided to do a Rush marathon a few times before the album was released. So I listened to all the albums (including their first single) in chronological order. Now I'm happy to say that I can do the same thing again, adding S&A + their latest single to the playlist.

So, today I'm doing the First single, Rush, CoS, FbN and 2112, on Tuesday it's AFtK, Hemispheres, PeW and MP, on Wednesday Signals, GuP, PoW and HYF. Thursday means Presto, RtB, Cp and TfE, and on Friday I'll do VT, S&A and the Caravan/BU2B single. Then, this coming weekend I can do them all without interruption. But no Live albums, and certainly no Feedback.

/H

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog, where I'll be posting mostly about the mighty Canadian Power Trio RUSH, but also about other music. Music is my passion in life, and my favourite band by far is Rush. If you're a Rush fan, you probably already know that they are touring Europe in 2013.

I've been a Rush fan since about 1991, but I didn't get to see them play live until 2004, in Stockholm, at the "Penultimate Show at the Globe" on their R30 tour. I thought that it might be their final tour ever, so I knew right away that I had to go see them as soon as I found out that they were touring Europe. That time I was very lucky to find out about the tour well before it started, so I learned through TNMS that there was a password for the pre-sale tickets. Knowing this, I was able to get a ticket for the 7th row on Alex's side, a very good seat for a newbie. And during the first half of the show, I went all the way up to the stage, along with a lot of the other fans in the first few rows. Before the second half of the show, the arena security guys came and told everyone that they had to stay in their own seats. But I didn't mind that, the first half of the show had already made my day. And the ferry trip from Stockholm to Turku the following day was great fun, the ferry was filled with Finnish Rush fans.

In 2007 they toured Europe again, this time I had already been a TNMS member for a few years, so I knew some of the other Finnish TNMS members in person (and some of the Swedes as well). I was thrilled to learn that they were coming to Helsinki, so I talked to some of my friends and fellow Rush fans and I got seats for all of us at once. Not as good seats as in 2004, but good enough for me. Through TNMS, we had decided to do a pre-gig meet in one of the most original restaurants in Helsinki, Zetor. I made a reservation way before the gig, to make sure we had somewhere to meet up, and we even got our own little room to sit in and talk. Even a few forum members from the British isles came to that pre-gig meet. This pre-gig meet was possibly even more fun than the gig itself. I got to meet a whole bunch of other Rush fans. I still dream of organising a Finnish Rush convention, but that's another story.

I'm planning on going to the O2 arena in London in 2013 to see them play live on my birthday. That should make a memorable birthday, don't you think?

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/H