Jarmo's Blog

And They Say It's Spring Now...

2008-04-09T09:49:00.003+03:00

Oh boy, it's already 2008...

2008-02-22T11:13:00.003+02:00

It's been quiet here for a while, for various reasons... Let's just say I've been very busy (yeah, I know it's too easy an excuse). EToS has been busy writing new material for the sixth album and the material is.. Well, you'll hear it by the beginning of the next year. Meanwhile, enjoy the Tarot live DVD preview. They rule!

Tarot Live DVD Trailer (2008)

Am I Musically Open Minded? Part 2

2007-10-05T16:05:00.001+03:00

Am I Musically Open Minded?

2007-10-05T15:57:00.000+03:00

Problems with eternaltears.info

2007-09-21T09:30:00.000+03:00

The official website of EToS, Eternaltears.info, is down for a reason unknown to us. The provider is looking into it at the moment...

Something Completely Different.. The Corrs!

2007-07-04T22:17:00.000+03:00

A couple of parodies of the Corrs, done by some English eejits.. I mean highly respected British tv people :).

Intronaut

2007-07-01T23:45:00.000+03:00

When talking about post-metal bands, Intronaut is my current favourite. Although I must admit I don't know many bands from that particular scene... Let's just say they have things to offer to everyone from rock fans to death metal fans.

Ok, One More...

2007-05-20T23:19:00.000+03:00

And this isn't Ziltoid this time.. Kamelot. Ghost Opera.

EToS & Wikipedia...

2007-05-20T13:35:00.001+03:00

I've been trying to update the EToS page on the English Wikipedia. I've been trying to add links (i.e. references) to the official EToS biography.. But no.

What's the reason for my frustration? Well, as you can see from the photo, there are some people rejecting my changes when I try to explain (with references) that we've never really played black metal. I can agree with the gothic metal thing, we did have some gothic metal influences on AVAAW and maybe even on CB. I agree we played some sort of thrash metal on our demos.. But not on the EToS demos but on the pre-EToS demos - on the two EToS demos we played melodic death metal (similar to what bands in Gothenburg played and also similar to Sentenced's North from Here and Amorphis' Tales from the 1000 Lakes).

What's so funny and frustrating about this? Well, I bet virtually nobody has heard the demos we made before 'Bard's Burial'... What do people say on the discussion page of the EToS Wikipedia page? Well, here we go, with my comments...

1. Industrial (D.W.N) (Summer 1993. Nope, this is pure thrash metal with no vocals... As a matter of fact, I really regret calling this demo a demo as this "demo tape" was only a my personal effort to record some of my old thrash metal songs as we knew our next demo tape was going to be something completely different from thrash metal...)

2. Industrial metal (Beyond the Fantasy) (October 1993. "Beyond the Fantasy" was the name of the demo, the name of the band was "M.D.C."... What? Industrial metal?!? Have you ever even heard the demo? I would call this our "Gothic and Shades of God era Paradise Lost meets basic death metal meets" demo. We were really hugely influenced by bands such as Death and Paradise Lost at that time.)

3. death metal/doom metal (demos under the name of Andromeda) (From April 1992 to January 1993. Nope, Andromeda was really thrash metal combined with some death/doom metal. Andromeda was really our first serious metal band. And we started from what come out naturally: thrash metal with slight Paradise Lost influences...)

4. Death metal (The Seven Goddesses of Frost) (Spring 1994. The first demo tape under the name of E.T.o.S. Melodic death metal and basic death metal with some black metal influences. 'The Endless Streams of Time' is one of the songs with the most black metal influences, it's kinda like Death meets Dissection and Sentenced's 'My Sky Is Darker than Thine'.)

5. Folk-influenced Melodic black metal (Bard's Burial and Sinner's Serenade) (October 1994 and summer 1996. Folk metal influenced? Somewhat, yes. Melodic? Definitely. Black metal? No. The only thing that can remind people of black metal are the vocals.. But well, Dark Tranquillity had very high-pitched vocals ten to fifteen years ago, so should they be called melodic black metal, too? )

I know EToS has made experiments with different styles on the demos and albums.. People have different opinions. Perhaps I should just accept that some people think we've been a black metal band...

Anyway, to conclude this blog entry, here's a short summary of the pre-EToS projects and the first years of EToS (based on my personal opinions):

Andromeda (1992-1993): Thrash metal with death/doom influences - one demo "The Fourth Dimension". DWN (summer 1993): thrash metal (and as I already told, this is not really a demo). MDC (autumn 1993) - one demo "Beyond the Fantasy": doom/death metal. EToS (1994-1996): melodic death metal with some folk metal influences.

Ziltoid Says: 'MySpace' to 'OurSpace'!

2007-05-20T11:19:00.000+03:00

How Underground Is Metal in the West?

2007-05-19T19:01:00.000+03:00

The Danish documentary "Forbidden Future" made me think. In the Western countries, it is so easy to form a metal band and to say "hey, we're real underground". Yeah, those bands may be very unknown to the people who listen to mainstream music only.

But... In many countries, such as Iran, things are a bit different. In those countries, metal is really underground. You can get into trouble just by having a long hair, and it doesn't help to say "well, Muhammad had a long hair too" (as well as Jesus and some other men some people call prophets). All the metal shows have to take place in a sound-proof house just in case somebody hears the noise i.e. the music. And so on and so on...

Well, to make it more concrete, here's an example. In the Western countries, a policeman bumps into a metal band and says: "Although I don't understand your music, playing in a band is a good hobby, it keeps you out of trouble, I suppose". In Iran, a policeman bumps into a metal band and the result: at least some police interrogation, perhaps even getting all the members in a prison.

I can only hope I don't sound too cheesy saying "it's music that unites all the nations of the world". What? Too cheesy? Well, how about... Err.. "Music is the only international language"? Still too cheesy? Well, never mind...

P.S. Here is a review of the documentary "Forbidden Future" on which this blog entry is based...

If any of you guy's ever get a chance to see this doco ......please do well worth watching. Heres a review...

A shocking and revealing documentary on the subcultures in the Islamic Republic of Iran; Young Iranian artists expressing themselves through music, paintings and sport - thereby risking anything from public floggings to death. If discovered, the lucky ones affluent enough have the one option of buying their way back to freedom. The fundamentalist ruled country has, in its youth, a growing opposition. Islamic law rules their public lives. At home behind closed doors, in hiding and in total secrecy they can live a life of their own choosing.

Forbidden Future features the death metal band Scourge who are recording their first album. They've spent two years rehearsing in the sound-proofed basement of guitarist Alireza (27). They have never played in front of an audience, their music being strictly forbidden in the Islamic republic. Going public would incur risking imprisonment and the impounding of precious instruments. Singer and songwriter Al Azahri (26) has already spent two days in jail for growing his hair long. Forbidden Future follows Scourge through the recording sessions, and a video shoot in total secrecy, through to their highly illegal concert debut.

The female artist Bahare (26) is also the first female snowboarding champion of the Islamic republic. At Dizin, one of the world's top ski resorts, she unloads her aggression and gets a reprieve from the daily rigours of a young Muslim woman. At the vast ski-resorts on the outskirts of Tehran, European style environments have evolved. After-ski parties are held clandestinely with alcohol being served illegally and a wide variety of drugs available. If caught the party-goers risk up to 85 lashes in public floggings. Luckily the police officers are more than willing to accept bribes to look the other way.

The controversial painter Shahram (33) has been named the new Salman Rushdie. One of his illegal paintings, "Madonna's Orgasm", shows a woman masturbating while reading the Koran. Shahram has spent thirty days in jail for teaching art in classes where both sexes were present. During filming, Shahram receives the death-sentence for filming nude women at his studio outside Tehran. Forbidden Future shows a different picture from the one of uniform drabness created by western media. (From Denmark, in English and Farsi with English subtitles) It really is sad :cry: :cry:

Ziltoid the Omniscient is Here!

2007-05-02T22:59:00.001+03:00

Porcupine Tree: Fear of the Blank Planet (uncensored video)

2007-04-25T19:05:00.001+03:00

Fear of a Blank Planet

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April

2007-04-18T22:43:00.000+03:00

Yeah, I know, I've totally forgotten this little blog of mine for a long time. What can I say, any excuses? Well, nope.

Well, if you want some hear (i.e. read) some music-related news, check out my home studio page. I've got some new equipment, y'know..

P.S. Now playing: Fear of a Blank Planet by Porcupine Tree.

February!

2007-02-13T09:41:00.000+02:00

It's February already. It's weird how fast time flies. One day you wake up and it's Christmas morning and the next day it's already almost Valentine's Day.

No matter how ridiculous the quick movement of time feels like, it's still time to start writing new material for my bands. I'm thinking of bying a new computer and this time it'd be a laptop, probably... Asus G1? The laptop should be good for two things: recording and mixing music and playing some games. G1 is not bad for either things, even though it has a slow, 5400 rpm hard disk (but that can be solved by getting a faster external hard drive).

But that's just planning... I've got time.

New Year (Viking Metal pt. III)

2007-01-11T13:13:00.000+02:00

The year of 2007 is finally here. What's different compared to 2006? Well, nothing except the weather. The weather in Finland has been extremely odd this winter. There are short, random seasons of below-zero temperatures and some random snowstorms but that's it. When these events are over, there is hardly any snow at all. Check out the Finnish Meteorological Institute website for more details.

What about the EToS' New Year's gig? It was nice to play on stage after 5½ years, and as a matter of fact, it was our first indoors live show since November 2000. Personally, I found out I have far too many cables, including MIDI cables. Well, I'll have several weeks to think about rationalizing the live gear as the next EToS gig is in Turku, Finland in late February.

As it's a whole new year and thus, a fresh start, it's time to start writing new material for my bands. I'd like the EToS songs to be more extreme, heavier.. I mean I personally think the heavier and more extreme songs should be heavier and more extreme than ever before. And also, the softer and more athmospheric songs should be softer and more athmospheric than on any of our previous albums. I think being extremely diverse (i.e. having many different kinds of songs) has always been one of the corner stones of the music of EToS. I don't know if we have always succeeded in this but next time, I think we're going to succeed, that's for sure.

And once again, I'll end my post by writing something about the connection between EToS and Viking Metal. It turned out that a song ("Lost Rune of Thunder") on our latest album is somewhat related to Vikings and the Viking Age. Anyway, this topic is getting old as people removed us from the Wikipedia's "List of Viking Metal Bands" page. Which, I suppose, is a proof of us not being Viking Metal, right? :)

Viking Metal pt. 2

2006-11-27T10:33:00.000+02:00

Now that I've taken a look at the old EToS lyrics, I found a reference to Valhalla in "Bard's Burial". And Valhalla is Odin's Hall in Old Norse mythology. So, one song is apparently enough to categorize EToS as "Viking metal".

Anyway, this week I'm going to learn by myself how to mix drums properly. If you have a natural kick drum sound, which effects should be used to make it sound good? And that's not enough, it should also be loud&clear among the other instruments, too. I think I know something about recording instruments properly. But there's just so much to learn about mixing all the instruments together. It's not just about making separate instruments sound as good as possible, it's about making them sound as good as possible when playing them together.

Viking Metal!

2006-11-22T13:48:00.000+02:00

Over the years, Eternal Tears of Sorrow has been categorized under dozens of different genres. "Melodic death metal" has always been the most common one, with occasional "gothic metal", "power metal", "symphonic metal" and even "black metal".

And now, we've finally been categorized as "viking metal".

From the Wikipedia page: "While viking metal cannot technically be categorised as a specific sub-genre with unique musical aspects, it does share similar themes and values. Common among some viking metal is a reverence for pagan Germanic, or Viking culture, as well as a rejection of contemporary Christianity, and disdain of the Christianisation of Northern Europe in favour of a pre-Christian, Pagan world. Thus, most viking metal bands are native Scandinavians and Germans, and often associate themselves with pagan and �?satrú belief. The music is often highly romanticised and epic in composition similar to Norse folklore itself, and creates an atmosphere rich both in Germanic heroic and metal music tradition."

Has EToS ever had pagan, Viking or even anti-Christian themes? Nope. As a band, we don't want to represent any ideologies, no matter if they are religious, political or other ideologies. We do have some songs about religions (or ideologies in general) but they have more to do with the fact that ideologies are often used as instruments of power. Viking themes? Well, I can't find a Viking related theme anywhere in our songs. Tell me if you do.

"Blood of Faith Stains My Hands" is more or less a song about someone who takes religion as a tool for his personal revenge. "My God, the Evil Wind" is a song who travels across a sea, to the pagan land, just to see the people in the far land have the same god as the protagonist.

But yes, sometimes (a long while ago) we had some folk influences. And yes, sometimes our songs tend to be a bit epical. But that's not enough to become a Viking Metal band, is it?

EU Sabotaging My Home Studio!

2006-11-15T11:35:00.000+02:00

This week, I tried to order an ARMD MIDI converter by Tech21 from a online music store. Couldn't do it as a salesman emailed me "Due to new RoHS regulations by the European Union, importing this device to our country is not legal anymore".

WTF? Do the EU bureaucrats have a conspiracy against my home studio? You know, this MIDI converter would reduce the number of the guitar food pedals (at the rehearsal place and gig venues) from three to two: TC Electronic G-Minor and Korg DT-10. And G-Minor would control everything: the amp, the effect processor. (And in my home studio, it would even control my good ol' Behringer V-Amp Pro).

Apparently, it's not a conspiracy. It just seems that Tech 21 have used some lead with the ARMD thingie. Well, the search goes on, I'm still trying to get one as it would make my life so much easier.

6½ weeks until the first EToS gig since summer 2001. Has it really been 5½ years since we got on the stage the last time?

Snow, Equipment, Live Shows

2006-11-08T16:31:00.000+02:00

It's the second week of November, and we've already got 20 centimeters (8 inches) of snow. Which is kinda nice, except for the weather being pretty damn cold and the sun hardly appearing from 8 to 4 anymore. Well, that's life in Northern Finland and you just have to adapt to it.

Eternal Tears of Sorrow is finally breaking the 66-month long break from live shows, which means (or has already meant) two things to me: 1. I must have rehearsed several old (pre-BTBS) songs by myself and with the band and 2. I must have bought some new equipment.

Buying new equipment has been an interesting and expensive ride. For a while, I thought I could survive with my Ibanez & Tech21 amp. Technically speaking, I just might have survived without any "rock polices" throwing tomates at me during the gig. But.. I just needed some new equipment...

Rocktron Xpression is an effects processor and not even one of the worst ones. It's quite similar to G-Major by TC Electronic.

I've got some other nice devices, too, but I don't want to bore you with all this technical babble... Let's just say I'm happy with my current gear. Now. Yet. Tomorrow could be a different thing.

What American accent do you have?

2006-11-06T23:05:00.000+02:00

Quite right, except for the fact that my English accent is British English, somewhere between Received Pronunciation and Estuary English. The six weeks in Seattle wasn't enough to change my accent...

Word of the Day: Sisu

2006-10-21T13:44:00.000+03:00

"Sisu is a Finnish term that could be roughly translated into English as strength of will, determination, perseverance, and acting rationally in the face of adversity."

10½ weeks...

2006-10-19T20:17:00.000+03:00

...until 2007 is here! Don't ask me why I'm so interested in the New Year's Eve. Or.. Don't ask me yet...

Some Kind of Monster

2006-09-21T12:22:00.000+03:00

Watched Some Kind of Monster once again, this time on the Finnish tv channel TV2). It's a documentary that makes you think. Not only as a person who once was a fan but also as a musician and a band member.

If you play in a band for a long time, the band becames 'some kind of monster'. It's a tag or a burden you carry with you for the rest of your life. The band being 'SKoM' is not a good or a bad thing as such. EToS split up in 2003 because of the band having become an evil monster, and we came back last year because we wanted it to be a nice monster. And we succeeded, and even without a therapist! :) I could dare to go far enough to say the whole process for our latest album was the most rewarding process since 'Bard's Burial', our first studio demo recorded almost 12 years ago.

EToS is still a bunch of control freaks but nowadays we're more like a bunch of relaxed control freaks. Could it be that we've finally become adults? Naaaaah... I feel we're still the same band that started twelve (or fifteen) years ago. What matters is writing and recording new music. Actually, I'm surprised to see that we still feel as excited about writing new material as five, ten or even fifteen years ago. One of our goals has always been expanding our musical barriers. So, the next album is going to be different from all the previous albums. (This shouldn't surprise anyone anymore, right?) It could be heavier and more extreme. Perhaps. Maybe. Dunno.

Any real EToS related news? Well, the Japanese version of 'BTBS' is going to be released in a few weeks. It doesn't contain any bonus songs but an extended version of the studio footage video we've released on our website. Also, a lot of people have asked us about live shows. As the gigging process is still at the planning stage, I can't give out any details. All I can say that there will definitely be gigs in the future.

September

2006-09-08T10:52:00.000+03:00

Yes, my friends, it's September, which (in North Finland) means that autumn's arrived. Autumn means a lot of rain, which is good as we didn't practically get any rain during the summer here in the Oulu area. Rain means mushrooms and getting all your clothes wet when walking or cycling down the street.

For me, autumn also means (finally) starting to finish my studies. The next year (or two, in fact) are going to be tough for me. Tough but rewarding.

And music... Well, the Tech21 amp has been superb. There's absolutely nothing to complain about, except for the lack of some effect pedals which is not the amp's fault :). The amp sounds good at home, and I bet it sounds good at the rehearsal place, too.

Getting back to analogue amps from digital amps has definitely been the right choice. You know, all digital amps are always a bit slow, there's always a X millisecond lag between playing your riff and hearing it from your speaker. With analogue amps, there is no such lag. And the sound is better, too, no matter how expensive your digital amp is.

So, fellows, "digital" isn't the answer to all questions. It's just a shortcut that makes some things easier.