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| | Arts Calendar / May 2 / Concerts |
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Start your summer at the annual international music festival "Hard Rock Fest" with Mushroomhead, Finntroll, and such famous Russian rock bands as Lumen, Stigmata, 5 sharp, The Korea, Black Obelisk, Mordor and Kalevala. The festival will become the greatest event in May and hold thousands people at the Gorky Park. Mushroomhead, which will visit our country at the first time, is the one of the most unique and adventurous alternative metal bands working today. Known for their stunningly theatrical live show and artsy masks, this innovative band has forged new ground in the rock world and influenced many other bands to push the envelope and bring art into rock. Formed in the early-1990s in Cleveland Ohio, the band's combination of metal, rock and atmospheric elements has struck a chord with thousands of fans worldwide. Mushroomhead have been performing incognito since 1993, when drummer Skinny founded the band. The band was meant to be a side-project so they wore masks to go unrecognized, but after only a few shows they developed a rabid and loyal fan base in Cleveland. Mushroomhead released their 1995 self-titled debut album independently and it went on to became an underground hit. The band's last album sold over 200,000 units in the USA alone. Mushroomhead released Savior Sorrow for the pioneering rock label, Megaforce Records (Metallica, Anthrax, Ministry, Warren Haynes, Bad Brains) in 2006. Mushroomhead released "Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children" in the Fall of 2010 and it debuted at # 44 on Billboard charts. It can be said that Mushroomhead's musical ascendance was a singular, original, aesthetic of eight guys decked out in matching jumpsuits and artsy masks, playing unbelievable, unsettling music. No other band was wearing masks and jumpsuits and purveying this type of ultra-melodic, ultra-dynamic music at the time - Mushroomhead sounded like nothing else. The band's merging of metal, atmospheric elements, rock, and theatrics mixed with a punk DIY attitude has inspired and spawned other bands. Even though Mushroomhead's music is rock-leaning in thought, the group remains firmly committed to pushing the envelope and trying new things. Influences range from the driving rhythms and breakneck turns of Pantera, to the dark melodies of Faith No More, to the atmospheric stylings of Pink Floyd, but all done in Mushroomhead style. Finnish metal sextet Finntroll describe their music as trollish hoedown metal, which is to say that it combines the extreme elements of death metal with traditional Finnish folk melodies. Apparently the result of alcohol-induced experimentation, Finntroll's bizarre fusion began one night in March of 1997 when founding members Somnium (ex-Thy Serpent and Impaled Nazarene) and Katla decided to add the de-tuned guitars and brutal vocals of black metal to Finnish folk melodies played in the humppa style (a form of polka) on the keyboard. That is how Finntroll were born. For their follow-up "Jakens Tid" the band moved deeper into the realm of ancient music, incorporating elements of joik (an obscure chant that is believed to be one of the oldest-known musical forms in Europe) into their death metal maelstrom. Entering the Finnish charts at number 20 "Jakens Tid" was a surprise success in 2001. Century Media picked up the album for distribution in the territories of U.S.A., Canada, Brazil, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Benelux. Finntroll performed countless of gigs in different countries and festivals, thousands of albums were sold and things were looking really good. In the ten years of its existence, Finntroll has grown from a band that people laughed at into a band which sells tens of thousands of albums, tours sold-out venues across Europe, co-headlines Wacken Open Air and has zillions of imitators.
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