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Birmingham - Home of Metal (and a great exhibition about this fact)

2011-08-21T18:51:00.002+01:00

On Wednesday I took advantage of finishing work early to finally transport my stumpy legs to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery’s Gas Hall and the museum’s ‘Home of Metal’ exhibition. This exhibition has now been going on for over 2 months and it is frankly shameful that I haven’t checked it out until now. If you are, for whatever perverse reason, actually reading this blog and have not yet been yourself, then that is equally outrageous, and I can only encourage you to shift your rear immediately and go and visit ‘Home of Metal’ yourself. It is undoubtedly as good as any temporary museum exhibition I have ever been to, and does the glorious city that it resides in and the music of heavy metal proud.

I have never seen such an extensive dedication to metal in society’s mainstream before, and my hat must go off to Birmingham City Council for having the courage to host this exhibition and for doing it so well. The temporary shows at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery usually are unique in subject matter, thoroughly well done (for instance, the excellent ‘Equiano’ exhibition a few years back), and show an appreciation for the different people and cultures which make up this city in a way that perhaps comes as a bit of a surprise from Birmingham City Council. In fact, I will take this opportunity to pay homage to the general awesomeness of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery; a wonderful building which houses a stirring variety of fascinating exhibitions. Given Birmingham’s relative paucity of museums, it is scandalous that the Waterhall section of the museum is now closed and no longer used for exhibitions as a result of the cuts, leaving a beautiful space (which has in the past had some superb exhibits of its own) wasting away.

But anyway, what of ‘Home of Metal’? I for one felt absolutely chuffed when I discovered that this exhibition would be taking place. Metal fans frequently bemoan the lack of recognition that is given to this massively popular style of music, which has spawned more subgenres than you could lob a ‘Flying V’ guitar at and is not just a genre but a culture, a way of life. Most other major musical styles at least get some mention in the mainstream media from time to time but not metal; its fans are sneered at and its music derided. This exhibition may just represent the beginnings of redressing this injustice. Yet, let’s be honest, we metalheads secretly quite like this seclusion. Indeed, a central aspect of metal is the fact that it does not conform to the mainstream, and that it is perceived as extreme and abrasive. It’s probably in no small part thanks to its segregation that metal has such a close community of incomparably passionate and loyal fans. Those who don’t feel like they belong in society and its more accessible subcultures and musical styles can be given a home within metal, a sanctuary from the rest of the world, an outlet, a reason to live even. Metal was my religion during my formative years and it offered all the social benefits that religion does during those troublesome years of pubescence. In fact, it still does!

With this in mind, whilst metalheads like to point out the superiority of their music to other musical styles and lament the injustice of its lack of recognition, we also privately loathe moments when it actually does get a morsel of coverage in the mainstream media. I fondly remember when the craze for ‘nu-metal’ developed at the end of last century and the beginning of the new one, and feeling pretty bloody peeved that my beloved bands were now creating a frenzy among people who were listening to cheesy dance music a few months earlier and who would move onto something else when the next fad came along. At the time I didn’t contemplate the fact that I too was one of those people. I too listened to dance music and after stealing my brother’s Korn hoodie (I am even ashamed to admit that I used to mock my brother’s taste in music and, bizarrely, call him a ‘punk’) and I too had made a sudden transformation into a ‘metalhead’. For many people it was a fad and soon enough they would move on. For others, they were never quite able to budge beyond the ‘nu-metal’ phase and still listen to the pretty substandard bands who continue playing that stuff (I can’t believe Papa Roach are still around!). But for some reason I, like many others, was sucked into the genre and I wouldn’t be surprised if it never stopped setting my pulse race unlike any other form of music.

However, I digress. The point is, metalheads constantly grumble about the lack of awareness paid to the genre, but do exactly the same thing when it does get some attention, or when a metal band starts to become remotely popular outside of ‘the scene’. Let’s face it, we’ve all had that feeling of contempt when a friend finds about a band who you had discovered some months before, and prided yourself on being the only person in a thousand mile radius who had heard of them. However the reality is that this balance with the rest of society (and when it comes to the really underground bands, with fellow metalheads) between accessibility and separation is actually pretty perfect and it’s one of the things that makes metal so great. So what would this mean for a major exhibition being held about the genre in the biggest museum in Britain’s second city?

I’m pleased to report that, in my opinion, the exhibition got it just right. A lot of effort was clearly put into pleasing both hardcore fans and those unfamiliar with the genre. ‘Home of Metal’ seemed to me to have something for everyone, offering an interesting and entertaining introduction to the music and the subculture behind metal for the non-metalheads. It is certain to have spread a bit more understanding about this most misunderstood of styles among Brummies and beyond. However, it also succeeds in being a veritable haven for fans, with all sorts of fascinating rarities and memorabilia (exactly the kind of thing which makes metalheads tick) providing hours of patient, joyous inspection – I looked around the exhibition and saw metalheads in their element all around me. The exhibition’s curators had clearly gone to a lot of trouble to gather an impressive collection of obscure and intriguing pieces of metal history big and small, and that effort would not go unappreciated by fans.

The exhibition took on a chronological format, with a theme of social and local history maintained throughout. It begins by examining the context of metal’s beginnings, explaining its roots in the grim industrial heartlands of Britain and its connection to that industry, not least with its name, first used in Steppenwolf’s ‘Born to Be Wild’ and relating to that most vital of industrial materials. Many a metal band conjures up exactly the kind of imagery and sounds that come to mind when one thinks about heavy industry and metalworks, and it was thus no coincidence that so much manufacturing was based in the West Midlands. It was from industrially-based working class communities that bands like Black Sabbath came, and the next section of the exhibition focused on the growth of these legends from Brum, the originators of heavy metal (who are rumoured to be reuniting once more, over 40 years after releasing their first album), as well as how metal developed as a style. This started with a mock-up of Ozzy Osbourne’s family living room at the time, and in the next area I could not help but gawp at the massive, beautiful reproductions of each of Sabbath’s first three album covers, with each record playing overhead as I shuffled along in awe. The beginnings of Judas Priest, from West Bromwich, were traced next, and by this point it really starts to dawn on you just how important Birmingham and the Black Country was in the development of heavy metal, and I felt a sting of pride for my adopted hometown.

Following this there was a room devoted to the value of the fans, featuring some personal stories and examples of some impressive record and merchandise collections. I felt that the whole exhibition did an excellent job of depicting with some poignancy the perspectives of metalheads themselves and emphasising the importance of the fans in this genre perhaps more than in any other. It also made the point that many of the metal fans from the 70’s and 80’s now have children of their own and are ‘passing the torch of heavy metal’ to their younger generations where the passion for this music lives on. I have always deliberated over whether it would be unethical, were I to have children, to force a strictly-metal musical diet upon them from an early age. However, the exhibition helped me to appreciate the erroneousness of such concerns and I shall go full steam ahead with this policy when there are young Burrell’s walking the earth. Brilliantly, there was also a TV documentary from the 80’s about the health risks related to headbanging being shown, no doubt when society was starting to work itself into something of a moral panic about the legions of long haired, leather-clad youth and their budding subculture.

Meanwhile, the next room was, quite literally, the centre stage of the exhibition, emulating the layout of a metal gig with mannequins donning some of Rob Halford and Tony Iommi’s genuine stage outfits (and with some great tunes banging out above throughout the whole exhibition, may I add) with a giant floating cross used on Black Sabbath tours in the 80’s looming behind them. There were amplified guitars and an electric drum kit for visitors to enjoy, all of which I avoided to prevent humiliation. I did see several children wreaking havoc on the instruments, which I thought was pretty awesome and a clever way to keep the younger generations entertained if they weren’t too bothered about exactly what Robert Plant was getting up to in Birmingham in the early 70’s.

The following room took on an entirely different feel and was perhaps my favourite part of the whole exhibition. We had now moved on to the early 80s and the growth of grindcore in Britain, thanks in no small part to the exploits of Brummies Napalm Death. The band’s confrontational, DIY imagery, groundbreaking at the time, was the major influence for the presentation of this section and it worked brilliantly (you can see photos of the whole exhibition here: www.flickr.com/photos/birminghammag/sets/72157627230150329/). A fascinating variety of artefacts such as hand written lyrics were displayed on pasting tables, charting the history of Napalm Death and grindcore music in Birmingham, as well as industrial metal originators Godflesh. The different vinyl editions of Napalm Death’s ‘Scum’ LP were presented in their array of colours and as you passed them, sitting on a wall with these records was a sensor which, as you passed it, played ‘You Suffer’ (apparently in the Guinness Book of Records as the shortest ever song). This caused more than one unsuspecting punter (including myself) to jump in surprise before quickly trying to recover their dignity and move on as if it was all entirely expected. On one television a video of one of Napalm Death’s renowned lived performances was being shown, whilst on another there were intriguing interviews with founding member Nic Bullen and Justin Broadrick, formerly of Napalm Death and Godflesh (there were equally absorbing interviews with Tony Iommi and Ozzy Osbourne in earlier parts of the exhibition). A central premise of the grindcore section was the economic and political atmosphere that Napalm Death grew up in and how it influenced them and their political outlook, something which has always been a crucial element and motivation of the band. ‘Home of Metal’ did not shy away from these beliefs and provided a well-articulated demonstration of the anti-capitalist ideas inherent in Napalm Death and the scene that they came from. The exhibition tied these ideas in effectively with the general undercurrent of rebellion that is present throughout heavy metal.

Unfortunately, in the final room I felt that the exhibition may have lost its way ever so slightly, with a bit of a half hearted tribute to Diamond Head, yet another legendary metal band from Birmingham who had a significant influence on the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Lining the walls were quotes from various metal musicians about Birmingham and the bands which have sprung forth from the depths of this bleak yet loveable city, which were nice to read but felt slightly directionless. That being said, there were yet more brilliant objects on display, including some quite comical Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest and Napalm Death toys and unorthodox merchandise from around the world (illustrating the extent of the the band’s popularity, and perhaps also counterpoising the rebelliousness of metal with its commercialism). There was also a somewhat impressive Home of Metal ‘Family Tree’ hanging from the wall (which you can view here: www.homeofmetal.com/the-project/family-tree/), illustrating the extent to which Birmingham and the bands featured in the exhibition have reached and influenced the genre of heavy metal. The very last exhibit was a case containing records of some of bands flying the flag of metal in Birmingham today, and I was pleased to see ‘The Pernicious Enigma’, an album by the extreme doom-metal band Esoteric, included here. Finally, there was, of course, a little merchandise shop - ‘Home of Metal’ knows its audience well.

Then it was over, and I returned to daylight and the cruelty of the real world, filled with people who have little affection for Black Sabbath, Judas Priest or Napalm Death. I really loved this exhibition, and it reinvigorated my appreciation for a genre of music which I have been obsessed with for more than a decade now. I genuinely think it would have had a similar effect on those new to metal too, in addition to other fans, most of whom probably leave the Gas Hall frothing at the mouth. The entry price is quite steep (£6 for an adult, £3 unwaged) for what is a relatively small exhibition, which may put off some of the general public. The exhibits must have cost a great deal to put together though and I was pleased to see it well patronised even on a Wednesday afternoon - and not just by those sporting long hair and black t-shirts either. I would certainly consider my experience of ‘Home of Metal’ £6 well spent, and I would really encourage anyone and everyone to get down to the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and check it out for yourselves before the 25^th of September when the exhibition will end.

I would say the it is well worth a look for any self-respecting metalhead in the country - and for those from further afield too, in fact. However like I say, it can also provide a very informative and enjoyable few hours for those interested in finding out more about heavy metal music and the social history surrounding it too. I think the exhibition could have benefitted from a bit more of an overarching narrative, particularly about the developments in the musical style of metal, to prevent a feeling of fragmentation from diminishing each of the brilliant exhibits, but it is of course always important for museums not to go overboard with text and risk boring their visitors. Overall, I would say that this is an extremely well put together, beautifully presented and enthralling exhibition about a very worthy subject. I couldn’t have enough admiration for the people behind the ‘Home of Metal’ project (who, I hasten to add, are holding other events throughout the West Midlands too) for coming up with this idea and doing such a good job of putting metal ‘on the map’ as it were. Not just that, but for emphasising precisely why the unique musical heritage of Birmingham and the Black Country is something the people of this area should feel immensely proud about, and something which should - and does - encourage respect for this oft-unappreciated, supposedly culturally barren part of the country. ‘Home of Metal’ enthusiastically stresses the importance of the West Midlands in the history of heavy metal, and it is absolutely right to do so. For my own part, I cannot underestimate my enthusiasm for their efforts, in bringing metal home.

www.homeofmetal.com

www.bmag.org.uk/events?id=893

A rant about the riots...

2011-08-12T01:20:00.003+01:00

Since every man and his dog have been talking about the riots which have engulfed England this week, I thought that I too would chip in with a few ill-judged words of my own. The events of the past few days have been nothing short of tragic. But then, rioting usually is. Lives, livelihoods and communities have all been destroyed by people within those same communities, by our young people. It could be argued that some of the targets of the rioting deserve less sympathy than others, such as the big high street chains or the police, whose killing of Mark Duggan appears to be at best, a PR cock-up, and at worst, an execution. However, most of the victims of this kind of rioting are always ordinary people, such as those who live in, work in, or own many of the places that have been attacked since Saturday.

With this in mind, the stance of some on the left, portraying the riots as some kind of justified resistance and romanticising the perpetrators, has been utterly moronic. Such arguments demonstrate a complete failure to relate to the perceptions of many ordinary people across Britain about the riots or to understand the widespread outrage about what has been happening. Far from being worthy of celebration, these destructive actions represent the total failure of the left, as well as the rest of politics, to offer any kind of constructive way for young people to channel their anger and alienation. They also illustrate the stark absence of a major left-wing political force and the lack of a voice for all the millions of disenfranchised people in contemporary Britain, as the Labour Party resorts to the same reactionary assumptions and macho-posturing as the Tories. The bubble in which these politicians live could not be more separate from the lives of those who have taken to looting and rioting in recent days.

However, emphasising how it is the rich, the bankers and the politicians that are the real looters and criminals, whilst absolutely true, is currently irrelevant and will not make people listen as they watch the devastation on their TV screens. These riots (though I shall carry on using it for want of a better word, does this term even apply to many of these ‘disturbances’?) lack an overt political element as with previous episodes of rioting in Britain, beyond the initial unrest over the shooting of Mark Duggan. The truth is, a great deal of what has been going on, certainly in my beloved Birmingham for example, has appeared more like opportunism than an outburst of anger, with more attention being paid to attacking and looting shops than battling with the police. But this is opportunism by those without opportunities.

Much of the discussion around the rioting has been oriented towards how best to stop it and deal with the perpetrators. The benefits of curfews, draconian punishments (seemingly ignoring the fact that it was heavy-handed policing which started all this off) and bringing in the army were all chewed over. David Cameron proposed the use of plastic bullets and water cannon (although this seemed like little more than bravado – I fail to see how the police could suddenly have been trained to use these things whilst the riots were still happening). But whenever the question is raised about how all this has come to happen in the first place, it is immediately dismissed as a quest for excuses and justifications for inexcusable behaviour. Whilst being grilled by angry members of the public, Boris Johnson said that “It's time that people who are engaged in looting and violence stopped hearing economic and sociological justifications for what they have done.”

Without analysing these events sociologically however, and trying to understand why it is that they have happened, then we have no hope of stopping them from happening again. If we want to solve any problem, then we must look at what is causing it. The fact that many people are refusing to do that reflects their unwillingness to accept what they know to be true or to genuinely tackle this issue. The ‘mindless thuggery’ and ‘senseless criminality’ line adopted by the politicians whose responsibility it is to solve these problems will not do; indeed they only serve to perpetuate society’s ignorance towards our young people and their motivations; ignorance that has helped to create the situation that we are in now. In fact, they are attempts to justify and excuse the existence of the causes which lie at the root of all this.

Looking for causes for the rioting does not mean excusing it. As has been mentioned, it is clear that whilst the unrest may have begun as fury over the killing of Mark Duggan and disgust at police brutality, it has descended into opportunism and destruction. There has also been a complete disregard for human life in many of the actions that have been taking place, with the most horrific example of this being the tragic murder of three men in Birmingham on Tuesday night (which may have even shocked the rioters into the relative calm which has followed). But what made people feel that it was acceptable to behave in this way? It would be foolish to suggest that police repression, poverty, or alienation - some of the main tenets of a sociological approach to this behaviour - has suddenly made people go out and wreak havoc, or that looting local shops is an expression of rage and protest. However, these three issues are sure to sound very familiar to the vast majority of those involved in the rioting.

The reality is, in most of the areas where rioting has taken place, there is a significant number of people who, from the moment they are born, have had their chances and opportunities limited by their position within society. Unequal Britain offers little future for the thousands of young people born and raised on council estates or ‘ghettos’, in deprived communities where unemployment or, at best, low paid work is the norm. These areas are not limited to London boroughs or the inner cities of major metropolitans like Bimingham and Manchester, they exist in towns and cities up and down the country and it is for that reason that trouble has travelled far and wide, to places as unexpected as Gloucester and my native Banbury. Poverty dwells across Britain and as a result of the recession, it is growing rapidly. Not only that, but the support and safety nets (whether it is EMA, Connexions guidance, youth facilities or benefits) are being torn away by the current government, leaving many people and many places devoid of help and hope.

This still can’t explain why rioters could treat our social norms and other people with such scant regard though. That is because the poverty and inequality which dominates their lives shuns them from mainstream society and all its norms and values. We as a society have demonstrated our lack of regard for their plight; instead we fear them, we stigmatise them, and offer no means for them to escape their situation. David Cameron talks about these people acting as if society owes them something, but he and his fellow millionaire ministers are coming from a position of privilege which has meant that no obstacles whatsoever have existed for them. The truth is, most people have no idea what the reality is like for those of Britain’s so called ‘underclass’ or the obstacles that they face, least of all David Cameron. It is plain to see that, from an early age, these people have no stake in this society which has left them to the scrapheap, and in order to survive, and to try and achieve some semblance of meaning and value in their lives, alternative paths must be pursued. All too often, delinquency and crime the only realistic route, promising wealth and prestige which could never be achieved in mainstream society. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this is the fact that this is the environment in which many children are growing up, children who are imprisoned by the barriers of wealth (and the lack of it) and inequality and for whom the rest of society and its norms and rules appear somewhat alien. Even the best parents would struggle to help lift their children out of this environment.

‘Mainstream’ society is itself becoming increasingly discredited and characterised by lawlessness itself within 21^st century British capitalism; the MPs expenses scandal, the financial crisis and the refusal of the finance sector to take any responsibility for it or to reign in their obscene pay cheques and bonuses, widespread phone hacking in the media, and corruption in the police to give but a few examples. Why would these youths buy into such a society, when it treats them as the criminals before any rioting has been committed? Crucial features of our dominant culture are individualism; acting principally in one’s own interests, and consumerism; desiring what we don’t have. You don’t need Karl Marx to be able to see the logical conclusion of these principles in action as young people looted shops and attacked people and property indiscriminately. Indeed, in the contemporary youth subcultures which dominate many deprived areas, these particular values remain intact and are only taken further, with conspicuous consumption a way to demonstrate status and individualism the only way to survive in an environment where it’s every man and woman for themselves. The ties that bind us all are weak and frail; we are all alienated by capitalism. This is simply more extreme in the case of those that are cast furthest adrift.

These subcultures are all too often stigmatised by the rest of society. Youths are derogatively labelled ‘chavs’ and are perceived as both a threat and a subject of ridicule. I have heard this term, as well as plenty of other more colourful ones, applied many times to the rioting ‘scum’. In truth however, these people were already being labelled in such ways long before any rioting began. It also did not take long for assumptions about ethnicity and ‘race’ to be drawn, with the rioting blamed on certain ethnic minority groups supposedly prone to criminality. This despite the fact that images of the disorder clearly illustrate that no one ethnic group, age group or gender is singularly responsible. If many of those participating are from ethnic minority groups, that’s probably because Britain’s ethnic minorities are often among the country’s poorest. The most overt example of the stigmatisation of our youth is the police repression they face on a regular basis (particularly of ethnic minorities), encouraged by politicians and the media. ‘Chavs’, ‘hoodies’, the ‘underclass’; these youths have become one of our biggest moral panics, held responsible for many of our society’s ills...and yet, they are a product of the very society which casts them aside and scapegoats them.

We therefore have an appalling lack of faith or trust in our youth. I sometimes ask myself what kind of society we are living in, when we fear and loathe our own youngsters? When children and teenagers are left to rot in poverty? When people discuss with ease just how harshly those youth who break the rules of our society - something pretty much everyone does to some extent when they are young - should be punished in retribution? We are abandoning a generation, and the way we are marginalising so many of our young people will only lead to catastrophic consequences exactly like those that we have seen over the last week.

The alienation these people face from the rest of society is compounded by the lack of facilities, support and services available to them. Opportunities are in very short supply for those young people living in deprived areas, whether it be the opportunity for a better future through work or education, the opportunity to have help and support, or simply the opportunity to have something to do and to have fun like all young people should be able to do without being on the streets. So when an opportunity comes along, to have some fun, or to make some mischief, or to say ‘fuck you’ to the authorities and the society that cares not a jot about them, or even to make economic gains, then it should come as a surprise to no one that many people would take that opportunity and participate in a riot. Since many of those services and facilities which do exist for these people are now facing cuts or closure, and opportunities are dwindling more than ever as a result of the recession, it should also not be of any surprise that these riots have happened now. All that was needed was a spark in increasingly tense deprived communities, and the police did a good job of providing that, together with the unrest that followed in Tottenham on Saturday.

The government’s brutal cuts are also mangling the services relied upon to deal with events like this. All the focus has been on the police, but what about the massively overstretched fire-fighters who risked their lives to deal with the massive fires and damage caused by the rioting? Or the paramedics, the hospitals, the prisons, the criminal justice staff? As for the police, the coalition government does seem to have been exceptionally stupid, in applying cuts to them too rather than keeping them onside as Thatcher did by implementing a substantial police pay rise as soon as she came to power. How much longer will the police deal with the most brutal consequences of capitalism in Britain in their working lives before they start to question whether or not they should actually be on the other side, the side of all the other public sector workers, who are fighting the cuts?

Ultimately, these riots would not have happened if Britain was not as unequal as it is today. All the explanations for the rioting now being discussed by so called experts on the 24 hour news channels ultimately stem back to one thing: deprivation. Whole estates of young people have been tossed aside by capitalism, and neither the government nor the rest of society cares, or perhaps even knows about it. Who cared about Tottenham Hale before Saturday? Our youths are lost, economically and socially; we have deserted them. This was not an overnight occurrence; these young people, these so called ‘chavs’ and ‘mindless thugs’ of our inner cities and council estates, have been born into the inequality that defines their lives. They have never been treated as citizens in our society, so they in turn feel no obligation to follow the norms and rules of that society. And as global capitalism lurches into economic chaos once more, what future awaits them? After the trashing of the Tory headquarters during the student protests last year, the Guardian’s front page headline was ‘This is Only the Beginning’. These riots have proven that to be true, and I believe that it is still the case. The consequences of the recession and the government’s vicious ‘austerity programme’ are only just starting to be felt. Fortunately, it seems that the trouble of the past week has largely abated for the time being. But how long will that last? The rioting, looting and destruction of has been absolutely tragic. But so is the deprivation and inequality which underlies it. Only by addressing that inequality do we stand a chance of preventing these tragedies happening again, and from getting worse.

One small step for Pantheist, one giant leap for doom-metal...

2011-04-25T01:48:00.001+01:00

1. One of These Funerals

2. Broken Statue

3. The Storm

4. Be Here

5. 4:59

6. Brighter Days

7. Live Through Me

Pantheist ‘Pantheist’ (2011) Grau Records

www.pantheist.co.uk

Eight years ago, I reviewed Pantheist’s debut album, ‘O Solitude’ (2003), for Doom-metal.com (http://www.doom-metal.com/reviews.php?album=1136). I would have been 14 or 15 at the time. It’s quite remarkable to think just how long ago that was, and of all that has happened since. It feels like yesterday that Pantheist was just starting to take the funeral doom scene by storm, with their ‘1000 Years’ demo (2002) and the masterpiece that was ‘O Solitude’. Perhaps a little over-exuberant in my youth, in the review I went as far as to say that the band must have been made up of some kind of alien creatures, because no human could possibly produce something so good. Fast forward to the present day, and Doom-metal.com has declined, Pantheist has moved countries, faced numerous line-up changes, and released several more albums. Yet, as I put on my headphones and listen to the band’s latest, self-titled effort for the umpteenth time, I find myself thinking exactly the same kinds of outlandish thoughts as I described back then. Either I have a penchant for gross over-exaggerations, or this is a very special band indeed.

I didn’t write many more reviews after ‘O Solitude’. Adolescence got the better of me and I suddenly abandoned the responsibilities and friends I had at Doom-metal.com without a word or trace. This immature perfidy to the music that I loved, and still love, is one of my biggest regrets to this day. But, you probably don’t want to know all my sob stories. The point is, this album has had such an effect on me that it has inspired me to do something I haven’t done in a long time; to write a review. And it’s not because it’s total crap, either! Quite the opposite, in fact.

It is fair to say that Pantheist have never been able to recreate the popularity of ‘O Solitude’ among their original fan base to the same extent with their subsequent releases. This probably owes to the fact that rather than going down the easy route taken by so many bands within the genre of simply rehashing the same record over and over, they try and do something different. With each successive album, Pantheist have bravely experimented more and more with different themes, sounds and styles. This has been something of a risk. Personally, I don’t have a problem with bands who don’t rock the boat too much. For example; Skepticism. Whilst there is significant variety between each of Skepticism’s albums, they have largely remained within the same style throughout their career. And it works, I don’t think they’ve produced a bad album, and they’re one of my favourite bands. Of course, for a lot of other bands, it does become stale quite quickly, especially when their style was never quite as innovative as a band like Skepticism.

Pantheist meanwhile have never gone down this path. ‘O Solitude’ was already a significant departure from ‘1000 Years’ in my view (even if two of its tracks were taken from that demo), and the following albums even more so. Taking these kinds of risks in the interests of breaking new ground is commendable. But it doesn’t always pay off; look at Paradise Lost. With Pantheist, the consequences have been more mixed. They remain a very popular doom band and many people, including myself, rated both ‘Amartia’ and its follow-up, ‘Journey Through Lands Unknown’ (2008) very highly. However, there has always been a feeling that some people wished they were still playing the downright morose funeral doom of the very first records, and that that was when they were truly great.

With all this in mind, the wait for Pantheist’s fourth album was an anxious one. What direction would they take next? The band, who had recently passed their ten year anniversary, opted to make the record self-titled, perhaps suggesting a kind of renewal. It was released at the beginning of April 2011 by Grau, a German label which has put out some excellent music in recent years. The judgement of Pantheist fans, old and new, remains to be seen. But to these ears, it is the band’s best release to date, and is a truly outstanding tour de force within doom–metal and music more generally. They have certainly not recoiled from their pursuit of new sounds [cue funeral doomster groans]. Indeed this is the band’s most radical departure from the funeral doom of the earliest records, and perhaps even from metal in general, so far. Death-metal growls only appear on ‘The Storm’, performed excellently by guitarist Pepijn. There is more focus on Kostas’s piano melodies than on the haunting organs of the past (though they still play an important role). This is not a relentlessly miserable album. In fact, in the more proggy moments, the music moves in an almost upbeat manner. But let us be clear. This is without doubt a doom-metal album. People need to accept that whilst it surely remains influential in the music, the band have not actually been playing funeral doom for a long time. This record should still appeal to fans of the genre, and fans of all varieties of doom-metal (something that cannot be said about many bands). Ironically, whilst being the record which has moved the furthest from the band’s origins stylistically, this could still prove to be more popular with Pantheist fans than any other record since ‘O Solitude’.

This is, in a way, because of how accessible the album is. By this I do not mean mainstream/commercial accessibility, but the kind of authentic outpouring of emotion which is so intense that anyone can recognise the genuine quality in the music and enjoy it. In this sense, despite being one of the most extreme forms of music, funeral doom can be accessible I think. ‘O Solitude’ was accessible in this way, and this perhaps explains its popularity a little. That’s not to say that ‘Amartia’ or ‘Journey Through Lands Unknown’ were not genuine or emotive, but that they were perhaps more complex and not as easy to get into; you had to dig deeper to relate to the music, whilst here you are confronted with its sentiments face on. These are not emotions that only run skin deep either though. Whilst ‘Pantheist’ grabs you from the very first listen, I find myself liking it more and more every time I hear it, being affected in new ways by each track with every spin. Whilst being accessible, this is also music with real depth and many layers waiting for you to delve into, and in that way Pantheist have achieved a real feat.

It is the sheer passion of this album which strikes me most. Try listening to songs like ‘Be Here’ or ‘Brighter Days’ and not be pulled into the waves of emotion engulfing you all over. I have always been a fan of Kostas’s vocals but this is his best performance yet. For example on ‘Be Here’ each of his stinging words wrenches at your heart and yanks it in every direction. You don’t even notice that there are few growls...once you become submerged in ‘Pantheist’, all talk of genres suddenly feels totally irrelevant. This truly is music to get lost in. The minimalistic artwork, once again beautifully created by Cheryl Pinnock, and the lyrics too feel more raw and more personal than ever before. They both really add something special to this piece of work. Notably, the lyrics and song writing were not entirely courtesy of Kostas this time either. Ilia wrote both ‘4.59’ and ‘Brighter Days’, and yet they blend seamlessly into the album as a whole.

That’s the amazing thing about this band. For all their weaving through different styles over the years, they’ve always managed to retain that same, distinctive Pantheist sound. This is quite an impressive achievement, given that it is only the keyboards which have been performed by the same person throughout the band’s history. I can’t even put my finger on what it is exactly, but there’s something there, a common thread, between every song and every record that makes you know immediately that this is Pantheist. It’s something which a lot of bands, particularly those who dramatically change their style, are missing. For example, can you say that Anathema’s latest album, as amazing as it is, sounds anything whatsoever like ‘Serenades’? That band has practically tried to pretend that their origins don’t exist. This is certainly not the case with Pantheist, and I think that it is something that makes this band truly great; I adore that Pantheist ‘sound’, and I think I’m not the only one.

When talking about the sound of this album, it is interesting that the instrumentation is more modest this time around. Gone are the additional instruments, such as the baglama or santoor, used on previous albums, yet the music is still full of depth. This is in no small part thanks to the lush keyboards of Kostas, which really helps this record to come into its own. The organs are still crucial, but keyboard strings and other sounds are also employed a lot to powerful emotional effect. The aforementioned piano, which plays a key role in this record, for example in the epic ‘Live Through Me’ where it has a primary melodic role, was recorded using a grand piano at CMAT studios in Birmingham. This is quite noticeable, because the sound it produces is particularly, well; grand, and rich. The excellent production on this album, courtesy of Greg Chandler (Esoteric) who also produced ‘Journey Through Lands Unknown’ in his Priory Studios, will also have helped.

However, since the recording of ‘Pantheist’, the band have lost two key members in Ilia (guitar) and Mark (bass). Both men made perhaps their biggest performances yet for the band in this band. Ilia has now been a part of Pantheist’s devastating guitar sound for several years and as has been alluded to, also made important contributions to the song writing process. Mark has also been involved in the band for a long time now and on this album he takes his bass playing to a new level in its expression and subtle magnitude. It will therefore be interesting to see if Pantheist can recover from these losses, and where they go from here. One thing I am sure if is that they will be hard pressed to top this magnificent album, yet if anyone can do it, it is surely Kostas and Pantheist.

‘Pantheist’ is also a record which I find to be especially well rounded. It feels like it has everything. Moments to bang your head to, moments to croon to, moments to groove to, moments to languish and wallow in, moments to ruminate to…it is an album full of moments to behold. An album which you will come to remember and associate with certain times and experiences in your life, as the best music does. By the time it’s over, you feel enthralled and exhausted, drained of your emotions yet desperate to go through this journey one more time. As a band that do not stand still, I think Pantheist have managed with this record to perfectly combine their musical explorations with a sublime outpouring of emotion, in a way that few bands can ever achieve.

I must also emphasise how heavy this album is. Right from the ‘One of These Funerals’ intro, it is clear that this is a devastating record, from its crushing guitars to its vast assault on your emotions. ‘4.59’ is a particularly interesting track, unsettlingly hypnotic in its heaviness but also melodic and somehow soothing, kind of Jesu-like in its atmosphere. The song swells with brooding guitar sounds and organs, over which Ilia echoes transcendent lyrics, forming an intense atmospheric masterpiece. It is tempting to dismiss it as an interlude but in fact it is an excellent track in its own right. Each song on this album has so much to offer individually that I could go on forever eulogising every one, but it’s the whole that they combine to make which is the most important thing. That whole is ‘Pantheist’, which to me is a highly personal, emotionally and atmospherically charged masterwork of melancholic longing. I know that people will write this album off because Pantheist no longer play unremittingly funereal music, but I think that they will miss out on an outstanding piece of music with that mistake. I too love funeral doom, but I think this album could appeal to any fan of doom-metal, and anyone else too for that matter. If you approach it with an open mind, then you may just come to adore this fifty six minutes of music, and it might well leave a lasting impression on you, as it has with me.

Pantheist have never been a band to stick to stale conventions or tread down well-worn paths with their music. They are a group of artists with something to say, and with this album they may well have expressed themselves more, and better, than ever before. In my opinion they are a band who stands head and shoulders above most others in their originality and creativity, and this album exemplifies that. It is an album that is hugely important, and not just for the band, where the self-titled name seems appropriate for what is their biggest achievement yet. But also in doom-metal, which has for some time been relatively lacking in band’s willing to take risks. For more than ten years, Pantheist have been one of the few bands working away, trying to do something innovative, something new and exciting in doom. With this album, they may finally get some of the recognition they deserve. Because with ‘Pantheist’ they have produced a unique and exceptional opus of emotion and atmosphere in music that forces me to question once again if these men really are human.

The nights are drawing in...

2009-11-21T19:00:00.001Z

So winter is rapidly approaching and darkness cloaks the land. While the UK is enduring the kind of rain that places like Argyll gets the time, with non-stop rainfall and even flooding in some places, the weather isn’t fairing that much better here in Finland. Some weeks ago - even in October - we had our first snowfall, and at times it became very heavy and sustained. It set in vast quantities and left a very pretty scene of whiteness in Tampere. This also of course meant that it was freezing outside, and it perhaps took me by surprise just how cold it had gotten so quickly…at night it would be up to -10 degrees at times and during the day we’d be lucky if the temperature was at 0 degrees. Perhaps adopting a smidgen of a cocky, imperialistic British attitude mixed with a dose of naivety, I really didn’t expect the cold to be as bad as it was already.

In an attempt to resist spending too much of my student loan, I foolishly thought that the clothes I already had from Britain would see me through the winter months if I wore enough of them. I finally saw sense recently however and duly unloaded my wallet in the local K-Citymarket (possibly the Finnish version of Tesco’s). I now have a great pair of winter boots, which are lovely, furry and warm inside and highly robust on the outside. They’ve even helped me to avoid slipping too embarrassingly on any ice thus far so were well worth the price tag, and I like them so much I never want to take them off! I also invested in a somewhat trendy hat (which is a small miracle for me because I never wear these things), a new backpack (to help me carry any limbs which may fall off after turning to ice) and a nice thick, warm and waterproof winter jacket (with a giant hood!). I have also now purchased some a pair of reflective bands to attach to my arms when I go out - everyone wears them for safety in Finland because of the darkness, plus I think they look kind of cool, as a band of silver across my black coat! Now I just need to figure out how to speedily get my hair dry in the mornings without using a hair dryer (which turn my mane into something resembling candy floss), because at times it has actually frozen as I’ve left my apartment building!

Somewhat ironically, just as I had finally gotten prepared for the winter which already seemed to have arrived, the temperature has actually risen again. It seems strange to be considering a day like today, when it was about 4 degrees, to be pretty warm! Nevertheless, even though it took an age for all snow to melt, the blizzards and freezing temperatures have left us again for the moment. It has all been replaced with grey clouds, rain, fog and general grimness. Of course, this is nothing I’m not used too, although the unending gloominess makes me appreciate a sunny day like today a lot more. According to the Finnish Meteorological Institute, the sun rose at 8.49am today and set at 3.32pm, meaning that the day lasted a mere 6 hours and 43 minutes. When the weather is grey and dreary outside even when it’s light, it can feel very dark indeed. But not today - for the first time in what seems to have been weeks, the skies were clear and blue and the glorious autumn sun greeted me as I pulled open my curtains. There is something uniquely alluring and arousing about the low lying golden sunlight and azure sky during these cold months, it makes everywhere look attractive and me want to run outside and bask in it.

I went for a swim in another of Tampere’s pools today, on the other side of the city. It’s worth the 35 minute journey at the weekend because it’s the newest of the city’s pools and has a Jacuzzi, a cold plunge pool, a nice little diving pool, a children’s pool and of course a main pool for swimming in as well as saunas. The pools are actually made out of steel and coupled with some effective lighting, look very futuristic but also very attractive and appealing to swim in. Not only that, but you really feel like you’re in the middle of the forest because the building is surrounded by trees and quite secluded. It is my favourite of all the great pools in Tampere, and it’s hard to resist the temptation to spend most of the day there. On the bus journey, the sun was just setting across the city, with a layer of amber lying across the bottom of the sky underneath a darkening blue, with even the crescent moon visible too. As the bus drove past all the woods and Tampere’s two biggest lakes, it was incredibly picturesque…just one of those moments when you can’t help but watch on in awe as the planet plays out a scene of utter beauty before your eyes.

The weather forecast predicts more cloudiness and rain for the week ahead, so it will be interesting to see just how cold it gets, and if it snows again, before I return to Britain for Christmas. Whatever happens, I have no doubt I will continue to have the time of my life here in this wonderful place. I also feel pretty confident from what I’ve been told that the climate will be at its coldest when I return here in January and February…and this is also probably when any snowfall will be at its heaviest. It was somewhat disconcerting to be told by Finns as I shivered in freezing temperatures a few weeks ago, that it was not even winter yet! In the mean time, it would be nice to have a few more sunny and clear days amongst the darkness :-).

Exercising my ineffectual physical form in Finland...

2009-10-24T19:47:00.003+01:00

So I must be the worst blogger in blogging history - or certainly one of the most lackadaisical! But I would like the take this opportunity in what is becoming an increasingly rare phenomenon of me actually posting something on this page, to report to my swathes of readers the joys of swimming in Finland.

This week I finally went to some of the local swimming pools for the first time. I first went to one in Hervanta, which is a large suburb of Tampere in walking distance from where I live (though it is a bit of a long walk so I usually get the bus there!). The pool is actually 30 metres underground and to get to it you enter a small building in the middle of the neighbourhood which has elevators taking you down. The pool has a cave-like feel to it and makes for a very nice place to swim indeed! I was very impressed with how well organised it all was, from the changing rooms to the lockers to the lane system in the pool, it was all very Finnish and well designed. It was also reasonably cheap and even some initial teething problems with trying out how to lock my locker (which was solved thanks to the help of the extremely kind cleaner working there) didn’t stop me from having a great time. I didn’t pluck up to the courage to go into the sauna, because they were divided by sex and thus you are expected to go in the nude, which I was unable to bring myself to do. I suppose it’s because of some pesky British inhibitions I’ve picked up that I find this difficult, but maybe after a few months I’ll be more used to the continental comfort with nakedness!

A few days later I went to check out Tampere’s main swimming pool, in the Kaleva area (near the Kaleva church which I mentioned in a previous blog!) close to the city centre. Whilst I perhaps prefer the pool in Hervanta for attractiveness and uniqueness, I envision myself frequenting this place more, not least because it has a really cool pool for diving into with plentiful diving boards, some of which being many metres up in the air! These brought back memories of when I was a child and myself and other youngsters would spend hours at the open air swimming pool close to where I lived just jumping off the diving boards into the pool. I don’t know why it was, and still is so fun, but it really is - and hopefully with enough practice I can actually start diving again like I used to, rather than plummeting in a somewhat embarrassing mess of limbs and flesh into the pool, and proceeding to have an argie bargie with the water in a hail of splashing and howling.

There is one main swimming pool which is 50 metres long, and it also gets very deep so that you can dive off the platforms at either end like athletic swimmers do. On top of this there are 3 other smaller pools for children of for swimming classes and more calm swimming, and I found it interesting that at both venues the big pools are always divided by lanes - no time for messing around and not swimming like we do in Britain! Both this and the pool in Hervanta were being very, very well used without it being too busy, and I could help but notice the large numbers of people engaging in a kind of water-treading/walking/swimming motion up and down the pool with a pack around their waists. I’ve never seen this before - it looked a bit like Nordic walking on water, and I’m now going to research it to find out exactly what it was. It made for a unique sight under water, as I swam alongside the dozens of people and gazed at the bottom half of their bodies, gyrating, floating and walking at the surface of the deep water.

The main reason why it’s taken me so long to seek out some of the swimming pools in Tampere was because until recently I have been enjoying swimming in some of the lakes in the city. This is something I would never have dreamt of doing before I came here but it has been one of the things I have most enjoyed in my time in Finland so far. I set myself the goal of swimming in the lake (almost) every day and for a few weeks I succeeded in doing this...there is something quite special about ending the day with a swim in a beautiful lake. Unfortunately I had to stop a couple of weeks ago as the coldness of the water got to the point that it was no longer fun to stay inside for more than a few minutes, which kind of defeated the object of trying to use it as an opportunity to exercise at the same time. However with winter drawing in and the lakes starting to freeze over, it will not be the last time I enter the water this side of Christmas, because I of course have to try the famous ice swimming at least once!

Last weekend I got a sneak preview of this when some of us went to one of the public saunas in Tampere. I was somewhat proud of myself for being able to survive inside the sauna for several minutes at a time with actual Finn’s as they joyously poured water on the stove of the sauna, even if we were in what was apparently the less hot of the two that were there. However coming out and jumping into the insanely cold lake was another physical test altogether. It was actually great fun and felt really good too, although I was possibly closer to cardiac arresting than I might have liked at certain points!!!

I seem to be engaging in quite a bit more exercise here in Finland than I normally would in Britain, which has got to be a good thing, especially if I want to lose the mound of flesh on my tummy that I have developed in recent times. I have been enjoying the use of the sports facilities at the university, playing football and floorball there during the week (I also went to try ultimate frisbee and volleyball although sadly for reasons I won’t go into these were not so successful). Floorball is a version of hockey popular in Finland, where two 6 person teams play indoors wearing trainers. It’s a bit like normal hockey which we’d play in Britain, but we’ve much lighter ball and sticks! Because the ball and sticks are so light it means the game is very fast, a bit like ice hockey, meaning that by the time it finishes I usually need a shower, a drink and long lie down!

I also try and go out walking when I can, which is absolutely lovely whatever the weather (which, by the way, is getting colder and colder!) as many of the trees in the woods slowly change colour and lose their leaves. I even went on a hike some time ago, where over the course of two days a group of us walked about 60 kilometres through the forests! We stayed in a hut in the forest overnight (it was described as a cottage but in reality was little more than a shelter, but very pleasant nonetheless) and it was such a fantastic experience, even if a little tiring!!! Unfortunately my tummy does not seem to be receding as a result of any of this yet, but the adoration/addiction I have speedily developed with Finnish chocolate probably isn’t helping...

Apologies...

2009-10-06T14:29:00.001+01:00

I would like to begin by apologising profusely to my parents, and to anyone else loopy enough to read this page, for not providing any updates over the last month or so. I didn’t sink to the bottom of a lake, or get lost in a forest! I just made the foolish mistake of not making the time to add an entry to this blog. There is no excuse, and I shall rectify my behaviour with regards to my blogging exploits from now on!

Because it’s been so long since my last entry, I suppose it will be difficult for me to regale you with the details of everything I’ve been getting up to. Instead, I will add a new entry every few days about something I may have done the same day, the same week or a month before, depending on what I think of at the time...since I vacillate quite a lot this would seem to suit me too! Hopefully it will also mean that if you do for whatever peverse reason decide to read this, you shouldn’t be THAT suicidally bored afterwards!

So what else can I start with, but football? My team, Aston Villa, played Manchester City last night, and I was disappointed that we only came out with a draw against after playing so well, but the MON-olution (MON = Martin O'Neill, the Villa manager/messiah) is continuing apace at Villa Park and I have a good feeling in my water about this season and beyond! Watching the match last night on the internet (entirely legally!), made me feel a bit nostalgic for sitting squeezed amongst thousands of other grumbling Brummies on a chilly weeknight at Villa Park. But right now I wouldn’t swap Finland for anywhere, and I’ve certainly been having my fill of football up here! This Saturday I plan to go to Helsinki, to look round the city and also to watch Finland v Wales, in a World Cup qualifying match. Of course the match is relatively meaningless, as both teams no longer have any hopes of qualifying. But it should be interesting to see nonetheless, at the majestic Olympic Stadium! I have been there once already a few weeks ago, to watch England v Germany in the women’s Euro 2009 final.

Including this match I went to 5 games in the women's tournament and found them all highly entertaining. In the final, England lost 6-2, but despite what the score suggests, they played very well in what was a fantastic match. Germany were just too strong for them and England fell a part a bit in the last part of the match, but they gave a great accounting of themselves. They did themselves proud to get to the final and hold their own for the majority of the match. As a result I have felt quite enthused to follow women’s football more back home. It's just as enjoyable as the men’s game, but without the ridiculous amounts of money and obnoxious prima donna behaviour! I won’t even get into the fate of the Scottish national men’s team after our tragic failure to qualify for the World Cup. The wounds this has left are still too fresh to probe and may well be for a long time yet, as we have another 5 years to wait before having any chance of being involved in the World Cup again.

It’s not the end of the world however, and there are plenty of other things going here in the far north to take my mind of this disappointment! So I shall be back soon to irritate you with more details :-).

Churches, Lenin Museums and other fascinating places

2009-09-01T16:09:00.000+01:00

Whilst I am adding this entry to my blog now I actually wrote it last night - I just didn’t want to bombard the surely millions of readers that I have with two much wit and charm from my end at one time! Since the first few days of warm sun, the weather here has been a bit more hit and miss, which was of course a familiar state of affairs for me after 21 years in the UK! This meant that for much of the bus tour we had around Tampere, provided by the university, on the Saturday morning, rain was hammering down on the bus windows. However this didn’t detract from the experience and among other things we visited Tampere cathedral (http://www.tampereenseurakunnat.fi/english), a beautiful and interesting building constructed in the national romantic style. This was of course an Evangelical Lutheran cathedral, like most churches in Finland.

It is one of many fascinating religious buildings here in Tampere. Today (Monday) I visited another, very different church, serving the same denomination. This was Kaleva church (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaleva_Church), which had a much more modern design, but nevertheless both inside and out fostered that kind of awe-inspiring feeling that you get from great church buildings. I say this as a non-religious person who is simply impressed by the different things humanity is capable of creating when we work together. Our bus tour guide informed us that from the sky, the Kaleva church is (intentionally) designed to be in the shape of a fish! I couldn’t see this from the ground but it either way it was a great building, and reminded me a bit of Minas Morgul out of Lord of the Rings! I’ve always wanted to see these gothicy, futuristic, sci-fi kinds of religious buildings in the flesh and it seems there’s a few of them in Scandinavia!

After the bus tour on Saturday, myself, Peyman, Christian and Dovile, who is from Lithuania and is very nearly our neighbour, returned to lake Kaukajärvi where we had visited (and swam in) the previous week. It had stopped raining by this point but was still somewhat colder this week so we elected to go only knee-deep in the water this time. We had so much fun at the lake that we ended up behind schedule for something else that we planned to do that evening. The Särkänniemi Amusement Park was closing for the winter that night, so there was to be a concert and fireworks display to mark this. Unfortunately, because of our activities at the lake we ended up arriving in the perfect vantage point to look out onto the amusement park, lake Näsijärvi and any potential fireworks...once the display had already taken place! Despite this the park still looked lovely at night, and the planterarium, dolphenarium and other features inside remain open throughout the year, so I will certainly be visiting and writing about these in future blog entries!

On the Sunday, we decided to take advantage of the wonderful weather and go and watch Germany play Iceland in the women’s Euros at Tampere Stadium. Germany won 1-0 and look to me like potential winners of the tournament. Since my beloved Scotland are not involved I am having a bit of a crisis about who to support. Since I can’t support England, Finland seems to be the obvious choice. Coincidentally the two countries play each other in one of the quarter finals, so not for the first time I will be hoping my mother country is on the losing side! In other footballing news after a somewhat tragic exit from the Europa League despite winning 2-1, the love of my life Aston Villa won a satisfying victory 2-0 against Fulham (a bogey team in recent years!) on Sunday. In fact, we’ve won every match since I left the UK...evidence if any was needed that I should stay in Finland perhaps?

Monday was another productive and pleasant day, not least because I successful washed my first batch of laundry here! I also met my student tutor, Markus, who is originally from Oulu and is a lovely guy. Tomorrow he will be taking me to a Social Science student picnic! On top of going to the Kaleva church I went to the main city library (http://www.tampere.fi/kirjasto/english.htm), to sign up for a (free) library card, and also to check out the wonderful building! It was designed by the same renowned Finnish architects as the Kaleva church, Reima and Raili Pietilä, and is another unique and beautiful building. As always, check out Facebook to see my photos!

Saving the best till last, on Monday me and Christian also went to the Lenin Museum in Tampere! This is the only permanent Lenin museum in the world. I think I’ve ranted enough for one day, so perhaps I will have to get back to you in the future about what I thought of this curious little museum...indeed perhaps I will visit it again while I’m here, not least to stock up on Soviet memorabilia! But anyway, it certainly provided an interesting and enjoyable visit!

Shopping!

2009-08-31T21:44:00.001+01:00

OK, so since I wrote my previous entry yesterday I’ve had a slightly concerning loss of memory and have forgotten much of what I got up to over the last week! But I guess if I miss out anything it can’t have been so important anyway! After Monday the rest of last week was a bit more sedate, with the daytime kept busy at the university, and most of the evenings spent settling in. I now feel reasonably confident that I’ve fulfilled all the necessary administrative tasks. I’ve bought a selection of accoutrements to support my existence, ranging from the essential to the fun to the downright useless.

An important discovery was the K-Citymarket which is a fifteen minute walk from my flat. Lukonmäki actually seems surrounded by several supermarkets but I was particularly happy to find this one. It’s obscenely big and sells pretty much everything you would ever need as well as a lot of other things whose purpose is not so clear! Because of this it felt a bit reminiscent of ye olde Tesco back home, so I felt immediately secure! Since then I have visited the shop most days! It is also a lovely walk to the K-Citymarket from Lukonmäki, along some footpaths, through lots of trees, over some streams and past some mushrooms! Maybe before the year is done I will pluck up the courage to engage in the Finnish tradition of picking mushrooms from the forest and eating them! I should probably improve my knowledge of poisonous and non-poisonous fungi first though...

But this walk is representative of much of my life in Finland thus far. Wherever you go it seems like you are not far from a tree, if not a cluster of trees, if not a small forest! I have never experienced this kind of equilibrium with nature that seems to exist, even in Tampere, a historically industrial urbania.

Several of the household items I have purchased I got from one of the flea markets in the city centre, and this was a great experience, as the closest thing I’ve experienced in Britain is pawnbrokers! I also bought two cactuses, perhaps not as cheap as some of the bargains I got from the flea market, but nevertheless they should help give me some structure and sense of purpose whilst I continue to endure the constant hardship that is student life.

So after some interesting lectures and much shopping and task completing, interspersed with some visits to the sauna, the weekend came! I will leave it here for now so not to bore you with my dribble anymore for one night. Tomorrow I have my first lecture, and it will be for my Finnish language course! With any luck I’ll be speaking fluent Finnish, if not by this time next year, then by the time I kick the bucket and depart this moral coil!

On the subject of my own mortality, I have remembered over the last few days, how lucky I am, not just to be alive, but to be in Finland, going through this experience. I feel like I am seeing and experiencing so many new and great things every day, but that there will always be so much more to see, just here in Finland, than would ever be possible in one lifetime. But I will do everything I can to make the most of this time that I am so fortunate to have...and also to take a break on occasion to hassle you readers with the details!

Orientation Week complete!

2009-08-31T00:23:00.002+01:00

Well it doesn’t feel like a week since I wrote my last entry to this blog...my first entry since I’d arrived in Finland! I have had a fantastic time since then , have met so many nice people from all over the world, and am beginning to get my grips on the city of Tampere. With every day that I spend in Finland it feels more like a home to me, although of course I can’t help miss the beautiful British air!

Tomorrow the first semester of term begins at the university and I will have my first class - Finnish as a foreign language - on Tuesday. For the past week I have been spending most of the daytime at the university, taking part in the orientation course. This was very well done and provided a good introduction to the year ahead. I have been very impressed with the university buildings and facilities - especially when comparing it to what I have seen of universities in Britain in fact. It is also notable that in Finland there are currently no tuition fees for students. On top of this I have been enjoying hefty lunches in the university cafeterias, at insanely low prices. The government subsidises the food for students in these cafeterias, meaning that for a few Euros you can provide yourself with more sustenance than many students in the UK would ever have thought possible!

The day before Orientation Week began, myself and my flatmate Christian went to do some exploring in the city centre. We visited the beautiful Orthodox Church as well as the Old Church and the Finlayson Church. These buildings serve the two official religions in Finland; Eastern Orthodox, and Lutheran Protestantism (the biggest). Whilst strolling through the Näsi Park we also happened upon several red squirrels, and Christian was perhaps slightly puzzled as I took endless photos of these cute creatures, hard to find in Britain. The day culminated with a trip up the Pyynikki observation tower, the smaller of two observation towers in Tampere, and the view it presented left me awestruck. If you are a friend of mine on Facebook, check out my photo albums to see some pictures of these incredible sights and of many other things I’ve been getting up to, though they don’t do any of it much justice!

The next day, after enduring the first day of the orientation course and enjoying the free drinks and Finnish cakes provided with it, we went to watch a football match at Tampere stadium! I was particularly chuffed with this because the same night my team (Aston Villa if you don’t know) were playing Liverpool, so it helped to eradicate any potential yearning for Blighty! The match was the second day of the women’s European Championships, which are currently taking place in Finland (great timing!) and me Christian and Paula were going to watch Germany (world champions) take on Norway. Things started well - as we were queuing to buy tickets, some random Finn’s gave us three of their tickets for free, saying they had no need for them! The Brit, or the cynic in me was immediately suspicious of a scam, but nope, it was just some good old human kindness! Suffice to say we thoroughly enjoyed the match, with Germany beating a slightly unlucky Norway 4-0.

Worryingly, I’m only up to last Monday and I’ve already rambled on for much too long. I am also feeling somewhat sleepy now as it is now 2.30am in Finland, so I will regroup, and hit you with the second instalment of my report of the last week tomorrow!

My first ramblings from Tampere...

2009-08-22T21:35:00.005+01:00

Well I am now sitting and tapping away in my computer in my new bedroom, in Tampere! I arrived late on Wednesday together with my dad, who had kindly come with me to help me settle in. We stayed in a fantastic hotel Wednesday and Thursday night and impressed ourselves with what we got done, both in terms of administrative tasks, buying stuff and seeing some of Tampere itself.

Then on Friday I properly moved into my accommodation in the Lukonmäki (http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&source=hp&q=lukonmaki&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl) area of the city. My dad got a flight back to the UK that night. The previous day I met one of my flatmates, Christian from Germany, and then on the Friday I met Peyman, my other flatmate, from Iran. They are both amazing people and really nice guys. I also met a woman called Paula from Germany, who will be in the university's Social Sciences department as well as me! Much thanks to them I have in the past today already gone to a nearby lake called Kaukajärvi, and not just gazed out in awe at the water and the pine trees surrounding it, but actually - after much hesitation - went in for a swim! The weather has been beautiful though not too hot, but the water was lovely and so clean, and it was nowhere near as much of a painfully-cold experience as going into the sea in Britain is! Afterwards we had a barbeque by the lake courtesy of Peyman and, after some initial snags with the equipment, it was very nice! We also just got back from using our sauna, in the building next door to ours, and it all felt very Finnish - though we decided against jumping into a lake afterwards as the Finn’s seem inclined to do!

Last night Peyman took us on a tour around the bars and clubs in Tampere city centre, and the place really wonderful at night. Tampere sits in between two huge lakes, Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi, and the Tammerkoski rapids link the two lakes together. It also runs right through the city centre, and was beautifully lit up and surrounded by lovely flower arrangements as well as drunken and revelling Finn’s. I will be adding many photos of this and much more over the next year, and if you are a friend of mine of Facebook you can view what I have taken so far on my profile. That night we also visited out the Moomin statue outside the Moomin Valley museum in the city - I will certainly be visiting the museum itself in the coming months!

So all in all so far I’m having an incredible time and feel already in love with Tampere and Finland as well. I feel very much at home here and have already made some great friends. But much thanks should also go to my dad, with whom I did basically all the essential stuff when you’re moving to a new country. This included registering at the University of Tampere, acquainting ourselves with the brilliant bus system in the city, setting up a Finnish bank account, picking up my room key, moving into my flat, the list goes on and on - and we had great fun in the process. All the Finn's we spoke to spoke impeccable English and were lovely and kind people, going out of their way to help us. But it was also awesome to have him there as an emotional rock during what was and is inevitably a daunting and challenging experience!

But anyway, I better stop writing and start practicing my Finnish! But I will say that, leaving no cliché left unused, walking down the stairs off the plane and onto the ground of Tampere and looking at the forest all around, I felt like I was in a very special place. For many years I have dreamt of coming to Finland, more than any other place on Earth. I have so much more to see, so much more than I will ever be able to see...but already I feel like this is a magical place, and a place where I feel quite at home. Although, whether I will feel like this in the middle of winter when the temperatures reach -20°C, remains to be seen!

Coming soon: Tales from Finland!

2009-08-13T00:40:00.001+01:00

Hi and welcome to my blog. The purpose of this page is not merely to provide an outlet for my self-indulgent nattering (I promise!). I have set it up with the specific goal of regaling you all with the details of the year I will be spending in Tampere, Finland. If, for some bizarre reason you actually wish to read my witty anecdotes, I will try and supply a weekly rundown of the most interesting things I’ve been getting up to. I’m afraid I cannot guarantee that my own enthusiasm for doing this will wear off within, say, a week, so apologies in advance if the updates become more sporadic. I also appreciate that no matter how selective I am in what I include from my experiences in this blog, it is highly likely that it will bore you to sleep within a matter of minutes if not seconds, so please feel under no compulsion to carry on reading.

It is a week today – Wednesday 19^th August, that I depart for Finland. Frankly, there is still a lot of things I still have to do, not least to try and dramatically improve my knowledge of Finnish, so I will make this brief. I am going to be studying at the University of Tampere for the year, on an exchange programme called ERASMUS. This will be in my third year of university, which I have to spend doing a placement. Rather than do something respectable like work for the year, I thought I’d spend it dossing around in no doubt chilly lands far north of Banbury, UK where I’m currently living. I’m really excited about going, but also a little/a lot scared.

This will also be the last time I am in the house that I have lived all my life, as my mum and dad are upping sticks. If you combine this with my worrying lack of organisation, it means I’m somewhat behind schedule in getting ready to go. Therefore I really shouldn’t be wasting what little time I have left in Britain ranting on this page. However, I shall add more dross to it when I’m actually in the place I set up this page to describe. So until then, feel free to think about what kinds of thick woolly clothing you could send to me in Tampere as gifts to help keep me warm!

Perhaps I should also pre-empt the thousands of you that will no doubt be contacting me asking why I have named this page ‘The Daily Panda’. Especially since new content will not be added daily and will almost certainly not be about pandas. When I was younger I had established a small society among my cuddly toys and I wrote a little newspaper to report on what was going on, The Daily Panda. Since this seems to be a similar exercise in the sense that no one else will read it besides me and hopefully my mum and dad, I thought it was a good name! Plus everything else was taken, two other blogs have even used The Daily Panda name in fact!