Metal Reviews

...Eurovision Songcontest



Norwegian black metal band KEEP OF KALESSIN is one of the artists who are competing to represent Norway in next year's Eurovision Song Contest.

On Tuesday (December 1), KEEP OF KALESSIN guitarist and songwriter Obsidian C (real name: Arnt Grønbech) told the Norwegian TV show "Lydverket" that he's looking forward to performing the song "The Dragon Tower" alongside Norwegian pop artists and mainstream songwriters.

"I read an interview with Per Sundnes (host of the Norwegian Eurovision finals) where he said they wanted darker and harder songs for the Norwegian Eurovision finals," he said. "At the same time, we had made a song with a catchy chorus, so I just sent it to them."

On being called sellout:

Obsidian: "I think we are gonna get some reactions from the black metal scene, and lose some credibility. Some people, at least, will call us sellouts, but people saying those things are usually people who have an underground band themselves but make a living from selling hot dogs at a gas station. I think it's less of a sellout to play in the Eurovision than to sell hot dogs."

Finnish rock band LORDI won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2006 with the song "Hard Rock Hallelujah". Obsidian C doesn't believe KEEP OF KALESSIN will achieve the same type of sucess in the competition, but he's looking forward to getting more mainstream attention for the band.

"The song might be a little too extreme for us to win, but hard rock has performed well in the Eurovision earlier, so we'll just have to wait and see," he said. "The song will at least give us a little more attention with a broad audience back here in Norway."

Leif Åge Reme, executive producer of the Norwegian Eurovision Song Contest finals, says that the TV show did not ask KEEP OF KALESSIN to take part in the competiton for publicity. "Eurovision is a songwriting contest that reflects the type of songs that are being written around the country, even if that means it is not pop. We are seeking a broad selection of songwriters, and not the publicity."

A photo of Obsidian C talking to Asbjørn Slettemark on the set of the Norwegian show "Lydverket" can be viewed below (photo credit: Rashid Akrim)


http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuse ... =520762862

So....what do you guys think? Do you think they have a chance to win?

Yeah I caught that. Fucking ugly business.

sellouts



I don't have an underground band

Do you sell hot dogs? Because that would make you the real sell out.

Isn't Eurovision for cheesy gross Euro-pop drivel? wtf are they doing there?

I think it's hilarious, and i really wish them the best, hopefully they will win the regional contest and then scare the living shit out the pop lovers haha

Publicity grab, I guess, or just for a laugh. Probably a bit of both.

Yes it usually is, however Lordi won a few years back and paved the way for heavier acts to perform as well. Look at the bright side, at least the Euro-pop drivel people will get to know what real music is

Here is little preview of their upcoming album Reptillian

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Abt-1jp7F7Y

Sounds pretty good to me, it sounds more "black metal" than Kolossus.

How can it be bad that a pretty decent black metal band is doing Eurovision?

I'm down. Maybe more people will be turned on to black metal.

Yeah, that's the spirit, can't wait to hear the new song

Meh, whatever. Keep of Kalessin was always pretty lame anyway...

At least it's called "Eurovision Song Contest" and not "Eurovision Cheesy Lame Pop Bullshit Contest".

And I think it's time that some real bands are showing the other pop stuff where the hellhammer hangs!

Lordi basically won it with their image, and KoK will just get viewed as weird I suspect. One wonders what Sir T. Wogan would make it of. Still, "could this be the thin end of the wedge, heralding a change in consciousness, away from the values of the limp-wristed egalitarians and malevolent crypto-communists who engineered our profoundly dysfunctional and dystopian modernity?" as Supernal Records' blog wondered.

No they are not my good sir, i respectfully disagree..

Truly? Thou art indeed wrong mylady. These lads sound like goddamn melodeath to me.

No offense meant, I'm just usually very narrowminded about BM.

Armada was good, Kolossus was crap. We'll see how this new one is.

No offense taken, you are somewhat right though, they are not pure black metal and have elements of all types metal in their music, so i just call it what they call it...Epic Extreme Metal, and they certainly are not melodeath as far as i am concerned, have you listened to Armada or any of their previous stuff? Don't tell me that sounds like In Flames or some shit like that.