Hollywood Metal Episode 92 (audio)

Sunday April 25 was the day of the FINNTOLL – MOONSORROW – SWALLOW THE SUN show in Hollywood so it was only fitting to open the show with those bands. I’ve made it know before that MOONSORROW is one of my top tier bands but now I’m making it clear that I’m putting them second on the list behind ENSIFERUM and bumping ELVENKING to 3rd since they have deviated from their early power/folk albums I fell in love with. Perhaps if they get back I will re-evaluate this decision but for now MOONSORROW really strikes a chord with me. Their music is so epic that each song deserves an accompanying video. “Unohduksen Lapsi” was the song selected for today. SWALLOW THE SUN, also from Finland, is another band steadily moving up on the overall list. These guys combine melodic death with doom in a way that gives the songs a really thick emotional feel to them while retaining the MDM riffs that make you want to bang your head. “These Woods Breathe Evil” is the track I selected. Side note: Kai Hahto is drumming with SWALLOW THE SUN during the WINTERSUN interim. Hopefully some news regarding ‘Time’ will surface during the tour. The headliners for Sunday were FINNTROLL. Their new album 2010 Nifelvind is quality. I had trouble selecting the best track so I flipped a coin and went with “Drap”. Videos of this show can be found on my youtube channel. When Emilio Hochet from BLOODSTEEL is on the show it can only mean one thing…. power metal. Thus we closed the show with a few mutual selections from his signature genre. DARK MOOR “In the Heart of Stone”, DRAGONLAND “Ride for Glory” and VIRGIN STEELE “Kingdom of the Fearless (The Destruction of Troy)” closed the show. DRAGONLAND owes us a release that they announced for September 29th 2009…. not sure what’s going on there but no doubt it probably rules.