INSOMNIUM blog

23.-26.5 - bass and vocals

2011-05-30T22:38:00.034+03:00

Samu and Niilo, ready to go. (Pics by Jussi Ratilainen)

Bass and vocals were recorded at the good old Fantom Studios with Samu Oittinen. I drove to Tampere at Sunday evening and spent the night sleeping on an airbed in one of the recording rooms. Yes, this is the glamourous rockstardom that kids are dreaming about. Then early Monday morning I drove to Valkeakoski to borrow bass from legendary Finnish bassist/metal journalist Aadolf Virtanen from equally legendary band Diablo. I have a brand new Mayones Be4 but we needed Aadolf's 5-string Warwick for some very special parts. Aadolf was also kind enough to lend me his Hartke cabinet and Ampeg head, so huge thanks to him once again!

First day in studio is always a hassle but we were lucky enough to get vocals done for two songs. Samu had some new über-great microphone which worked tremendously well. I apologize all you hi-fi nerds since I can't recall the name of the mic. Bottom line, if you want good quality vocals go to record them with Samu. On the same evening Finnish ice hockey team celebrated their world championship at Tampere but I decided to skip the party. Since there were no other Insomnium members around there was no real temptation for excessive alcohol consumption so I went to the local gym instead. Then back to studio to finish some lyrics and rehearse the songs for tomorrow. And a cozy night on the studio floor.

Googling kebab restaurants near the studio.

Day two started with setting up the bass sound. When you wake up you don't immediately want to start screaming your ass off so starting with the bass stuff is a better option. We tried both Warwick and Mayones and pretty quickly found the right sound. Basic stuff was done with Mayones and Warwick's lowest string was used in some rare occasions. I think I recorded two songs and then went to pick up photographer Jussi Ratilainen from the train station. Jussi is documenting our album making and hopefully we get some kind of video out of this mess. All these photos here are taken by him. By the end of the day we had something like 4 songs ready with vocals and 3 with bass. I drove Jussi to his brother's place, did some sports again and rehearsed the songs for the next day. If you've read so far you have probably realized that there are no crazy parties in this story. It's hard work, boys and girls.

"Hmmm... should I have played D or C there..."

"Oh God, how am I ever going to edit this stuff ready..."

Day three was the longest and most productive. I had a plan to leave on Thursday evening so we worked hard to make this happen. Samu spent something like 13 hours at studio to record my stuff and do some editing. Hard-working fellow and the nicest guy in the world!

"Pheww... I am not paid enough for doing this..."

"Ok, lyrics done by a guitarist, how am I supposed to sing this..."

"I pose here and pretend to growl like a werewolf."

Day four was just long enough for us to finish everything. Samu had to leave by 5pm and we were ready about 4:15pm. We were very satisfied with all the stuff recorded so I was in a great mood when I drove across Finland back home. Thank you Samu for great work once again, always pleasure working at Fantom Studio! Over and out.
-Niilo

Man and his Mayones bass.

Drum recordings 19-23.4.2011

2011-05-03T21:42:00.013+03:00

Phew, here we go! With only three practice sessions with full line-up before hitting the studio I felt far from ready. Last arrangements and changes to the songs were made on April 17th just a day before I was supposed to drag my ass to the studio. Our rehearsing and song arranging routine has evolved to the ultimate level of efficiency with the last few records so I was excepting a bit of a rush in the end. As you may know we all live apart in different sides of Finland and even Europe so time needs to be used as efficiently as possible.

17th April
After the last practice session on saturday evening I started to pack my drums and cymbals to my car and gathered all those bits and pieces that you think you need with you but will never use in real life. During packing it really hit me that this is it! No more practicing, no more arranging songs, no more farty air of our rehearsal garage. Normally one would be thrilled to hit the studio to nail the new songs but I felt quite the opposite. I barely knew the song structures not to even mention the actual drum arrangements! No wonder I felt a bit anxious that evening. Luckily I needed to participate in my friends party since he just had a daughter. This occasion deserved drink or few. It was good to get your head out of drum stuff and substitute it with beer, sauna, beer and card games. Did I mention beer?

18th April
Sunday morning wasn´t the most productive because of the saturday's get together but still I managed to hit the road at 1 pm. I picked up Jussi who is making documentary of us and this recording process. After my car was stuffed with hi-end cameras and drums the 400km road trip to Tampere was ready to start. Skies were clear and the sun was shining. Everything was good and spirits were high. Little did we know what was ahead of us. My original plan was to change the drum heads on sunday evening so the drum set would be ready to be miked and recorded right on the monday morning. I had brougt two set of new heads with me from Joensuu. Tuning the drums with the new heads I had turned out to be nightmare. I stayed up until 3 am trying to get the sound I wanted from the drums without any luck. I changed the heads two to three times but always ended up with some tom sounding completely dead while others were sustaining like they should be. Needles to say I was rather frustrated at that point.

19th April
Search for the perfect drum sound continued through out the day and at the best there were four people tuning the heads without any luck. I knew my drums were in excellent shape with near perfect bearing edges and all but something was not right. After a whole day of goofing around with different head configuration we had to raise our hands and decide that I needed to get single ply heads and see where it would take us. Just before closing time I managed to get myself some new heads from the music store in Tampere. We decided to call it a day and continue the next day. Rest of the evening was spent eating kebab and pizza and generally just killing time.

20th April
At 9 am I picked up Mr. Antti Mäkinen from downtown Tampere to come to the studio and tune my drums. We really didn't want to waste any more of our precious time so we decided to get experienced drum tuner in addition to new heads. Antti did an amazing job and my new kit sounded like dream. After brief investigation with the previous heads it turned out that each set had few mute heads in them so no wonder why some toms were not resonating like they should be. Basically we wasted one full day because of mute/dead drumheads and having not realized it early enough. Lesson learned! Cheer's for Antti and I hope best of luck with his drumming career in Paris. After two days of tweaking, drums were sounding divine and we were able to move on. We had enough time to record one song before evening. Nine songs to go!

21st April
With great sounding kit and well slept night I was well prepared to nail more songs. I decided to go with the hardest songs first so rest of the session would be easier. I practiced few takes and tried out few different minor changes to drum arrangements. Usually the songs that seem hardest to play are often easiest to execute since you have been going through them a lot in your head. That was the case also with these songs so day went rather nicely. Seven songs to go!

22nd April
When moving on to the easier songs I run into weird problems. I didn't even remembered the song structures propely so first practice takes were really all about trying to remember the song before actually playing it. This is what happens when you don't have enough time to practice the songs so you would know them back and forth asleep or awake. This wasn't really a big deal since I needed to warm up anyway. Day was pretty good and i was able to finish three more songs. Four songs to go!

23rd April
I had hoped that I would be able to finish drum recurring by friday so i could drive back to Joensuu and spend easter just chilling and cycling. In order to do this I needed to record four songs. Song after song we moved onwards with steady pace and finally in the evening I had recorded all the songs for the new Insomnium album. I couldn't believe it at first but it was true! It was almost midnight before I was able to leave from the studio to drive back to Joensuu. I like to drive at night since there usually is less traffic. Long and tiring week had taken its toll and I begun to feel rather tired on the halfway mark back home so I deeded to sleep few minutes before continuing. Good move! Now I was able to drive safely home. I was back in Joensuu at 6 am so the journey had lasted 5 days and 18 hours in total.

Overall the session was great success in many ways. It was really fun to be in the studio alone with only Mr. Samu Oittinen to record the drums. Samu is also a drummer so a lot of the times conversation revolved around snare drums and how to find the perfect snare for cheap from ebay. Good times! Also flexible timetables helped a lot since you were in no pressure to finish song after another even when not feeling to be up for it. During the past drum recording sessions there had always been someone from the band besides me. There is constant danger that when two or more members of Insomnium are in the same room it can lead to excessive use of alcohol. No such problems with this session and I always woke up refreshed and filled with energy. It was nice for a change.

Regarding drum gear I used Sabian cymbals which sounded unbelievably good alone and together with the set. My cymbal set for this session consisted of Sabian 14" AAX Stage Hats, Sabian 18 HHX X-plosion Crash, Sabian 19" HHX X-plosion crash, Sabian 19" AAX X-plosion crash, Sabian 21" Stage ride, Sabian 17" AAX Xtreme chinese and Sabian 20" AAX China.

I was using my trusty Balbex G5A hickory sticks which I have found to be very suitable for my playing style. They are just heavy enough to give you the power you need but at the same time they are agile enough to get you through the kit with no trouble. The best part is that they last forever. I used just one pair of sticks during this whole recording session! Gotta love em!

Now it's time to let the other boys do their part with guitar recordings in Gothenburg, Sweden. I feel that I had done rather good job in the end although I really didn't feel as confident as I hoped when entering the studio. All's well that ends well. I'm really looking forward to play these new songs live! Should and will be sweetah!

Thank you Samu, Jussi and Antti!

Yours,

Markus Hirvonen

Sabian cymbals and Balbex drumsticks
Photo: Jussi Ratilainen

3 a.m.
Photo: Jussi Ratilainen

Finally playing
Photo: Jussi Ratilainen

One with the drums 24/7

Samu miking the drums

Thumbs up folks, we're done!

Two weeks to studio!

2011-04-06T09:24:00.009+03:00

Howdy folks!

It's now two weeks until we start to record our forthcoming album. Songs are composed and all is looking good! Markus will first take his brand new drum kit to Fantom Studio at Tampere where he will pummel all the tracks with the guidance of sound engineer Samu Oittinen. Then Ville and Ville will fly to Gothenburg, Sweden to record all the guitar parts with sound engineer Daniel Antonsson (Dark Tranquillity, Dimension Zero). After that we go back to Tampere to record bass and vocals parts. And after that our trusted keyboard wizard Aleksi Munter will record the synth stuff at Jyväskylä with sound engineer/composer Hannu Honkonen. If all goes as planned the album is mixed by Samu Oittinen in June and mastered by Minerva Pappi shortly after that.

Follow the blog, facebook and website to see how the recording goes! Cheers!

Can you spot a respectable Swedish sound engineer in the picture?

Piet Goethals live photos

2011-03-08T09:44:00.011+02:00

Here are some excellent live photos taken by Piet Goethals (www.pietgoethals.com). Photos are from Bochum, Antwerpen and Vosselaar shows.

3.3.2011 songwriting camp continues

2011-03-03T10:24:00.012+02:00

The fifth Insomnium studio album is beginning to take shape. We had a 3-day training and songwriting session last week and we can now say that we have about 8 songs more or less ready. We are entering the studio in April so we should have enough time to finish everything. Some observers commented that the material sounds surprisingly ready taken that this was only the second training session for the new album...

We also had a promo shoot with the legendary photographer Stefan de Batselier who has previously worked with some small American names like Johnny Cash and Metallica. Big thanks to Stefan for a nice afternoon!

Also thanks to Jussi Ratilainen who is documenting the whole process! Here are some pics taken by Jussi.

12.1.2011

2011-01-12T14:44:00.014+02:00

Howdy folks! Some of you might have waited in vain for the last chapters of our tour adventure. For that we apologize. We can blame the poor internet connections in the venues but the truth is that we are lazy bastards. After Graz the tour continued in a successful way. Shows were great, we met a lot of fans and had a few beers here and there. And some wine. And vodka. Drinks. The basic story. So huge thanks to all who came to see the shows! And special thanks to DT and crew! It was a blast!

After the tour we haven’t just rested on our laurels. We’ve actually been pretty busy writing new material for the next album. Schedule is tight but the plan is to record the album during the spring and release it in the autumn. And then of course it’s time to tour again. Let’s see.

Last week we had the first rehearsals in a long time and we played some new material together. At the moment we can say that we have 4 songs pretty much ready. A lot of work still to be done but at the moment it sounds very good. Some really epic stuff coming and also something really furious and raw. Familiar Insomnium traits are there of course but there is also something we haven’t done before. Fear not, it’s not acid jazz or techno, but something utterly sad, gloomy and depressing. Just the way we like it.

We’ll be updating this blog during the spring. If you are interested in seeing how the album evolves, stay tuned!

-Niilo

17.10. 2010 Graz, Austria

2010-10-25T18:14:00.000+03:00

It poured like hell when we arrived to Graz. The venue was very fancy and apparently had gone through major renovation. Despite the poor weather we decided to go and see the city a bit after the breakfast. The city looked really nice and we took lift up to a castle to check out the views from the heights. Worth of effort for sure. The touring routine starts to take its toll and this day was a pretty ordinary one. We spent most of the time before the show in the magical world of internet. Nothing special there. I felt pretty sick still. It is really annoying to head bang for 50 minutes when your head is filled with mucus, believe me. The show was however again a great one and we had blast! Thank you Graz, we’ll be back!

Ville F./INSOMNIUM

16.10.2010 Lubljana, Slovenia

2010-10-25T18:12:00.000+03:00

Last time we played here four years ago with satyricon. We were in such a rush then that we hit the stage right after load in. This time we arrived early and spent the day hanging in a trashy back stage just surfing the internet and making silly jokes. Nothing really special. Then the sound check, as usual. I was just waiting for the sound check to start as I discovered the rotary speaker simulation on my effect board and I had some kind of jamming session with Niilo. It was kind on an abomination of pentatonic blues scale. Great fun for us, terrible suffering for the others :)

The remarkable moments of the day were the luxurious grilled meat feast they served as dinner, and of course the show itself. The show as kind of a working victory once again – not that many people knew us beforehand, but it turned out to be really good in the end. After the show we stayed by the merch stand for a good while and chatted with the locals. Nice and relaxed people. Eventually the party went on outside the venue. Our bus call was late, so we just ended up standing in the warm Slovenian autumn night having few drinks and chatting. Bad humor, good times!

Ville Vänni

The Backstage.

The Venue.

The parking lot.

Chilling out. Markus is just faling asleep.

Playing some tricks on Facebook.

The show.

The show pt. 2.

The Projector and the Projectionist.

15.10.2010 Wien

2010-10-25T18:11:00.000+03:00

We arrived Wien at noon just like we always do. Grapped our stuff from the bus and hit the Szene-venue. It was a nice place and it had decent backstage. We were near the Underground station so immediately after breakfast we took underground line U3 to city center and just walked around for a few hours. Wien is beautiful city indeed. We grabbed some kebab and found this nice little cigar-shop. We bought some cuban cigars just to celebrate this most successful tour ever.

Rest of the day was spent just like normal day doing soundcheck and just killing time before the show. Austria has always been very good to us so we had our hopes high before hitting the stage. Crowd response was absolutely great when we hit the stage. This is what we live for! Great show and awesome audience.

After the show we just chilled out and enjoyed those smooth tasting cuban-cigars. Two german fans had learnt to play the Gale on a flute and we felt really honored that somebody actually took the time to learn our songs on flute. Great success!

Markus/Insomnium

14.10.2010 Budapest

2010-10-25T16:28:00.009+03:00

City is very nice, food was excellent and the show was awesome. Very nice, we'll be back! Köszönöm!

13.10.2010 Zagreb

2010-10-15T19:51:00.000+03:00

We had played this venue once before back in 2006 when we supported Satyricon. It’s pretty big one and I think we had a really good night when we were here last time. The breakfast was really good and once I had finished mine I asked for local staff if there’s any good music stores nearby. I broke my tuner in the beginning of this tour and had been using our tour manager slash guitar technician’s one for last 15 shows. The people at the venue were really nice and they managed to get us car transportation to one store, which was located bit further away. The selection wasn’t the most diverse but they had only quality stuff on shelves. I managed to get new Boss tuner, pedal board case, some cables and spare guitar strap, Great success!

After this trip we went to see the city with Nina and Ana, who we met in this same venue back in 2006. We managed to found some souvenirs and had beers at some nice bar. Soon it was time for sound check, which was smooth as ever. Dinner was also pretty good one: mixed grill plate with all kinds of meats and chips. Niilo and me did few interviews before the show and one of the interviewers was able to speak very good Finnish even though she had studied the language only for 2 years.

The show itself was ok for me. Had bit problems with the tuning and my apologies for that. However, the crowd was again just amazing and we ended up having pretty good time on stage! Afterwards it was time for proper party and we spent one of the most fun nights on this tour. Thank you Zagreb, we’ll be back!

Ville F./INSOMNIUM

12. 10. 2010 Milan, Italy

2010-10-15T19:50:00.000+03:00

Today we arrived few hours late. The bus had an engine failure early in the morning, and we were stuck at some truck stop for few hours to get it fixed. I’m glad we did after all. Paring the bus at the venue took more than an hour, Italian streets are a maze and the traffic culture resembles a riot. Well, we made it there. The driver spent the whole day fixing the bus furthermore with zero sleep. That is dedication, and the show must go on as they say.

The venue was kind of spacious and nice. There was nothing much around the venue, so we just ended up sitting in the park and playing silly game with cards. Sound check was a really quick one - despite being late there was a really strict sound curfew, so we got to action really late. Well, we made it and managed to kill time before the show without ultimate boredom.

The show was probably the toughest one this far. We did well in the end, but I guess only few people knew us beforehand, and the audience was really lukewarm at first. But in the end there were fists in the air, so I guess that’s all that counts. We will definitely have to come back here, Milan is not conquered yet!

After the show re had the normal routines and then retreated to the bus. Driver hit the road with weary eyes. We uncapped yet another bottle of vodka and hit the cards with murky eyes. Hail and kill.

-Ville Vänni

Pandora's box let open.

The venue.

Drinking blood and summoning demons before the show.

Visiting the stage.

Smoking crack and worshipping satan after the show.

11.10.2010 Rome

2010-10-15T19:47:00.001+03:00

The eternal city. Back in 2002 I spent two weeks in Rome so I have some kind of idea of the city. In a few hours it’s impossible to see much so I suggested we take a ride to St. Peter’s cathedral and walk back via Giannicolo hill and Trastevere. But alas, we found out that there was a 2 hour queue to the church. So we didn’t see the Pope or any of the Vatican gang this time, goddamnit. I gave some kind of history lecture to the other guys but I have no idea if they were listening or not. Though Ville V. liked the part were christians were nailed upside down on the cross. We saw Villa Lante, the Finnish embassy of Vatican, and then found our way back to the venue. Great success!

The show was really good. People were crazy right from the start and obviously many were waiting for us. Forza Roma! Porco Dio! Afterparty consisted of taking some kiisseli & votkuli and playing Uno, the killer card game for all the hardcore rockstars. After DT show we met some eager fans, posed for many fan photos and learned more Italian curses. Porca la Madonna! Dio cane! And then the party continued in the bus… All in all, great evening! Roma, we’ll return.

Niilo

Nice neighbourhood.

Very nice driver.

Path of heroes.

Outside Pope's office. Didn't see the guy.

Nice view and some twat.

Several twats.

Porco Dio!!!

10.10.2010 Bologna

2010-10-15T19:23:00.013+03:00

10/10/10 was the day we hit the streets of Bologna. We all woke up rather early and went to the backstage just to find out that it smelled like poo, had flies all around and didn't have any kind of sound isolation. So it was better to spend the free time out off the venue. We googled the location of the venue in relation to the city centre and found out that we were basically in the middle of nowhere. Regardless of that we went outside for a walk just to get some fresh air and to get your mind out of touring. The venue was located at some desolate wasteland and had piles of garbage here and there and abandoned buildings. Actually it was quite fascinating in a way to walk through it. After a while we found ourselves on the berm of rc race track. It was good fun to watch it for a while and we were amazed by the speed these tiny cars had. It seems that italians take motor racing very seriously in all levels from formula one to rc cars.

Food was really amazing in this venue. Maybe the pasta bolognaise I have ever eaten in my whole life. The roasted veal was also really good. Easily the best dinner on this tour so far. There were four old italians who made the dinner and they were really jolly fellows. Laughing all the time and just enjoying life.

We have played a few gigs in Italy so far and were not sure really what to except from the crowd. With fear in our minds we hit the stage. After the first notes we knew it would one hell of a night! Really great audience and we also played rather well. I think it has something to do with the fact that there were not much partying going on last night. Grazie Bologna!

Markus / Insomnium

9.10.2010 Lausanne

2010-10-12T18:37:00.000+03:00

Good morning Lausanne! Today we are playing in the coolest venue so far, Les Docks. We arrived Lausanne around twelve a clock and after a short breakfast I, Niilo and Urski decided to do some sightseeing as the gig place was located very near the city center. I looked pretty good-looking music store with google maps and off we went.

We ended up wandering around endlessly through very steep streets and found practically everything else except this one music shop we were after. The city was however very beautiful and people were very nice and helpful with our orienteering task. Except for the last guy who gave us the wrong directions. Niilo and Urski decided to head back while I made the last attempt to find the shop. Luckily I managed to do it. Very nice looking shop but of course they did not have any tuners or anything else except guitars. However, I met few fans that wanted to take picture with me and I had nice chat with the owner of the shop who was a musician himself. Actually it turned out that he had been touring with Black label Society and had made a customized pedal box for Mr. Wylde. Of steel of course.

As it was really nice day I bought some lemonade from the nearby corner store and went to chill in the park for a while. Even though it is already October, it feels like summer in here. Only few fallen leaves reminds from the upcoming autumn and winter. When I got back to the venue it was already time to do a sound check. The stage was pretty big and we managed to get very good overall balance in no time. We were supposed to have dinner at 5 pm but it soon turned out that we would not get any food until 7 pm. But this did not bother that much as we had bit later stage time today, which gives you enough time to recover from stuffing yourself up with all delicacies. The show itself was again super and the crowd was amazing. We love you Switzerland and will be back asap!

Ville F./INSOMNIUM

8.10.2010 Lyon, France

2010-10-12T18:01:00.000+03:00

I woke up about at the precise moment that the tour bus arrived to the venue. No rough seas last night. We were already familiar with this one (CCO), we had been here before in 2006 with Satyricon. Then we didn’t have a backstage, but now we did. We set up an “assembly” for an hour or so waiting for the locals to get the catering done. The venue itself was great but catering was more like English standards. There was a huge amount of local staff, but they didn’t seem to get anything done in time. …Well, enough of complaining.

I went for a stroll at the city with Usrki, and we found a very convenient coin-operated 7/7 laundry just around the corner. That set the pace for further actions. Seven Finns (Insomnium accompanied with sound, light and merchandise crew) made their pilgrimage with huge sacks of dirty laundry. 7kg machine, long 65 centigrade program and a shitload of detergent was my solution to rid the smell on my stage clothes. We got our clothes dry just before our sound check.

The rest of the afternoon was just waiting. Dinner was served ninety minutes late, but it was okay. We had plenty of time to digest that French cuisine before hitting the stage. Besides the pleasure of wearing clean stage clothes we had another special pleasure – Overload supporting us once again. They supported us in Montpellier a week ago, and I had just got enough time to become familiar with their newest album. Excellent musicianship and good songwriting, so it was really a pleasure have them with us on this one!

The French failed to show any superiority with catering, but when it came to the audience, it was a totally different story. Playing-wise we did quite well, but the audience made this the craziest show this far. It was a riot all over during the whole show. Mosh-pits, circle-pits, crowd-surfing, singing along, you name it. They were almost more on stage than us! Well, it was a blast, thank you!

Naturally we were on a good mood after the show. Quick showers, cooling down in warm Lyon night and variety of different drinks took us from Mars to Sirius in no time. DT boys enjoyed themselves as well and Martin H. took special care to provide us with a variety of drinks that normally one could only dream of. Bus call 2 am felt to come all too soon, but naturally the party went on at the bus as we hit the road for Switzerland. Thank you Lyon, see you soon again!

Ville Vänni

7.10.2010 Barcelona

2010-10-12T17:38:00.010+03:00

Sightseeing frenzy in Barcelona! Last time we played here we arrived to the venue like one hour before the show so back then we didn’t have time to see the city (except Pepe’s Bar, but that’s another story), but now we had a chance to feel some Catalonian vibes for real. After breakfast we took a walk to the center, got lost in the maze of narrow streets, found some nice parks and cathedrals, and most importantly new fresh underwear. Great success!

Razzamatazz is a nice and big venue so rest of the day went smoothly. The show was really good once again, there were lot of people in the house and I’m pretty sure we won some new fans tonight. La puta mare! DT played a killer show and all in all it was a very successful evening. We had some sangria in Pepe’s Bar and then continued partyparty in the bus. Good times!

-Niilo

Das Pentit

Svenska underbyxorna!

DT

Ursdolf!

6.10.2010 Madrid

2010-10-09T20:02:00.008+03:00

After the nicest day off ever near Lisbon it was time to get back to business. Day-off had taken it's toll on most of us, but I was actually feeling really good. The Venue, Sala Heineken, was in the heart of Madrid so with our huge nightliner and a big trailer it took some time to get there. Since we were in down town Madrid there was no way we could have parked the bus anywhere near the venue. That ment crabbing all your gear you'll need during the day and after the show. Altough the Venue is rather famous one and tons of bigger bands have played there, it really sucked big time. Dark Tranquillity and us had to share the same 4 squaremeter room and the bus being gone there were basically no other place were you could hang out and kill your time. For our luck the weather was brilliant with temperature above 20 degrees Celsius and clear skies. We decided to hit the streets and to find out what Madrid had to offer. Beautiful city with nice parks. After a short walk we ended up in this nice little restaurant to eat some local burgers, since we weren't served with any food at the venue. Great food and lovely restaurant.

This was the second time we were playing in Madrid and the first time with Satyricon back in 2006 wasn't that good for us so we didn't have so high hopes about crowd reactions. We'll we couldn't be any more wrong. In the end of our set the whole venue was on fire and metalheads were cheering. We came, we played and we conquered!

After the set a quick shower in the ice cold water and then hitting the merch booth to meet the fans. It is always really nice to meet the fans and have a quick chats about this and that. I believe the fans appreciate it as well. After the venue was closed and we had our stuff in the bus we decided to hit the near by kebab restaurant for some nice döner's and durum's. Great ending for a great day. Madrid rocks!

Markus / Insomnium

4.10.2010 Lisbon

2010-10-08T16:35:00.010+03:00

Hello Lisbon! I woke just next to a kinder garden and football field somewhere near Lisbon. Sooner we found out that we were actually not in Lisbon but somewhere bit rougher neighbourhood next to Lisbon. The venue reminded me a bit like normal Finnish School hall where we use to have all spring and Christmas festive. The stage was very decent sized and everything looked nice otherwise as well.

The football field did the trick for us today and soon as we have had some breakfast we took our Frisbee and football and went to chill under the Portuguese sun. It felt really good to run a bit and break a nice sweat. This was first time I did something physical on this tour except for the actual shows of course. Four hours passed in no time and soon it was our time to do the sound check. Nothing special there, everything went smoothly as usual.

The promoter took us out to very nice restaurant nearby where we had some veal, rice, salad and chips. Very good food indeed and we had also Portuguese special dessert, sweet rice, which was excellent! The show was again very good and we enjoyed playing in Portugal! Thank you Lisbon, we’ll be back!

Ville F./INSOMNIUM

3.10.2010 Porto

2010-10-06T23:33:00.006+03:00

I woke up at noon to the bumpy bus ride. We were strolling up and down the narrow streets of Porto’s old town, and the ride was something compared to a roller coaster. Slower though.

We made it to the venue. There was a huge storm going on, so load-in happened in pouring rain and whirling wind. Local stage-hands helped a lot, so I didn’t actually even get wet. The venue was a cool spacious building, where everything was painted pitch black. Really classy interior, but when it came to the backstage we found it to be unfinished. No hot water at all and at there were only wires sticking out of walls and ceiling where there should have been lights and sockets.

The rain had paused for a while, so we left and went to explore the town a bit. It turned to be a really beautiful old city with narrow streets and lots of stairs. Amazingly high bridge turned to be a negative experience for hung-over hippies. Local seafood cuisine turned out to be a pleasant one. Very nice town, we shall be back some day in more pleasant weather!

The night turned to be a good one. That seems to be the usual standard for this tour. The venue was full of eager metal-heads and we gave them our best shot. Definitely one of the best shows on this tour this far. We enjoyed our time after the show on the merch booth meeting some Portuguese fans. Eventually the night proceeded to showers and load-out. If I recall correctly we had an intention of staying sober and going to bed early this night. We failed. Cheers!

Ville Vänni

2.10.2010 Bilbao

2010-10-06T20:04:00.014+03:00

Hola! Very nice weather continued in Bilbao. We also had one of the best breakfasts ever so that immediately lifted our mood. The venue was located in a huge shopping center so we had time to do some shopping. Swimming suits, frisbee, football and that kind of important stuff. Venue itself was very nice and pretty big. So all looked good for the evening.

The show went really well. We had only once played in Bilbao, 4 years ago with Satyricon, so most of the crowd probably had not seen us before. But by the end of the set all the hands were in the air and everyone seemed to enjoy the show. Good times!

After show we had a little partyparty and met the Nahemah guys who had travelled all the way from Alicante to see the show (like 800km). Great guys and a great band! Puta Madre!

Then the bus headed into the night and towards Porto and the party continued till dawn…

-Niilo

1.10.2010 Montpellier

2010-10-04T22:31:00.010+03:00

We left Paris at 1 am to drive all the way to Montpellier. Drive was probably the longest so far, like 750 km, but thanks to good motorways in France, we all were able to sleep propely through the whole drive. I woke up in sunny Montpellier around noon and grabbed my stuff from my bunk and entered the venue. This time I was able to find the right door pretty fast so I didn't have to circle the venue like I usually end up doing. Weather was pretty close of being perfect with temperatures just slightly above 20 degrees Celsius and with slight cooling southern breeze. Me like big time! Too bad that this time the venue is rather far away from city center and also the Mediterranean sea was few kilometers away. That ment no sightseeing for today. We had quick walk around the neighborhood and found this huge bicycle shop! I was like a child in candy shop, but Urski and Ville weren't sharing my enthusiamism!

Niilo decided to act as a rock star and came to sound check at least 3,5 minutes late and at the dinner he ate all the available puddings so nothing was left for the opening act. Seriously bad ass rock star! I wonder when is asking for his own dressing room, because the signs are there!

This Victorie 2 venue is absolutely great! Stage is really good and also sounded great! Backstage area is really nice and clean. Quite the opposite one compared to for example the one in London's Underworld. Our show was quite good as well. Just a few minor fuck up's but nothing major. Montpellier proved itself to be a quite good city for playing metal shows. We'll be back for sure! Now it's time to reward your self with few drinks and go out and meet the fans. Thank you Montpellier!

Markus

30.9.2010 Paris

2010-10-01T20:16:00.013+03:00

This morning I woke up just below the Eiffel tower. The whole bus was sleep except for Urski and we decided to pay a short visit to the tower. What I hate in France is that people don’t (or even refuse) to speak English. So it took again a while until we managed to find right place to buy the tickets. As we had something like 40 minutes of time we went only to the lowest level through the stairs. The scenery was still very nice and we had espressos before venturing back to the bus. We even bought some nice tourist crap to humour up the other guys.

It took a while to get to the venue due to the heavy morning traffic. We were laughing our asses off just by looking all the bumps and scratches in every single car. The traffic was just absolutely mental. Our driver missed the right junction for the first time but finally we managed to find the venue, which was really nice. I think we had the best breakfast on tour this far: lot of cheeses, ham, cereal, salads, coffee, yoghurt etc. We had also very fast internet connection so you can guess the rest.

Sound check was a bit painful due to numerous technical difficulties. It took just ages to find undamaged cables etc. However, we pulled it of somehow and everything worked really well during the show itself. We had a lot of fun and the French crowd was again really great. We had a mosh pit going on for almost whole show and it was nice to see so many smiling faces in the audience!
After the show we had one interview and soon everyone switched the party mode on (again). We spent the evening by hanging some fans and just enjoying the successful evening. Cheers guys!

Ville F./INSOMNIUM

29.9.2010 Vosselaar

2010-10-01T19:07:00.008+03:00

Hell-o Vosselaar! This is the third time we are playing in this venue. It’s cool to go new places but at the same time it is nice to see some old faithful ones. The problem with this place is that it’s located middle of nowhere and only access to the backstage is through the stage. And yeah, you can’t shit in the toilet and it smells like death in the backstage. But hey, the food is good and for our surprise we had sausages instead of chicken this time.

We spent the whole day again in the magical world of internet. We are pretty lame, we know. I actually managed to do few hours of work as well and paid a visit to the metal shop nearby. We also met these two crazy German guys who have seen at least 4 or 5 of our shows on this tour. That’s I call dedication! The sound in the check was bit awkward and I think we just had too loud stage volume all in all. Hopefully we learn something in the future. The show itself was pretty good one and the Belgian crowd was the best we ever had in this place. I really enjoyed playing in Vosselaar, cheers guys!

After the show we had quick showers and escaped from the backstage before Dark Tranquillity started to play. We had a party again as it was our sound engineers “nimipäivä”: Vodkaredbull, yes please! DT had a great show again and we had really fun night. Thank you Belgium, see you soon!

Ville F./INSOMNIUM

28.9.2010 London

2010-10-01T19:04:00.008+03:00

I woke up already in Camden. I was feeling amazingly fresh compared to all the partying we had done last night. Some rough seas at the English canal last night, huh.

We loaded in to Camden Underworld and mad ourselves home at the fungus-reeking back stage. The Underworld is kind of legendary venue, and we have already played there twice before. This time this will be our only show in UK, and I must tell that I’m not very sorry for that. Audiences in the UK are great, but that’s just how far it goes. Everything else sucks compared to the continental Europe. Internet didn’t work. The floor was so sticky that shoes tend to get stuck while walking. The closest thing to warm water was the lukewarm bottled drinking water we got. Toilets were already full of puke, shit and piss. Catering was inedible and the beer we got was some lame crap. So legendary venue or not, we found ourselves to get some breakfast outside and use the bus as a backstage.

We found a decent laundry service nearby, so we did some laundry and had few coffees at a nearby café. Then some Thai food at Camden market, sound check and just waiting. We have planned to shoot a music video for Weather the Storm, so we had some extra precautions to take.

Technically we were well prepared for tonight’s show, but things got messed up during the change-over. The local opener (Cypher 16 or something) overplayed their set and tour manager had to enter the stage in the end of their show to stop them. Then we had something like 10 minutes to do the change-over and enter the stage. It was one big hassle. We had some technical problems at first, but after the first two songs we got the show up and running. The place was sold out and the crowd was amazing! I could hear their singing even over the noise on the stage. We stormed our set through with pleasure. Stanne joined us during Weather the Storm. It was a blast, and we really had fun on stage. And I think it will turn out to be a decent video too!

After the show we had then normal routines. Showers, some food and load out. I think no one had actually intentions to party, but we were all on a good mood so the night turned into a bus party once again. I fell asleep just before the ferry to France, and this time the border control let me sleep in peace.
Thank you London, you were great! And warm welcome to the continental Europe once again!

-Ville Vänni

27.9.2010 Tilburg

2010-10-01T16:28:00.006+03:00

Rainy day in Holland. Venue was really nice and the smaller hall where we played was sold out. Basically we ate well, had a little walk in the downtown and killed time before the show. Nothing special.

The show was really good again. Dutch crowds may tend to be a little laid back but this time they got crazy. Nice, atmospheric show, probably the best one we’ve had in Holland. After the show we took it easy since there was the ferry crossing coming to England. Good times, again.

Thank you Holland, we will return!

- Niilo

26.9.2010 Cologne

2010-09-30T16:08:00.016+03:00

New day and a new venue. i usually sleep the longest from our bunch so I'm always last on the venue. Entering the club and finding a backstage area can be bit of a challenge, since usually all doors are locked and Dark Tranquillity is already doing their soundcheck. This happened also in Cologne where I ended up circling the building and calling people on their cells to get inside. We had some time to kill so we headed to down town Cologne to do some sightseeing. The most fitted ones of us climbed all the way to the top of the Cologne Cathedral, that used to be the world's tallest building back in the 19th century. Although the weather was kind a crappy the scenery was just mind blowing! Naturally when we started decending from the tower it stopped the rain and the sun came out. Well at least we didn't get all wet on the way back to the venue like the other guys who didn't come to the tower.

The show was good and the crowd was great! After the show we got to meet some nice people from Century Media. Eventually the evening turned into a usual metal party since the bus call was untill the next morning. Overall the day was one of nicest days on this tour so far.

Markus

25.9.2010 Munster

2010-09-26T19:41:00.008+03:00

Uurgh…Some vitamins, painkillers, immodium and rennie and I was ready to crawl out of my bunk into the bright daylight: hello Munster! We had absolutely fantastic breakfast served upstairs and the fridge was filled with beer, booze, cider and wine. Stagehands were doing the load in and we went online in facebook. Great success!

We spent the afternoon pretty much lying on sofas, eating and telling bad jokes. The mood was good. Everything sounded again good in the sound check and we were starting to get our shit together musically. The show was great and the audience was again very supportive. I think most of the people were DT fans and did not know us before hand. Perfect opportunity for us to steal some of their fans ☺ The venue turned into a metal disco after the shows and that meant of course Das Metal Party!

We also met Stefan and Dario from Century Media in backstage and had few laughs and beers. Otherwise the night included wrestling, loads of Absolut Vodka and general fucked up madness. Thank you Munster, we’ll be definitely back!

Ville F./INSOMNIUM

24.9.2010 Leipzig

2010-09-25T23:18:00.009+03:00

Good morning Leipzig! Unlike many others, I didn’t party last night but went to bed early instead. Therefore I woke up early, actually I was the first person up. We had one hour break at a shopping mall parking lot. I went to wander about a bit and found some nice sushi for breakfast. Then some extra batteries for the wirelesses and some power cables to be able to use my laptop in my bunk. Due to all power cables the bus aisle is looking like a web of an LSD-spider. Or a trap to trip down some drunken hippies on their way to their bunks. And the trap works, I can tell you.

We arrived at the venue early. Familiar place, we were here last time in December with Swallow the Sun. Then it was minus seventeen degrees in centigrade, now it was +20. Pleasant. I had a second breakfast with the others like a good hobbit does. We had the whole afternoon off, so we decided to kill time and do some sports. We went for a hike in the nearby parks with Niilo and Urski. On the way back we saw a canoe-rental place by the river, and that naturally dictated the rest of the afternoon. We all are into outdoor life, so canoeing suit us well. We rented a decent old-school Indian canoe and paddled down the river for a good hour. We found a clear-watered side branch and explored it for a mile or so.

After the Indian experience it was time to do what we came here to do. We did our sound check and rehearsed few songs. DT tour staff is all very professional, and we get along really well. It feels almost unnatural to walk into a served table every night. We have been the roadies on every previous tour, but now it’s different. Can’t complain!

We were not very satisfied in our performance on the opening night, so we spent the hours before the gig just preparing and rehearsing. That paid off, the rust was gone when we hit the stage. The crowd was really good, and we weren’t that bad either. We poured all the energy we had in us to that fifty minute set we had and left the stage happy and confident. We’re back with the vengeance!

Vengeance was served hot as hell, but beer was served cold. So was vodka and Jägermeister for that matter. DT played a killer show, and everybody was celebrating. We loaded out somehow during the nocturnal hours and then had our first buss party. The rest is history. Leipzig, good night and thank you!

Quote of the day:
“Pitäiskö tätä drinkkiä vähän sekoittaa? No vitut, meneehän se sekaisin päässäkin” -Anonymous bass hero

-Ville Vänni

23.9.2010 Hamburg

2010-09-24T17:16:00.019+03:00

Boys and girls, it’s not an easy task to perform a 5 week European tour, I tell you. The planning phase takes half a year and there are thousands of little details you need to take care of. Then you try to organize your own little life so that things go smoothly back home while you are spending quality time with a bunch of sweaty hippies.

For my own part the adventure began 3am in Thursday morning when the rest of the guys picked me up with a van. I had slept about an hour. Others had left from Joensuu around 10 pm, some of them had some sleep, others not. So when we hit the airport around 5am we were a bit, you know, tired. Amazingly we didn’t have to pay anything for the near 80kg overweight and extra luggage – so huge thanks to Blue1! Our favourite airline for sure. I think we all slept the whole flight from Helsinki to Copenhagen. The other flight to Hamburg was so short that you couldn’t get a proper sleep.

We landed Hamburg around 10am and found out that the wet and dark Finnish autumn had changed to a warm and sunny German atmosphere. Ville F. arrived from London about the same time so the happy bunch was whole again. We found the tour bus already waiting for us. Big red nightliner with 18 bunks and a pretty nice interior. Dark Tranquillity and the crew had been driving from Göteborg through the night. Now we finally had all the people in the same place and the tour could really start.

Uebel & Gefaerlich venue was in a 4th floor of a huge cement building. We did the load in and basically just waited the whole afternoon. First day of a tour is always a special case since you don’t yet know how all the things should work and what all the people should do and so on. After a few days it gets a lot easier and after that it’s usually a smooth ride. Crew on this tour seems to be very professional so I expect everything to go fine.

Local opener did their 30 min show and then it was our turn to hit the stage. Venue was really full, maybe 700-800 people in the house. Lot of Insomnium shirts in the crowd and a very good response right from the beginning. The crowd was very good but we were not in the top shape yet. Blame it on tiredness or the fact that it was the first show of the tour or whatever but we clearly felt that we should’ve been better.

DT hit the stage and we had time to take showers (luckily German venues usually have good facilities) and a have a few drinks. I became so tired that I felt it was better to go to bed right away and not partyparty at all. There are about 31 other chances to party on this tour. Some still had the energy to keep on going and I woke up about 5am in the night when the bus started moving and found some anonymous guitar hero crawling on the bus aisle and vomiting in a plastic bag. Apparently there was a legendary bar near the venue where they had served some exciting and very strong drinks.

Danke schön Hamburg, we will return!

Niilo

New allover shirts!

2010-08-09T15:05:00.002+03:00

Two new designs have arrived in the Insomnium webshop! Take a closer look at the shirts here and order your own! This is haute couture, folks!

9-11.7.2010 Metalcamp

2010-07-13T17:46:00.002+03:00

This summer we will be playing two big European summer festivals and the first one in the line was Slovenia’s Metalcamp. The alarm clock went on 03:15 am Friday morning and I found myself sitting in the bus to the airport already 04:00 am. This day was only about travelling as our gig was scheduled for the Saturday afternoon. After reaching to the halfway of Dimebag’s biography “Black Tooth Grin” I finally found myself at the Venice Airport in Italy. The festival had organised us a driver and we continued our travel with a van from this on. Few quick beer/liquor stops and we were ready for a few days of festival madness.

As we crossed the Slovenian border the sceneries turned just amazing: never-ending row of green mountains with meandering crystal clear rivers. Even though we were tired, we were in good moods and decided to have fun tonight. Only obstacle on our way was the outside temperature, which was over 30 °C while the relative air humidity was probably something like 80 %. This meant that we were literally melting.

After two hours drive we arrived to our accommodation, checked into our rooms and started the party. Our sound engineer (Urski) passed after one hour and we decided to go and see the city of Tolmin, eat something and get some more beverages from the store. When we got back we could not found Urski anywhere. After a while we got a phone call where he informed that he’s in the festival area already. We poured down few more drinks and decided to join him and go to see Paradise Lost. The festival area was great, the stage was huge, Paradise Lost played well and especially the older material worked brilliantly live! The rest of the evening was spent drinking some more, watching Hammerfall and swimming in the ice-cold Slovenian mountain river. Great success!

We woke up quite early, went to have some breakfast and arrived to the festival area in good time. The few hours before the show were spent by hanging out and making good use of the video camera. Good material for the possible future DVD release I tell you. We had only 20 minutes for the changeover and we tried to make best out of it. It’s always difficult to set the sounds properly when you have completely new gear. In addition the footswitch cable was only 4 meters long so you had to run 5 meters from the front of the stage to change the channels. Not the most convenient way but that’s how festivals are: full of surprises and bunch of new situations that you just have to adapt to. For my surprise, I noticed that we start to have some kind of live routine, as we were able to do the line check in no time and without any unnecessary hassle. There was nice bunch of people gathered on the front of the stage already and after grabbing a cold beer intro started to play from the PA and off we went.

The gig was pretty ok. I had lots of difficulties with the stage sound and got distracted few times pretty badly. Also the direct sunshine did not particularly help: it was impossible to see if your FX pedals were on or off and you could not see any lights in your tuner because of the brightness. After 15 minutes of head banging, you started to realize how hot it actually was on the stage and after 30 minutes, you started to hope that you don’t pass out during the last song. Utmost respect for the audience for keeping us company for the whole gig in the burning sunshine, you rule! We made it through our set alive and had really good time, thank you Slovenia!

After the show we just lied down on the grass, drank ice-cold beer and piled up some ice cubes on the top of our heads in order to desperately cool down somehow. We were in flames. The ritual also included pouring pile of ice cubes on the top of Druidi and him chasing us naked through the backstage area. Good times indeed!

After short recovery, we went to drop our gear to the hotel, had a shower and headed back to the festival area for a lunch and after party: very good food, very tasty drinks, awesome people and good live performances in the courtesy of Dark Tranquillity and Immortal. Soon it was already night, everybody were absolutely wasted and we decided to call it quits before early 5:45 am wakeup call. After few hours of sleep we got to the car and started the long haul back home. Great way to start European festivals, thank you Slovenia and Metal Camp, what an awesome festival! After 12h of sweaty travelling I finished the Dimebag’s biography and raised a toast for Darrell Abbott from my comfy home sofa: this is rock’n’roll and I like it!
Ville F./INSOMNIUM

Over the Alps

What is this shit?

It's the shit man!

BäÄÄÄ!

Guess who?

Urski passed out

Firends 4 ever!

Vodka time!

The lead singer

The lead drummer

The lead Urski

Paradise Lost

The Night

Few ants

Fresh druidi

Fresh Goutti

Fresh Niilo and Urski

Guess which character we related most?

Scenery 1

Scenery 2

Scenery 3

After the show

Dark Tranquillity

Tolmin 6:00 am part 1.

Tolmin 6:00 am part 2

INSOMNIUM and GHOST BRIGADE tour diary 2010

2010-06-11T23:10:00.000+03:00

Hello There!

I decided to write our tour blog this time retrospectively after the actual tour. This was mainly because I had to do some work on tour. Also the access to the Internet is generally pretty random on the road so it is really hard to keep the blog up to date. Anyway, this tour was only ten shows long, so we figured you guys could probably wait for few more weeks. Big thanks to co-headliners Ghost Brigade, Nahemah and all the other supporting bands we shared the stages with. Enjoy the ride!

Ville F./INSOMNIUM

Hamburg (GER) 20.5.2010

This time we found ourselves in pretty awkward situation regarding the travelling to the first show. Only Niilo, our sound engineer (Urski) and merchandise guy (Jukka) were coming from Finland with the gear and the rest of us fly directly from UK and Belgium to the Hamburg because of the work. Despite the odds, everything went well and I found myself with our Drummer, Markus, at the Hamburg airport on the Thursday afternoon. We took a shuttle to the centrum and a taxi to our hotel and met the rest of the guys there. Quick greetings and welcomes and off we went to the venue, Markthalle. We played on the smaller side, which was very good except for the electricity (weird buzz) and some compressors in the front.

We loaded in our gear and went to see if our merchandise had already arrived. Luckily they had but unfortunately there was something like 13 boxes of them. The original plan was to order all the merchandise we would need during this summer at once but because of the tight schedules we were not able to get the merchandise delivered to Finland in time. As a result, we had what to sell for the eager fans but we did not have enough room in our van for this many boxes. Luckily, Ghost Brigade offered their help and we were able to stuff some of the boxes to their van. Great success!

The day was otherwise pretty normal: sound checks, food, beer, and cigarettes before it was time to start the evening performances. Ghost Brigade went on first and got really good response from the crowd. We played this night as a headliner band and soon realised that the crowd was really good for us too. For our surprise we even performed pretty decent considering that the last time we played together as a band was two months ago in Lulea, Sweden. After the show we went to see the crowd and signed few posters, cd’s and shirts. Folks were really cool and polite and we will definitely come to Hamburg again as soon as possible! We decided to call it a night pretty soon and went to get few hours of sleep as we had pretty long drive ahead of us next day. All in all, the first night set the pace for a tour that became a truly great and memorable one!

Ville F./INSOMNIUM

Leipzig (GER) 21.5.2010

We woke up quite early, went to have a motel breakfast and started our drive to Leipzig. We were a bit anxious because we really didn’t know what to expect from today’s show. We had been booked for Wave Gotik treffen which is at least in our minds more of an event where people wear leather or PVC and go to dance along with some weird goth industrial metal. To be honest, we were actually quite scared how we might fit in this picture. Luckily, the Ghost Brigade was in the same boat and we figured that it might not be that bad as these guys fit in the picture even less well ☺ The drive itself was quite easy at least for me, because I don’t do any driving on tours. The main reason for this is that I really can’t drive even though I managed to get my licence few years ago. Maybe I’m able to do it some beautiful day in the future but at the moment me driving on German motorway equals committing a mass suicide. So instead I concentrated to do some work as we made our way to Leipzig in no time.

For our surprise the venue was a big hall instead of shady club. Everything was also organised very well and friendly lady led us to our backstage and explained how everything worked. We were also able to drive our van inside, which made the load in very quick. They had also several drum raisers so that Markus was able to build his drum set early in advance. We spent the time before our slot by hanging out in backstage and catering areas drinking mainly coffee. The show itself was a really good one and I think the people enjoyed it too! Especially when considering that we played pretty early (around 4 pm). Also the merchandise sales were good which suggests that we probably made some new fans as well. Rest of the evening was pretty relaxed. We watched almost the whole GB set and people seemed to be really into their music too. However, the hit amusement prize of the night went to some weird Marilyn Manson look a like Goth-rockers. It was really fun to watch a two meters long skinny guy (who we christened as Skeletor) wearing a mini skirt trying to settle his cables before and after the show. I mean, it’s pretty hard to bend over in that kind of outfit without letting your balls hang out. I can assure you, miniskirt combined to nut sacks really wears off the coolness and mystique out of rock’n’roll…Otherwise we had pretty laid back evening. We stayed in a really good hotel and were able to access Internet and take proper showers. As we had an early and long drive ahead of us next morning we decided to hit the sack after few beer at the hotel bar. Convenience over hangover, we’re really getting old…

Ville F./INSOMNIUM

Stuttgart (GER) 22.5.2010

Another early wake up (7 am), quick shower and off we went. I think I worked again for the whole drive while the rest of the back seat concentrated on few relaxing games of Yatzy (Voi vittu saatana perkele, nyt niitä vitosia!). Some new Yatzy terms were also developed including such as “Iso Käyrä” and “Varpusparvialoitus” (hard to translate in English, really…) and after few intense games comfortable silence prevailed. If you ever seen us play Yatzy, you know what I mean. Anyway, I think we were again pretty early in Stuttgart and met the promoter and his team who were the same ones that organised our last show in Stuttgart in last December. Really nice people and everything worked again very well. We had quite many local support bands today so we did our sound check almost immediately and then moved to garden area of the backstage.

As we did not have Internet connection at the venue, we were obliged to trust on each others company and actually engage to some kind of social activity. For Finnish this means drinking beer and smoking (lots of!!!) cigarettes while someone tells a bad joke every half an hour and all the others nod in approval. The organizers prepared a really nice barbeque dinner in the meanwhile and after 6 hours of waiting GB hit the stage first and we follow pretty soon after. The temperature at the stage was probably somewhere between 30-40 °C and the humidity was overwhelming. The show itself was really good and we were very surprised that the crowd still had energy to head bang and roar. I think we were struggling more to keep up our own energy levels because of the heat and the humidity. It was again very late when we got everything packed and arrived to the hotel. We had few drinks with GB boys and couple of rounds of “ilmanussintaa” before we were done. ZZZZZzzzzz…..

Ville F./INSOMNIUM

München (GER) 23.5.2010

Another early wake up, shower and breakfast. The today’s drive itself was not that long but we wanted to be early in München so that we could meet Marco Walzel (from Avocado Booking) who books European shows for the both bands. We met Marco down at Avocados office and went to have a very nice Bayerian meal. While most of the people went for the Wiener schnitzel, I decided to try out something bit more extravagant and ordered traditional Pork knuckles. I think it was one of the best meal dishes I have had in my life, highly recommended for everyone visiting that area! After couple of beers we had a small walk down the river (hiljaa virtaa döner”) and it felt really good to do some sightseeing for a change. It was also really nice to see Marco again and discuss about the future plans. We grabbed few tour posters for sale from the Avocado office and headed to the Venue, Feierwerk. We played here only 6 months ago with Swallow the Sun and it was nice to return a familiar where everything works! We also stayed at the Venue for the night as they have very good premises for accommodation.

Today it was our turn to play first, while a very good Spanish band called Nahemah (http://nahemahband.com) opened the night. They played with us also at the Wave Gotik and Stuttgart but I think this was the first night that I was able to go and check them out. Our show went down well again and Marco seemed pleased as well (or at least pretended very well ☺). After the show we went to do some signing and met the fans outside. Again very nice people, München, we’ll be back. Ghost Brigade was good as always even though some potential set backs loomed in the air in terms of broken guitar strings. However, GB guitarists handled the situation with professionalism and no one in the crowd probably noticed anything. Again, we tried to have some drinks and get the party going on. Good try but no chance. We’re pathetic. After gambling few games of Yatzy it was best to hit the sack and let all the other people have their beauty sleep as well (because of yelling). Urski dancing on the top of a small IKEA table with five-euro bill in his ass crack was truly a Kodak moment to remember!

Ville F./INSOMNIUM

Salzburg (AU) 24.5.2010

This morning we woke voluntarily quite early in order to do some sightseeing before going to Austria. Today’s plan was to go and see the Eagle’s nest, the Adolf Hitler’s retreat near Berchtesgaden. GB’s sound engineer, Teijo, joined us and off we went. I can tell you that the scenery’s were just awesome already during the drive and we were really awestruck by the beauty of the vast landscapes when we hit the top of the mountain. The place reminded more of an ordinary tourist attraction and the original history of the place was pretty much wiped out. Just to make one simple thing clear: we’re not racist or Nazis and we do not admire Nazi ideology. However, what happened during the WW2 is part of our history and I feel it’s better to face it instead of hiding it away and pretending that nothing really happened. But enough of politics and crap. The sceneries were really awesome and we felt really relaxed at bathing in the sun and just chilling out. Before we want back down we had few beers and took a lot of photos. A great experience and really unique place. It must have been hell to drag all the building materials on the top of that heap!

Playing a tourist made us hungry and we went back to the village to have some refreshing döners before driving to the venue. The venue itself was not that big and we quickly learned that we had again 3 opening bands. Because of the tight schedules we loaded in and headed to the bunks to have some rest after day’s adventures. No point of doing sound check really, we’re professionals and know our shit (NOT!). All the people were so tired that no one really fancied to go and see the beautiful city of Salzburg. Again no Internet connection and so the fierce games of Yatzy began. Playing Yatzy for money is actually very fun. Losing and winning becomes even serious thing and the bitterness and hate becomes almost tangible ☺ We also soon realised that all of us had burnt because of the intense sun light. Teijo and Markus had especially turned into proper rednecks! After few beers and recreational activities it was time to hit the stage. The crowd was again very good and we really had good time even though it was pretty hot again. I guess we are getting used to it by now. Again the same evening roulette: few beers, signings and general chatting with people. Thank you nice folks of Austria, we’ll be definitely back someday! Tonight we decided to have a proper party with the one and only, Mr Sandman. Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite…

Ville F./INSOMNIUM

Aarau (CH) 25.5.2010

We again decided to continue our journey early, as we had to cross the Swiss border. This could potentially be a problem with all the merchandise and taxation. Normally bands are seldom stopped at the border while in the worst-case scenario they might force us to count all the shirts and ask to pay taxes for all the sold items when leaving the Switzerland. As we still had loads of merchandise left we decided to have a stop somewhere in the Austria, get some black plastic bags and cover the back windows of our van. We found this really nice village with harbour and decided to have coffees and beers there before completing the operation camouflage.

We had decided with GB to leave at different times to avoid ending up the border at the same time. For some odd coincidence we still ended up crossing the border at the same time. GB van was just right in front of us and we were sure that they would pull the latter van aside and search the vehicle. For some odd reason they did not do that but stopped the car just behind us. Great success!!! We reached Aarau pretty soon and found out that the venue was really good and the staff was very polite and welcoming. After quick load in everyone dived into the magical world of Internet. I managed to submit one manuscript I had been working on road and decided to celebrate the occasion with nice pint of beer. It was GB’s turn to go on first and we followed them soon. Man it was again hot! The gig was still just awesome, but afterwards I felt like I had been sitting in the sauna for an hour. I can take minus 25 °C at anytime but the heat is something I really can’t handle. Well, some cold drinks and soon everything was all good again. We slept at the Venue premises, which were just excellent. Some evening Internet action and off we went to bed. Not together though.

Ville F./INSOMNIUM

Dordrecht (NL) 26.5.2010

The alarm clock woke us at 7 am sharp and I dragged myself first to shower. We had a 750 km drive ahead of us today, as we had been booked to play in Netherlands in the evening. We felt pretty exhausted and Jukka heroically took the first drive shift. The weather turned real crappy pretty soon and it rained almost for the whole day. We had a short pit stop somewhere in the Germany and had few bratwursts. That’s something German are just excellent at I can tell you! Otherwise, we amused ourselves with few intense games of Yatzy. Nothing much to tell really, pretty dull day in general. We had also another quick stop just after crossing the border and I think it was something like 5-6 pm when we arrived to beautiful city of Dordrecht. We played in Bibelot, which was familiar place from the Amorphis tour back in 2007. Quick load in and the normal stuff you already are aware of. We had a nice short walk before the show in the city. Unfortunately most of the shops were closed because it was already so late. Luckily we found also some open ones. The gigs were again very good and we did some signing for some younger fans that bought basically one of every item we had still left to sell. Thanks for the support, highly appreciated! This was also the last show when we shared the stage with Nahemah and it was time to say goodbyes in the end of evening. Good band, great people and we really hope to see you again in the future!

Ville F./INSOMNIUM

Antwerpen (BEL) 27.5.2010

Today’s drive was a really short one and Markus decided to take scenery route through the coast. We stopped in some small village to have a lunch before heading to the Belgium. We arrived soon to the venue, did the load in and so on. We were actually supporting the Wolves in the Throne Room today and both bands played shorter sets because of that. It was pretty laid back day. We were pretty tired so everyone pretty much kept it to himself and dived into the magical world of Internet. Where would we be without the Internet these days? I really can’t tell anymore. We’re addicted. We’re doomed. So what, I really like the Facebook. Enough of this crap. The show was pretty ok tonight. The crowd was maybe a bit quiet, but it has been pretty much like this in Belgium with every previous gigs. This doesn’t mean that the people don’t like you, they’re just bit more into listening the music I guess. We still sold decent amount of merch and all the people we met were really nice. Thanks Belgium!

During the evening we noticed again that the black metal bands do tend to have the biggest crybabies. The crowd was not really into the main act’s performance either and I think it was easy to put the blame on bad stage sound. However, it’s another thing to argue that it was support acts’ sound engineers’ fault who did not touch the main act’s channels or monitoring in any way. What a bunch of dicks. We had few beers at the hotel and did not let this incident bother us that much. After few rounds of “ilmanussintaa” it was time to continue the party with the old faithful Mr Sandman.

Ville F./INSOMNIUM

Eindhoven (NL) 28.5.2010

After quick showers we headed to the Dortmund airport to pick up our manager Mr Jukka Varmo. As we are currently in the middle of record deal negotiations, we used the opportunity of being in Europe to actually meet some people directly and see where we stand. The afternoon was pretty successful and we left the office in very good mood. Time will tell what happens next. It was not long drive to Eindhoven Dynamo and we arrived there somewhere in the afternoon. It was pretty much ordinary day, a quick sound check and some wonderful Internet activity. After few beers it was our time to go on first. The stage was quite small, but the gig itself was again really good and we really enjoyed it. I think we actually managed to get bit drunk after the show and after checking in the hotel me, Niilo, Teijo and Varmo headed to the local rock bar right next door. It was really nice to sit outside in the garden and zip some cold beer. There was also pretty good Iron Maiden cover band playing that night. I think we called it night somewhere around 4 am and headed finally to the hotel to get some sleep.

Ville F./INSOMNIUM

Bochum (GER) 29.5.2010

Ugh…Micro-hangover. Me and Urski decided to heal it by heading to the town already 10 am and try to find some gifts to bring back home. We found big electronics warehouse and quite decent record shop. The architecture was also really cool and it was nice to just enjoy the sunshine. We ended back to the hotel around 11:30 am and woke the rest of the bunch. After pretty easy drive we arrived to Matrix, which was really cool venue. We even had some eager fans waiting at the parking lot when we tried to load in our gear. Really weird. The backstage was very nice and we ended up just chilling out there most of the day. I guess we were pretty tired and people started to realize that this was the last day on tour. After the show we would start the long haul back home and soon everyone would be back to work and regular, secured lives. It was actually first time when it felt that the tour was ending too soon. I guess it has something to do with the fact that you are not having constant hangover all the time. Maybe that’s why people were in good mood on this tour in general. Who knows but it just felt that it was ending too soon. The GB went on first and we hit the stage afterwards. It was really good show and we left it all on the stage. At least for now on. We’ll be back for sure. We also met Marco from our booking agency and made again some plans for the future. I’m pretty sure that more good things will keep on following. We also met some people from record companies and it was nice to have again a chat in person.

Soon it was time to say goodbyes to the awesome guys in Ghost Brigade and start the long drive back home. A really fantastic band, check them out now! I think this tour was very successful in many ways. For example, it was nice to see that two fairly unknown Finnish bands can co-headline and pull in 200 people on Tuesday evening. I really hope that this is only a start of a new chapter. Big thanks to all the promoters, venues, supporting acts, our merchandiser Jukka, GB sound engineer Teijo, light technician Matti and all the guys in the GB. It was blast. However, the biggest thanks goes to or devoted fans that came to see and support us! See you in the fall on Dark Tranquillity tour, cheers!

Ville F./INSOMNIUM

New designs

2010-04-26T14:00:00.001+03:00

Here are some new shirt designs which we may use in the future... or not. It depends on what you think! Now go to Insomnium Facebook page and tell us what you like. Which design is your favourite? Which just sucks? Come on, everyone!

Last Wave 2

Last Wave 1

Moon Logo

Bloodbird

Bloodbird Hoodie

Bluebird 2

Bluebird 1

Which beanie design is better?

2010-04-20T13:44:00.000+03:00

Now let's hear what you think: which one of these designs should we do? Old School I or the New Logo? Go to Insomnium Facebook page and vote!

19.12.2009 Leipzig (Saturday)

2009-12-23T22:53:00.001+02:00

Guten tag Leipzig! So, this is the final show on this tour. This thought feels at the same time very good but also very odd. You kind of get used to touring lifestyle where you don’t have to take care of your everyday business, such as doing laundry, preparing dinner, or going to the supermarket. You just search the backstage, eat something, drink something, load in, put together your stuff, check if the venue has a wlan and then just kill the time. That’s it. Every day same routine (unless the venue happens to be located near the center of the city). But that’s life on tour folks! Today the catering is better than normally. However, I don’t feel hungry at all. Same thing happens with dinner. I feel quite hollow and tired and just lay on the couch until the show. As this is the last show on the tour it will include some practical jokes during the gigs. During Omnium’s set Niilo goes and does some guest vocals on one song. Also, during the last song we start to unpack the drum kit. Kaitsu takes first one cymbal off and in the end the Jorkka has only on cymbal left to play with. We get also our fair share. At some point other band members come and tie our hair to ponytales. Markus Vanhala (from OG) comes also visit during the Killjoy and delivers a killer solo! During the piano intro of Gale Mikko from StS sings “Kiisselii, nyt maistuu kiisselii” through FOH talkback mic. It sounds really hilarious and we all burst laughing! Poor crowd. During the StS gig stakes get higher. We steal Mikko’s vocal mic during the intro. He does not even recognize it himself until Matti (bass player) notices it. We give him his mic back and everything goes on smoothly. During the second song someone wraps giant dildo on Aleksi’s keyboard stand. Poor crowd. At some point the dildo gets wrapped on Mikko’s mic. Niilo does some guest vocals on “Don’t’ fall asleep” with new, Finnish lyrical content: “Jämylle alkaa maistumaan, Kaitsulle alkaa masitumaan, Hipille alkaa maistumaan, Raiviolle ei milloinkaan”! During the Descending winter we go to each member and sprinkle snow on top of everyone’s head. And the list goes on. Poor crowd. In the end we all just end up head banging on the stage and end the final show in fury!

That’s it. People leave; we sign few posters and pack our gear. This is it. It’s good to go home and know that you gave it all. Left it all on the stage. You really need the rest and sleep. You ache for civilization, your own bed and your own toilet. You long for routine. At the same time, you want to keep on going. Travel places where you still haven’t been before. Spend one more drinking night with your buddies and never grow old. This is life on tour kids. You hate to admit that you love it, no matter what.

Ville Friman/INSOMNIUM

18.12.2009 Friday

2009-12-23T22:10:00.000+02:00

Same shit, different day. The touring routine starts to get to you eventually. It is dark but now there is also lots of snow. And it’s cold. We load in immediately, as we are late from schedule because of some car accident on the way here. There’s some white bread again but no proper food. Some kind of soup with ravioli or something?!?. Who knows. Won’t go down regardless of the effort. We open wine bottles instead. Kids, don’t try this at home. Never buy a guitar. You end up very dark place, which bears today the name of Stuttgart. The backstage is odd. The actual place is the same space as the bar but just bounded with some dark curtains from which you can see almost through. Who cares, at least we don’t. We change to our smelly stage clothes and put the show on! And the all the fatigue wears off immediately. The crowd is just amazing again! Head banging from the start to end and singing along the lyrics. We could not expect more, thank you Stuttgart, we’ll be definitely back! After the show it’s time to really get into the business. The promoter carries booze bottle after another and girl serves wine, which is made in her parents’ vineyard. Life is good, touring is good, good gigs make it worth of all the misfortune! There is only one way and it’s Das metal party!

Ville Friman/INSOMNIUM

17.12.2009 Thursday

2009-12-23T21:25:00.000+02:00

Have you ever seen the movie called Groundhog Day? Well life on road is pretty much the same thing except more boring. Again, when I woke up it was already dark. We were driving through Berlin to K17, the venue. When I stumbled downstairs I was offered two choices: whiskey or beer. I chose the beer, or was it three. Who knows. The venue seemed nice and we had good sandwiches waiting. No WLAN, shame. We had wine, great! So we started to drink away the yesterday’s endeavors. In between we had probably the greatest meatloaf on planet. When it was time to go on playing I have to admit that I was bit drunk. However, the playing went fine surprisingly. Sorry Berlin, but I have to admit that you were bit lazy crowd. For the first time ever in Germany people were just standing and doing nothing. Come on! Luckily there were some eager metal heads in front row that made our night! After the show I went to enjoy ice cold shower and got wasted. We spent the rest of the evening in some nearby metal bar and enjoyed some good music (of ours own naturally, hah hah). The evening was sealed with doner kebab and 1 liter of absolut vodka. We’re baby bad but we don’t care!

Ville Friman/INSOMNIUM

16.12.2009 Wednesday

2009-12-23T21:04:00.000+02:00

Ugh! Örgh! Grey buildings, grey people and grey weather, yep, I guess we are in Prague. I think the clock was somewhere noon and in a while we were in front of the gig place. I gathered my daily belongings to pack bag and hit the venue. By the way, this is the time when you can just take the morning catering anymore. White bread, cheese slices and ham slices, potato chips, soda, maybe few bananas and that’s it. No thank you, not anymore. Today is the birthday of Aleksi Munter (StS keyboard player), who has played also with Insomnium on many tours. Aleksi got message that Finland’s biggest music magazine, Soundi, had chosen all three of his bands in top three on the category of best metal album of the year (1. Ghost Brigade, 2. Swallow the Sun and 3. Insomnium). Just to celebrate this fine day we decided that it’s already time for good whiskey. Some Dalwhinnie and Glennfiddich from bus and we were ready to go. Nice. Otherwise this day was nothing special: load in, setting up the gear and building of the merch stand by Jukka. No one cared to go anywhere, we just sit there until we got probably the worst pizza ever for dinner. Then some more whiskey, beer and wine and we were ready to go. The crowd was really good again and we returned to the stage with one encore. Let the drinking begin! I don’t know how we managed to pack our stuff during the night. I think I was the Tetris master (guy fitting all the stuff to their own places) that night. I remember we were drinking in a bus after we ventured to the near by sports bar and drunk till morning. Hooray for us! We also invented new term: bussimossaus (freely translated as bus moshing). The definition follows: drunken (passed) bald man whose head stumbles on the table of the bus along the bumps on the road.

Top 3

1 Happy Hippi!

Ville Friman/INSOMNIUM

15.12.2009 Tuesday

2009-12-23T19:34:00.000+02:00

We arrived to Bratislava around 11:30 am and had three hours to do some sightseeing on the city center. This was really good choice for a change because we hadn’t seen people for a while and got actually chance to buy some Christmas presents. It was nice sunny day even though it was pretty cold. We found our way to the city center rather easily. While most of the bunch hit some XXX shop, Aleksi and I headed to the old town. After short walk we decided to go and have a pizza in some nice looking restaurant and naturally, some nice morning beers. I was just about to call to the other guys when I saw rest of the bunch walk pass the restaurant. Next thing I saw these idiots waving to us from the entrance. One idiot will always find another! After some nice pizza and bad humor we decided to head back to the bus. Of course we did not buy any presents again. When we got to the bus we saw police writing ticket for our driver from faulty bus parking. It’s just so much easier to take the ticket because you seldom can found any parking space for a bus anywhere near the big city centers. After a while we were in Randal club and loaded in our stuff immediately. The place was bit awkward, the FOH was really bad and the backstage was about two square meters big. Great success. Also, we had one local band opening which means us bit more hassle during the first changeover. We managed to pass the time somehow shows and had pretty good chicken dinner for a change ;) The audience was really good for all of us and I decided to try to taste some alcohol after being sick and sober for over week. Man I tell you it tasted fine! We had good traditional metal party evening and everyone passed one by one happily from this night’s endeavors!

Idiots gather to listen holy word...

"Hyvää joulua Kaitsulle toivoo Haitsu!!

Raivio is so Gothic!

Ville Friman/INSOMNIUM

14.12.2009 Monday

2009-12-23T19:28:00.000+02:00

I started to feel already a lot better when we arrived to the gig place (ARENA). It was already dark and the temperature had gone down to several degrees. In other words, it started to really feel like winter! We entered first to separate building to eat something before the load in. Luckily we had internet connection and time was also spent by checking news, e-mails and updating Facebook statuses. One peculiar thing with this room was that there were no radiators but the room was heated with one huge stove. Once and a while one gansta rapper looking guy entered and added some more wood. Of course the smell reminded us from Finnish sauna and thi guys heating the room in this place was bit absurd. But hey, it worked out and we had nice warm room to heat our wretched bones. It also seemed that the everlasting partying had took its toll. In other words “Simba on ainakin ihan miinuksella”.

After some food we loaded in our gear and checked the venue in the other side of the property. Good-looking place. Maybe a bit punk but that’s nothing new on this tour, hah hah… After setting the gear we just spent time telling bad jokes etc. Before opening the doors we decided to go and set up our FX and guitars on rack. Unfortunately, my guitar was not to be found. After checking the trailer and going the place upside down few times I realized that it must have been forgotten somewhere to Italy. I was so pissed off that I could have strangled someone. While I was lying in my bunk in fever and enjoying my pneumonia other guys had carried my stuff to the venue and forgot them partly there. Of course this is very human. The conditions after the shows are sometimes really bad. There is not enough light and you are in hurry because some fucking disco will start in five minutes. But still, I was so mad…I managed to loan Harris guitar (OG) and managed to pull the gig somehow. It was horrible because I really can’t play with V-style guitar. At all. Audience was great though. After the show I was so angry that I couldn’t speak to anyone. I just packed my stuff and got out the room. It was just so shame that I could not deliver my best because I did not have proper equipment. You could think that there is not that big difference between guitars but when you play about 100 shows with the same axe and with certain string set it’s really hard to adjust to some other guitars especially in live situation.

After few hours I started to cool down a bit and was able to took it like a man instead of a whining asshole. In the end, what can you do, this is exactly how life goes sometimes. Luckily there is not that many gigs left and hopefully I will get my guitar back someday. Yet, I strongly felt that this day was not really a party day either…

Scenery from my bunk on our first stop of the day 10:00 am

Scenery from my bunk on our second stop of the day 13:00 am

Wien Arena Backstage

The stove

Hangover combined to flu = awesomeness!

Ville Friman/INSOMNIUM

13.12.2009 Sunday

2009-12-16T18:11:00.000+02:00

Ugh. When I woke up I felt finally bit better. I hadn’t left my Bunk since Munchen and felt bit weak. That’s probably because I had not eaten anything for two days either. I noticed that we were still in Italy in some small place called Arcene. We were bit early and the promoter booked us dayrooms in hotel so we could take quick showers. The shower really came in need after all fewer and sweat. Even though it was really great to see that the antibiotics were kicking pneumonia’s ass they also had slight side effects: terrible diarrhea. I noticed this at the hotel and started to eat bit more some other medicine to keep my bowels in order. In Immodium we trust I tell you.

The Venue itself was bit odd for metal concerts. It had mirrors and white leather coaches everywhere so that the overall feeling resembled mostly Miami Vice. The temperature had gone down as well and it was starting to get bit chilly. We had some sandwiches for breakfast after I went to rest in bus while other guys built up the backline. I was feeling rather weak still so we decided that I would still rest for one more night. Big hand to Markus Vanhala for making this possible. He even learnt few more songs to set regardless of the fact that there was hardly any time. What I heard about the rest of evening was that there were not that many people there but they were really enthusiastic and the shows went great! I also heard that the bar served free drinks which where very strong. I actually noticed this myself when the army of drunken monkeys invaded the bus after midnight. From that moment the shouting went on until the morning…again.

Ville Friman/INSOMNIUM

12.12.2009 Saturday

2009-12-16T16:25:00.000+02:00

The day of hardships. Traffic in Rome gets to the top three of shittiest driving and traffic jams in Europe: London, Paris, Rome. Sun was already descending beyond the horizon when I got up from the bunk. It felt that we had been closing in to Rome for an eternity and more and more traffic lights and jammed intersections just kept coming. Finally we made it to the venue. With the aid of two Ron Jeremy –looking policemen and half an hour of desperate trying the driver was finally able to park the bus to the entrance.

If weather had been rather harsh last night it was surely mild now. There were palm trees growing in the garden and the overall atmosphere was totally different. No wonder, we had made our way almost a thousand clicks south last night. We loaded in and StS made the sound check.

At this point the gloomy reality caught up with me. Ville Friman had been in high fever last night, and he certainly wasn’t looking any better now. In fact, he hadn’t gotten up from the bunk even when we had loaded in, which is very uncommon for him. Due to my daytime job I have some medical expertise that can be valuable the road. I did a quick check on him, and concluded nothing less than pneumonia. He was doing poorly, had high fever despite the normal painkillers he had taken and he could barely stand up. I doped him up with a sledgehammer amount of antibiotics, some anti-inflammatory drugs and painkillers. It was obvious that he couldn’t play, so he stayed in bunk without questioning. I knew that if he would still have fever 24 hours after the first dose of antibiotics, we would have to take him to a hospital and that would be the end of the tour for him.

Despite the setbacks and hardships the tour goes on like a freight train. We had the whole of two hours before OG would hit the stage, and Markus Vanhala would be the only guy on this tour ingenious enough to be able to jump into Friman’s boots in that time. That request in that time is quite insane, but with extreme dedication and non-stop playing he was able to pick up six songs for our set. I assisted the best I could and we cut some corners wherever it was possible.

The venue wasn’t crowded at all. We had two local opening acts, but I did not hear a single note of their sets, I was too busy medicating Friman and having rehearsals with Vanhala. OG pulled a decent show despite the lack of audience, about 30 people scattered around the venue. Then a quick change-over and we hit the stage with our new line-up. Intro was already playing when Niilo tested his bass and mentioned that he has somehow a distortion in his bass tonight. It sounded weird. At the same time Vanhala noted some strange noise from his guitar cabinet. Yep, their wireless transmitters were on the same frequency. Great. Markus dashed up to stage to switch the wireless to a cable. He was ready no sooner than last second. We played set of thirty minutes and gave the best we had. Just hope for the best and prepare for the worst and then let it burn. The gig went pretty well considering the circumstances. I just couldn’t help laughing as Vanhala was nailing down the songs. That is professional.

After the show we hanged at the backstage and “enjoyed” the absence of showers. We did one interview with a Spanish magazine and the watched the rest of StS’s show. People started to enter the club in halfway of their set, but unfortunately they were not after the band. When the show ended the place turned into a gothic disco. The catch was that we had to load out immediately, and that had to happen through the audience. It was a load-out from hell. Strobo-lights, insanely loud disco music and swarming masses of dancing people didn’t make the long way of carrying the equipment any shorter. It was total chaos all the way. Everybody was pissed off. Some of us lifted their mood by entering the disco afterwards and some of us just sat in the bus with grumpy faces consuming all the booze we had left. I belonged to that grumpy unit, the Finnish way. We cursed our rotten luck and this evening to hell. I stayed awake till the buss call (4:30am) and then crawled to my bunk. Long drive ahead once again. So long Rome, we’ll be back. In some other life.

Ville Vänni/INSOMNIUM

11.12.2009 Friday

2009-12-16T16:17:00.000+02:00

I slept all the way to München. The climate had changed drastically. We had walked around in T-shirts in sunny Paris and now it sleeted in München. We loaded in and set up the gear with routine. The venue was nice and spacious, and so was the backstage. We had some vacant time so we decided to do some jogging. After being sick for a couple of days a nice little run felt good and I didn’t even mind the rain. And of course the hot shower afterwards was a great luxury.

I was surprised that the venue was literally packed with people. OG pulled a killer show and warmed up the audience really good. Then it was our turn, and off we went. It was clearly among the very best shows we’ve ever played. Sound was clear, there was a good flow in our playing and the crowd reaction was amazing. We did the be(a)st we could for those fifty minutes and finalized the show with an encore, Devoid of Caring. It’s becoming a routine for us. Our European booking agent was watching the show, and we were more than pleased to hear that he was 100% convinced about our show.

We had showers once again, chilled out at the backstage and loaded out after the curfew. The mood was high and we all felt like partying. Well, almost all, Ville Friman went to bunk straight away to get a good rest. We had the usual after show bus party, people sitting in the lounge, drinking red wine, listening to music and just talking this and that. We started our 950km drive to Rome and the party went on. We drove through a blizzard when crossing the Alps, so that added some excitement to our trip. Last recollection about that night was that I was sitting next to the driver’s seat watching the sunrise over the mountains. Pretty impressive sight. Hello Italy, here we come.

Some rum and tea to cure the tour flu...

Zukram

Jarno doing some erotic joga!

Ville Vänni/INSOMNIUM

10.12.2009 Thursday

2009-12-11T20:04:00.000+02:00

The maintenance day, once again. I had had a bizarre night sleeping in hotel bed. I have gotten so used to my waving bunk bed that this felt almost unnatural. I just kept waking up all the time wondering where I was. Hot showers, hot meals and plenty of sleep had still recharged my batteries.

We were supposed to do the laundry during the day off, but by fucking up the schedules we had found our dirty clothes to be locked in the bus and the driver was in other hotel sleeping. Now he was on his heels again, so it was the optimal time window for the task. I had already hunted down a nice coin-operated laundry service down the close by alley. We washed and dried our reeking clothes and had breakfast at local café. Then checking out of the hotel, back to the tour bus and then to the venue (which was literally next to the parked tour bus). We had coffee and loaded in with the help of local stage-hands. They were helpful and the venue had good premises, so it looked good again. Some of us are still in flu and spent the most of the day just sleeping and resting. I’m ok,, so I had a walk and did my usual gear maintenance. I have developed some kind of a routine to keep my gear and myself functional on the road. Here is how it works for me:

1. Clean guitar after every show, and always wear sweatbands to avoid excess dirt on chrome hardware. Change strings and wireless transmitter’s battery after every three or four hours of playing live.

2. Set up your own gear to make sure it is up and running the way it’s supposed to be. If in any doubt, check and double-check it. Always line-check before going to stage. Pack your own gear after show to know everything is in place. This part can also be done by a trusted guitar technician, but since we are touring with low budgets we have none. So it’s DIY all the way.

3. Have a spare guitar ready for every show. Have spare parts or replacement options for every possible piece of equipment. Be ready to cut corners and improvise if there is a technical breakdown. We have four amps on this road, so you can always borrow a spare one if your own is broken. You don’t have to have double of every item but you have to make sure beforehand that there is enough backline for the back-up gear on the road.

4. Make effort to pack the trailer decently. Bumpy roads will claim their victims, no matter how smooth the driver is. Bear in mind that everything that is not secured in hard cases will eventually break up. In 2006 the backline company didn’t issue us hard cases for the guitar heads, so we broke three amps in ten days. It means trouble.

5. Take good care of your personal health and hygiene and put some effort to it. Every venue does not have a shower, so sometimes you have to improvise or tolerate a couple of days without.

6. We’re all pouring sweat on the stage, so the clothes get wet. Hang them to dry whenever possible. You won’t get them dry under these conditions, but damp is better than soaking wet.

7. Have a stock of socks, underwear and shirts for at least ten days without laundry. Do laundry whenever there is a chance to do so.

8. Do not bitch and moan. Better bands have toured in worse conditions. Be prepared but have fun, ‘cause that’s what this is all about.

Well, then back to our day in Paris. Afternoon was comprised of maintenance, chilling out and enjoying the French catering. Absolutely nothing to complain about it. Then the venue opened and people swarmed in. I anticipated this to be good show from the crowd reaction OG had. They blasted a fierce set and got a really good response. So did we on our turn. Audience was full on from the first note, and we kept going till Devoid of Caring as an encore. She sound was brilliant and we really enjoyed our time on the stage. Niilo was still recovering from his flu, but somehow he managed to find the energy to growl and subdue all the way through.

After the show I had a strange experience of taking an ice cold shower in total darkness. So there is some room for improvement in those shower facilities I guess :) Some of us took that ride, some of us naturally skipped it. Then the basic load out, bus call and on we went to Munich. The drive is going to be long, so I stayed up for a while. No partying this night, just the usual chit-chat and few beers. Crawl to bunk, close the curtains, lights out. Goodbye France.

Sukram did some sightseeiing while the others were sick...(Sorry about lack of photos for few days. there will be plenty of more once I get well, T: Ville F./INSOMNIUM)

Ville Vänni/INSOMNIUM

9.12.2009 Wednesday

2009-12-11T20:03:00.000+02:00

The day off in Paris. Nothing to report, just laying low. Believe it if you want to.

8.12.2009 Tuesday

2009-12-11T20:01:00.001+02:00

We had had “rough seas” crossing the English Canal last night and the insane party went on even through France. I was still feeling dizzy when I woke up some time in the afternoon. We were already parked to the front of the venue in Amersfoort and people were loading into the venue. The venue was classy – good backstage and stage, good catering, hot showers and toilets. We set up the gear and did the usual checks in easy-going fashion. Then we spent just few hours of hanging out and killing the hangover. I did one interview with Markus for a local metal magazine and then we just went on with our recovery.

We hit the stage when we were supposed to. Niilo was having a bad flu, so the expectations were not that high. Somehow we still managed to pull off a good show, especially me, Markus and Aleksi enjoyed our time on stage. The sound was clear and audience seemed to accept us very well - we got the people to hail us with hands sin the air. Last time we played in Holland in 2006 with Satyricon, and then there was just a heavy stench of weed on the air. This show kicked some ass, so we will be back some day.

We had showers and some wine as StS played their set. Now was their turn to have technical problems. Apparently the audience was disobeying the indoor smoking prohibition. Fire alarm went off during the encore killing all the electricity from the stage. Well, they eventually got the hall aired and encores went on.

We loaded out in an undisciplined fashion and hanged out for a couple of hours. Hangover had turned to high spirits hence the 18 liters of red wine we had bought from the ferry last night. We hit the road for Paris and party went on in the bus as usual. After a couple of hours we had covered two thirds of the night’s mileage and the sun was already flaring the horizon. For the first time we reached a mutual decision to hit than bunks rather than pass out, and so the party was over. Hello Paris, here we come!

Quote of the day: “Jumalauta kun mie alan täyttämään sanaristikoita niin silloin pölisee! Mie keksin uusia kieliä! Ja jos joku kysyy miksi tähän tulee tämmöistä niin sanon, että se nyt vaan on niin!” –Nekro-Sukram aka Druid Sniffers

Ville Vänni/INSOMNIUM

7.12.2009 Monday

2009-12-11T19:41:00.001+02:00

When I woke up we were driving already in London area and finding our way to Camden Underworld. It took still about one hour to get there to just see that we could not par anywhere. After on hour we were back and find a place for the bus finally. We loaded in our gears immediately as people were pretty anxious to get to see all the shops and sights in Camden. Niilo was starting to feel bit sick and we only visited comic book shop nearby. I finally found the complete series of From Hell and returned happy to the venue. Luckily we had working Internet connection and we spent time before the doors by reading and writing emails and checking some news. We were also lucky to get few boxes of lost merchandise to the venue so that we had actually something to sell for the fans. Time before our show went past pretty quickly and when we hit the stage we instantly knew that this gig would be awesome. And yes, it really was what we anticipated. The crowd was just really great and we really gave our all again. After the show I just went to the shower just to notice that there was no warm water left. Well, you only have to use a bit your imagination and vision that it is Finnish summer and you are just about to go to swim; pretty much the same thing. After the show we went to mingle and see some of the great audience. We also met people from the Candlelight who kindly provided us some nice shot of fine liquor. This meant only one thing: Das Metal Party! And one hell of a party it was and continued far to the next morning. We crossed the sea with ferry and naturally refilled our booze supplies along the way. We also had to search for Mikko’s passport for 1 hour before getting through the customs. In the end everything went fine and we found the missing object under the mattress of Mikko’s bunk. I think Toni from OG and me were the last ones up and we witnessed one of the most beautiful sunrises on this trip. This of course led to some deep shit conversation about the wonders of the nature and other related stuff. Nevertheless, we were both quite amazed and went finally sleep very happy.

The picture tells it all...

Mr. Tour manager and kaimaani

Ville Friman/INSOMNIUM

6.12.2009 Sunday

2009-12-08T20:52:00.000+02:00

I woke up Nottingham time X. We went to some sightseeing and had traditional English breakfast at the local Turkish café. Of course I had to finish few ciders first even to get out of the bunk. All I could see was grey buildings, trash and abandoned human belongings. And the stench of piss loomed heavily on us. I knew that this day would be pretty hard for us and I think the touring really started to feel in our wretched bones. Anyway, that’s the life on tour boys and girls! After getting some food we hit the venue called Seven which was quite small place. You had to do the load in to the second floor through small corridor. And yes, the smell of piss hanged still upon us. I mean, is it really so hard to actually make decent toilet facilities in England? Really, I can honestly say that the situation in UK is even worse than in Russia…It really get to your nerves when you can not take dump because there is no toilet seat even talking about some paper to wipe your sorry ass…And of course, there’s no warm water to wash your hands and very seldom showers. The show itself was pretty fucking good, thank you all the crazy people out there! But man, it was so hot on stage that I probably lost few liters of water just by sweating. Anyway, it was really great show and we gave our all for you guys there! After the gig I was so tired that I just went directly to my bunk and decided to sleep over this otherwise gloomy day. Roger for that!

Ville Friman/INSOMNIUM

5.12.2009 Saturday

2009-12-08T20:03:00.000+02:00

We woke up at Newcastle. The bus was already parked in front of the venue, but we had to wait a couple of hours before we could get in. So we went for a stroll to the city. It was like a carnival going on, all the thoroughfares were crowded and people were shopping for Christmas. We stopped at a café and had a heavy English breakfast. Healthy and nutritious At this point I did not yet know that it would be my only meal.

We got to the venue and loaded in. It was a huge place where we had played three years before with Satyricon. Now we had own back stage rooms, showers and catering, then we had none. So things are evolving :)
The load-in was quite a strain, lots and lots of stairs and heavy hard cases to haul. We got it done and built up the gear. I had a disconnection somewhere in my effect rack which needed to be fixed now, so I took some time to go through all the settings and cables. I found the fault and replaced the broken cable. Success! But then the downhill started. Kai was installing drum pedals while sitting in his drum stool. Suddenly he had a furious cramp in his lower back and fell to the floor screaming. I did a quick examination and concluded that to be a lumbago. Kai was too sore to move, and we couldn’t even move him from behind the drums. I doped him up with pretty heavy load of ibuprofein, parasetamol, codein and orfenadrin, and then we just waited for about forty minutes for the drugs to kick in. He was still lying on the floor unable to move and sweated like a rapist. There was nothing funny about it, though. We couldn’t get him up and he was too sore to be moves. We didn’t have a stretcher so we had to call paramedics. They arrived and we got Kai to a wheelchair with a shit load of nitrous oxide. He was weak and pale as snow, and started to develop shock symptoms. So the only option was to drive him to a hospital.

Markus and Jarmo started to rehearse StS songs to replace Kai in the evening.
I decided to escort Kai to hospital and keep people updated how things were going. They took us to Newcastle Central Hospital’s emergency centre. It was pretty crowded, I think that there had been a football match during the day because there was a hall full of beaten up people with football shirts on. Kai was starting to recover from the shock and they took us to a low-priority waiting hall. Kai lied in bed and eventually started to move his legs a bit. I stood beside him and tried to cheer him up. We just waited till we got bored. Kai hadn’t eaten anything so I bought a Snickers bar from a vending machine. That was the ultimate drug to magic recovery. “Perkele, eiköhän myö tänään keikka soiteta. Ei tää täällä pötköttelemällä muutu miksikään.” Un-fucking-believable! Kai made his way out of the hospital bed, we said hi to the attending nurse and took a taxi back to the venue.

The joy and relief of the whole crew was beyond words to describe when we made our way back. Omnium Gatherum started to play and they nailed a really god show. We followed their example and pulled quite a killer show too, the crowd was enthusiastic. But the spectacle of Swallow the Sun was yet to come. Kai did a magic recovery, but he was still quite sore and dizzy from all the drugs I had given him. He felt unsure about going to stage, so our Markus replaced him for three first songs. Quite demanding tempos and progressive songs, and Markus fucking nailed them. Crowd cheered, and for a good reason. Kai decided to give a shot and played the rest of the gig. His playing was spectacular as usual, but his eyes were crossed and he had kind of “I’m lost” –expression on his face. Well done.

We had a really quick load out after the show, there was another event starting just a hour after our shows. Then quick showers, looting the backstage and back to the bus. Some of the guys went to a night club at the same venue to dance and have good time, but I really didn’t feel like rave party after this day. So we had few drinks in the bus and listened to some music. I decided to call it a day and went to my bunk. The Black Dahlia Murder’s Deflorate soothed me to sleep.

Famous English breakfast, or the coffee of it...

Kai had problem with his back and the general mood came crushing down...

OG soundchecking...

Ville Vänni/INSOMNIUM

4.12.2009 Friday

2009-12-07T18:31:00.000+02:00

Ugh and aargh….I woke up 4 pm in Glasgow to worst hangover ever. Harri had stayed up until morning with me and was feeling my pain. We started to load in our gears immediately and once we got out Harri vomited to the nearest thrash bin. Great success. We had had really great show yesterday evening and I got also information that I got funding from the Academy from Finland for the next two years. So it was my time to turn out to complete idiot and do my share of yelling and screaming. However, I was paying the price now with heavy interests. I managed to pull out the sow somehow and the audience was really great. After the show we wrote some signatures and went to shower. One our fan also took pictures of us on stage, thanks for that Kristine (www.kr-foto.com)! When we had load out our gear I went directly to bed and fell immediately sleep.

Somewhere midway to Glasgow...

Jämy ja Mikko

Yep yep...

Harri Pikka comtemplates...

Over and out...

Ville Friman/INSOMNIUM

3.12.2009 Thursday

2009-12-05T18:12:00.001+02:00

We arrived to Manchester about noon. The gig place looked like abandoned building and no one was there yet to open the doors. So we decided to do some sight seeing with Aapo, Matti and M.Vanhala in Manchester city centre even though it rained a bit. After walking a while we found Subway, got some coffee and sandwiches and were able to visit toilet. Then we bought few umbrellas and it stopped raining almost immediately. Another testimony that reverse-psychology does actually work! The OG guys remembered that there was some cool metal shops just nearby as OG had been playing in Manchester previously back in 2006. On the way we found cool comic book store and I was able to get the Alan Moore’s first two books of League of extraordinary gentlemen. Unfortunately the complete volume from hell was out. Yes, I’m a comic nerd and proud of it! We also got instructions to enter the metal shop thingy and went there to get some new caps, belts, shirts and stuff. It was actually a huge warehouse full of small shops selling everything form retro to Goth, skateboarding and metal stuff. In other words, you could have entered there as regular John and come out looking like Andy McCoy. We could have spent easily hundred of pounds there but luckily we run out of cash pretty quick. After that we decided we need more coffee and got some from nearby Starbucks.

Now I’m sitting in bus and zipping some strong bow. Playing a tourist for a day did good job by killing the normal bus boredom. In the meanwhile I could share my top-five of touring essentials I normally carry with me on the road.

1.) My laptop. This is by far the most important equipment on the road. You can access Internet once in a while and of course you can easily carry loads of movies, music and TV-series with you. I just bought new 13 inch Macbook Pro and equipped it also with Logic studio 9 so I’m able to work on new stuff on the road. Normally I also carry some work with me but now I just took few manuscripts to work on and try to concentrate on touring life.

2.) My digital camera. I’ve been carrying my Canon ixus 900ti with me on every tour and try to document life on tour. I really enjoy taking photographs from different places and you can get pretty good shots with this piece at least in daylight. Luckily I haven’t lost it yet!

3.) Good book. I try to finish at least one book every tour. This time I took something light with me: Post Office by Bukowski. I haven’t started it yet though. Maybe tonight…

4.) Mobile phone. You need to keep in contact to home and there’s always good possibility that you get lost from other guys and need to find your way to bus by yourself. Currently I carry crappy Nokia with me but I think I’ll get the new iPhone soon…

5.) Bunch of small practical things including some basic medicine, extension cords, adapters, coat hangers (to dry your gig clothes), shampoo etc.

In the end there really isn’t that many things you need in your normal life. These are however my essentials that keeps me going from place to place for month or so.

To the gig itself…The place was really small also from inside but we had pretty high stage and managed to put all our equipments together. I went to read some comics to my bunk before the show and went to see Omnium Gatherum. Unfortunately the electricity went off at some point of their show. Luckily it was only temporary and they managed to continue the gig. When we went on stage the audience went completely nuts and I think we had best show on this tour yet. Thank you Manchester! Evening was spent in the name of metal party and total mayhem continued until 11:00 am.

“Tänään huudan minä!” Ville Friman 08:45 am.

The Venue

Merry Aapo

Lead guitarist

Ville Friman/INSOMNIUM

2.12.2009 Wednesday

2009-12-05T18:02:00.001+02:00

Hello Wrexham. I woke up at 11 o’clock. We were already parked in front of the club, and we had an engine break down in the bus. Markuses (Hirvonen & Jämsen) were just going to sleep, or more like passing out. They were completely hammered.
I was not on a particularly good mood. I had found two empty beer cans at my bunk last night and their contains were naturally absorbed to my blanket and mattress. Those beers weren’t mine, but now I had had to sleep in a pool of lager. Fuck. I took my blanket to the venue and hanged it to dry. Then we went out for a stroll with Niilo and Jukka (the tour manager). We had some kind of breakfast in a pub and then we lent a hotel room for the day. The venues didn’t have a shower and we were in desperate need for a one. I had a shower, shaved and dried my clothes with a hair dryer. I was newborn.

The afternoon was the usual. Load-in, sound checks, hanging out and killing time. We had vacant time, so I went for a jog with Jarmo. 6km of running improved my status as a human being, and the available shower option made it even more pleasurable. The initial idea was that Toni and Sukram (Markus H.) would join us, but they were still recovering from last night’s adventures. Sports don’t mix well with killer hangovers.

The venue opened at 7pm. We had one local opener which I missed completely. OG had a good gig, even though the crowd was pretty small, something line 70 people in a huge club. Our gig was a cluster of unfortunate technical problems. Worst gig this far. Niilo broke the lowest string on his bass during the first song and somehow panicked. Vocals turned to be like “Varmo! Varmooo! Passo! Passo!”. Well, he got a replacement from Toni and the show went on. During The Killjoy the lights went totally out. We played in total darkness while someone from the audience tried to shed some light to the stage with cell phone’s flashlight. They got the lights working again at some point. Rest of the gig contained some malfunctions in wireless guitar, experiments on fifth bass string, hangover-inspired drum fills and total chaos in monitoring. Well, we got it done anyway, and some people even seemed to be enthusiastic about this circus. Not our strongest night.

After the gig I had my third shower for the day (luxury!) at the hotel, and we loaded out. We had still some time to kill before bus call, so we ended up sitting in the lounge in bus, drinking beer and soft drinks and just chatting. It was nice and easygoing. We did actually have some meaningful conversations instead of that usual drunken screaming contest. It was nearly five when I went to bunk and fell asleep. The bus had been fixed during the day and off we went. Tomorrow I will wake up in Manchester.

Then some facts about our tour bus. We’re doing this tour with a night liner, so this is our home and transportation at the same time. The other option would be a van for transport and hotels for sleeping, but this bunch of hippies would require several vans and we’d still have trouble with the backline and merchandise. This bus can run 100km per hour, but normally the maximum traveling speed is around 80 km/h to keep the load more stable. The idea is that we drive at night to avoid traffic jams and then rest during the days when the bus is parked at the venues we play. Driver sleeps when we work and vice versa. Busses engine runs a generator and inverter, so we can use normal electrical equipment at all times. When the bus is parked, we hook it up with high voltage power cable. If that is not available, we just have to run the engine. Environment says thank you. Hippies say Bää!

This bus is a double-decker specially built for touring. At downstairs there are two lounges with seats and tables, two TVs, Playstation (but no games…), DVD-player, pretty well equipped kitchen (microwave oven, espresso maker, fridge, toaster, and water boiler) and toilet. Toilet is strictly for number one only. Otherwise we’d be drowning in shit, now we just have to bear the stench of urine. Then there are cupboards and a separate room for luggage storage.

Backline and merchandise travels in a huge four-wheeled trailer. Like I’ve said before, we’re sharing the backline, so on this tour loading the trailer is not so frustrating. There is only one backline and then some spare amps and drums. Merchandise boxes take about two thirds of the space. It’s good to have a decent stock with us, so we don’t have to have new shipments so often. Those shipments only tend to fail and get lost.

Then there is the upstairs. Long aisle runs in the middle parallel to the length axis of the bus, i.e. from the rear to the front. Along the aisle there are 16 bunks, on both sides in two-story fashion. The bunks are about 190x60 cm and 60cm in height. There are curtains and lights on every bunk, so we can have an illusion of privacy when we’re lying in our coffins. Driver has a separate bunk built between the luggage room and down stair lounge, so he has some more noise isolation. We try to keep quiet upstairs so people can sleep. That is an illusion though. The bunks are something like four meters from the ground, so we’re sleeping at the tip of the pendulum when the bus is moving. Bumpy roads and thin mattresses ensure that no-on sleeps well. The cherry on the top is the never-ending partying, which tends to yield quite a riot from time to time. So the name of the game is that you sleep whenever you can in short naps and try not to get too sleep deprived. The more tired you get the better you sleep, but you can never get fully rested on tour. We don’t mind, this is the life we chose. And this is death metal, not a boy-choir class trip. Over and out.

Merch stand

The Venue

Varmo

Hippotalamus

Raivio

The picture tells it all...

Preparing for the OG show...

Ville Vänni/INSOMNIUM

1.12.2009 Tuesday

2009-12-02T19:28:00.001+02:00

I woke up pretty fresh in Leeds. Unfortunately we were playing on the smaller venue, which turned out to be rather crappy place. The place did not have even microphone cables and we had only one working monitor. Small things really, but these things can make you bit frustrated on the road. We headed first to noodle place, got some coffee from Starbucks and quickly load in our gear. However, we did not have the necessary cables even one hour before the doors. Fuck!!! Most of us headed to Indian restaurant while I grabbed sandwich from Subway and updated our blog in the bus. Eventually we got few cables, managed to pull out technical problems somehow and were able to play shows. Luckily there were almost 100 people there to watch us to play and evening turned out to be really success. Thank you all the good people of Leeds to coming to see us! We ended up drinking a bit, loaded our gear to the bus and hit the road to Wrexham. We made pit stop at Tesco 24hours to grab some more beer somewhere along the road. After that some of us went to sleep and some baldheads decided to drink and scream for the whole night until 10 am. If this continues I’m pretty sure there will be some serious acts of violence in the future. Hopefully these heroes get tired at some point so that the more mellow people can get their night sleep. Over and out!

“Äiti sanoi, että mehua ei saa juoda kahta päivää putkeen!” – Kai Hahto 08:30

Leeds

Noodle place

Hail seitan!

Artsyfartsy

Hippolice

Serious drinking

Yep

Ville Friman/INSOMNIUM

30.11.2009 Monday

2009-12-02T15:47:00.000+02:00

I was asleep for the first half of the day. We had had a crazy party going on last night, and people hanged up in tour buses lounge jus drinking vodka and yelling. I think it was nine o’clock when the last musicians passed out. I had been sleeping for few hours, even though the noise was pretty insane. People were so drunk that communication was just atonal screaming.

So yes, we are getting into the very core of tour life. People’s way of talking has already started to degenerate. New words and phrases are made up every day to be repeated endlessly and followed by a mongoloid giggle. The stench is getting fiercer, you will probably need a machete to cut through the jungle of reek and dirty clothing to your bunk down the aisle. Maintaining personal hygiene is the most demanding task of the day. There is moist and sweaty laundry everywhere, and no way of getting it dry or clean. We’re in England, so the venues mostly don’t have showers. And on top of this all, we’re enjoying this hellride and having the time of our lives!

Anyway. It was 2pm when I got up. We had been driving all night and made it soon to Plymouth. Local Burger King provided us with nutritious and healthy breakfast before we got to the venue. The venue was quite small, narrow but long space with a bar on one long wall and the stage in the end. We did quick load-in and sound checks. With this crew and backline the load-ins and –outs are easy and can be done in ten minutes, which saves us from lots of trouble and hard labor.

The evening was kind of laid back. I had a stroll at the city peer with Markus (Hirvonen) and Jarmo just to get some air. Besides that, killing time was the usual: facebook, emails, music, porn, food, beer, silly jokes, singing Scatman tunes and maintaining the instruments. There’s something for everyone :)

Our merchandise distributor had yet again an ace in the sleeve. We had a small stock brought with us from Finland, which we had already pretty much sold out. I received that delivery to my home in Joensuu no less than minute before we had to hit the road, but that one did make it. Now we were supposed to get bigger delivery at Plymouth to keep us going through the Europe. Now we were told that these boxes were lost and they had ended somewhere to Germany. Sweet. Last time that happened in Belgium 2007, we had a shit load of delivered merchandise dropped to some wrong location and we never saw them. But of course we had to pay for them. Now the distributor sent us some emergency delivery, which actually made it through in the evening. But yet we have to un-fuck this colossal cluster fuck-up somehow, ‘cause we’re running low on merch. No merchandise means no money, and no money means no good. But we have managed this kind of situations before, and we will do it again.

We had one local support band for tonight, and I must say that it sounded pretty good. Usually that is not the case (especially in US), but this time I enjoyed their set. We had good sets everyone, I was surprised by how good atmosphere there was despite the Monday-evening –factor and the ghost of hangover looming upon us.. We played the normal set and did Devoid of Caring for an encore. It was great.

After shows we loaded out in disciplined fashion. Everybody was tired, so people disappeared to their bunks pretty soon. I had a walk with Markus again and we searched a night shop and got some English pies and something to bus for breakfast. I stayed awake yet for a while and fell asleep when the bus started moving. Kaitsu and Mikko had come back from local bar and the screaming went on. They are party animals. I knew little of that; noises of the road soothed me to sleep.

A word or two yet about touring. We have decided to write a short series of articles about tour related stuff. Partly to document these things for ourselves, but mainly to give some insight about life on tour to those who have not seen this life in person. Today’s lecture is about the Holy Bible. Our Holy Bible is the tour itinerary, i.e. tour book. That can be jus a pile of printed sheets or then a complete hard-top book. You get the bible from tour manager or booking agent sometime before the tour begins, and you treat it like your passport. You do not loose it very often, that is.
Tour book contains the contact information on all the bands on tour. Then the info of the tour manager, bus driver, technicians, FOH sound, merchandise, light engineer, bus company, backline company, booking agency, work permits, airports and customs.

Then there are the day sheets. Moses wrote ten sheets or something like that a few thousand years ago. They are pretty useless for us, we need a brand new sheet every day. A day sheet holds the date, country, city and info on the venue. Contact info of the promoter, local FOH, monitor and light technicians, stage manager and stage hands. Info on venue’s capacity, showers, laundry service (usually none), stage size and clearance. Then the backstages, bus parking, bus power, loading distance and elevation (stairs/elevator).

Then the schedule: get in, load in, breakfast, dinner, sound checks, stage times, curfew, load out and buss call. Then it holds the information about the next day – the traveling arrangements, driving distance and duration. That’s pretty much it. The catch is that you have to have all that information available in advance, and accessible at all times to keep this circus moving. Tour manager is the high priest of this bible, we the humble servants. So we read just about the showers and dinner :) But when you learn to live from day to day by that book, you hold to it and depend on it.
A basic example about the strength of believing to the Bible: An anonymous musician had lost his stash of weed somewhere in the tour bus on European tour 2007. He was drunk, and the piece of information had just slipped from his memory. Instead of trying to find that weed he was desperately reading the tour book with eyes crossed. Why? Because that book holds all the answers you seek and will eventually guide you to the treasure. Believe! God is great! Satan is fabulous!
Over and out.

Arriving to Plymouth

Before and after...

Yep!

Busses...

Bunch of Zombies

Almighty Jämy!

Idiot

Backstage

Pimp my paitamyyjä

The bar

Ville Vänni/INSOMNIUM

29.11.2009 Sunday

2009-11-30T20:16:00.001+02:00

We woke up in Vosselaar Belgium somewhere around 2 pm. We have been playing in this venue before with Amorphis tour and knew what to expect. The place is nice but only access to the backstage is through the stage. In addition, the air is very damp and full of mould and other microbes. Anyway, they had put up pretty nice breakfast for us so it was all good! They also had wlan so I was able to update blog for you guys. We had pretty easy Sunday afternoon, paid a visit to the nearby metal shop, got some booze from grocery across the road and started to prepare for gig. The gig itself was ok. We were bit tired from yesterday and of course the crowd is bit easygoing on Sundays. However, I really enjoyed playing and felt lot better after the show. StS and OG had also very good shows and naturally this meant of course more serious metal partying. After the shows we had to pack our stuff rather quickly as we would head to UK for the next show. So we moved the party to the bus and what a party it was…We got more booze from the ferry during the night and I think the last people stayed awake until 9 am.

“Nythän tää viina vasta alkaa maistuun!!!” – Markus Jämsen 06:30 am

Ville Friman/INSOMNIUM

28.11.2009 Saturday

2009-11-29T16:42:00.000+02:00

When I woke up we were already in Essen, Germany. We had to wait for a while to get in for breakfast after we loaded in our stuff quickly. We are sharing the backline among all bands, which makes practical things very easy. We have very short change over time and there is plenty of room on stage. Kai (Hahto, drummer of StS) was able to get us endorsement kit very cheaply and he’s kind of enough to loan it to everyone. And of course when there are 18 guys carrying the stuff in and out the job is done in no time.

People were bit hangoverish from yesterday’s success. To cheer us up we decided to take short walk to the Christmas streets of Essen. Lots of people and carnival like feeling. We actually was looking for shampoo but ended up to drinking gluchwein mit rum oder Amaretto. Great success! After few warming drinks we returned to the Turock (venue) empty handed but spiritually newborn. We are actually getting easy this time as we don’t do sound check at all. Everything works still fine with only fast line check before the gig. We are just so professional (or lazy bastards) ;) After few hours wait we were ready to go again. Surprisingly the house was packed and the people were really into us. They even shouted for encore 5 minutes but we were not able to deliver one more song because of the schedules. Next time Essen, next time! As it was Saturday we partied like beasts. Normal order from the bar was something like two jägermeister shots and pint of beer. Eventually people just passed out on several different locations, some were carried to the bus and some went to get some evening kebab. Actually, our drummer had small (wet) accident with his bunk during the first night and did some extra laundry at the venue. In Finland we have this thing called “reilu kerho” and naturally he stole sheets from our tour manager and blanket from OG’s bass player. Good sport!

Breakfast at Turock (Essen)

Heading to the center

Christmas streets

Hippi!

Metal God!

Aapo

Gluchwein mit rum!

Any shampoo sponsors interested?

Markus

StS soundchecking

Druidi's laundry day

Ville Friman/INSOMNIUM

27.11.2009 Friday

2009-11-29T16:33:00.000+02:00

So here’s a story how it all started. The clock was 01:00 am when Vänni and Markus came to pick me on the way to the airport. It took about 3 hours to drive through darkness to get there, but we took it like good soldiers. We parked the car, headed to terminal one to meet rest of the bunch, checked in and passed the security in no time. Soon we were at the Frankfurt airport. The turbulence was pretty hard during the landing but otherwise all was good. Most of us slept the whole flight while I made acquaintance with fellow seat passengers.

In Frankfurt we navigated for a while before we found our tour bus. Luckily our driver speaks rather good English and seems to be nice guy. This will make all practical things lot easier for us. It will be pretty crowded though as there are eighteen guys of us in total. However, the mood is really good and after getting our gear from DHL we hit the road. I went to sleep for 4-5 hours as we had been up for whole last night. When I woke up we were almost in Rotterdam. We were of course late as hell but managed to pull out sound checks in time. The venue is bit similar to one Finnish venue called Lutakko as it is run by volunteer work. Pretty small, bit awkward but also very nice place. Omnium Gatherum played really good show and the crowd was really enthusiastic. This promised good show for us as well. And yeah, it was really great opening show. Thank you Baroeg Rotterdam, you were amazing! I was bit nervous because I did not have my own guitar amp with me. However, Markus form OG helped me to set up the sound from his amp and everything went fine. After the show we got naturally wasted and made some acquaintance with local refreshments. I think I went to sleep somewhere 4 am whereas some of us stayed up until the buss call 6 am. Great start!

Two great minds collide

Vanhala

Varmon Jukka, the tour manager/sound engineer

Production office

The art of touring…

2009-11-26T20:18:00.000+02:00

Hello people,

It’s again time to gather our earthly belongings, pick up our instruments and hit the rainy roads of Europe. Yes, it’s touring time all right. It’s funny what kind of ideas people really have about touring. Person coming outside the music industry often views it as fun ride in limousine, 5 stars hotels, screaming fans, money and fame. In contrast, when you mention the upcoming tour to you fellow mates in other bands the topics often take turn to things like how to avoid getting diarrhea, where to find spare parts to your amp or how to fix singer’s sore throat. The truth lies perhaps somewhere between these two worlds. Yes, touring is a bitch but you still love to do one once and a while…

Nevertheless, here’s one version how it all begins. I’ve been sick already three days even before the start of the tour. Yippee!!! Luckily, I don’t have fever anymore and even though I felt rather weak yesterday I now feel that my strengths are coming back. So, this day has been spent with preparing all the stuff. I went to get some medicine, clothes (mainly boxers and socks), new backpack, UK adapter and whole lot of everything else. Basically you need lots of underwear as you seldom have opportunity to find laundry on road. You can imagine how this bunch smells like when you put 18 of us to same bus for three weeks. Another thing is that there are seldom showers at the venues. This means that you need to go to some service station and have a nice relaxing shower with truck drivers when possible. Remember not to drop your soap…Another thing is that you need to keep your belly in order, as you cannot have the relieving number two in the bus toilet (I guess you just end up destructing the plumbing). One good way to prevent this is get some lacto bacteria from pharmacy to keep you nice and tidy. In addition, there’s no harm in taking few pills of vitamin c as the tour diet consist mostly from greasy, salty staff. All in all, this is basics for the men beginning their thirties like us. Of course, if you’re planning to smoke crack or shoot up heroin for whole time you can forget all above.

After health issues comes the entertainment. Laptop full of por…classic movies, good books and magazines keep you fresh. Another good option is to get some board games. But beware it might get cruel! I’ve heard a story where two band members gave each other silent treatment from Germany to Finland (in van) after a nice play of Yatzy…In reality, you just end up farting and telling the same bad jokes over and over for three weeks. Luckily, the bad jokes turn to really worse ones after one week and you reach the blissful mental state of a banana fly. You just sleep, shit and hunt down your next meal and beverages from the nearest backstage.

Sorry, I got bit carried away here. Back to this evening for a moment before the all fun starts. I have already packed almost everything and I should soon call to Vänni and Markus to find out what time they come and pick me up from Jyväskylä. The leaving time from here is probably around 01:30-02:00 am EARLY Friday morning…After that we head up to the airport, meet the other guys and take plane to Frankfurt where our bus waits. Before that I have luckily still few hours, which I plan spend by going to Sauna, drinking one sauna beer and enjoying the tranquility with my wife. See you soon on tour!

Ville Friman/INSOMNIUM

INSOMNIUM hits the Finnish charts at position 5!!!

2009-09-16T20:35:00.000+03:00

INSOMNIUM hits the Finnish charts at position 5!!!

Thank you so much!

INSOMNIUM

New music video, cover story and web design!

2009-08-31T11:08:00.000+03:00

To celebrate the release of "Across the Dark", we have released brand new web design which is based on the new album's cover art. Check it out here!

We also completed work on new music video, “Down With the Sun”. The video, now available for viewing at the band and Candlelight Records official American and English sites, was filmed in high-definition and captures the band in a live soundstage setting.

Watch the new music video here!

Across the Dark scores also 4,5/5 in the newest INFERNO magazine and INSOMNIUM is featured in the cover. Sweet!

Thank you Bloodstock!

2009-08-19T10:41:00.000+03:00

Insomnium @ Bloodstock Open Air 13.-15.8.2009

Hello again, my beloved tour diary! It’s been a while, but we’re back. We have a new album coming out on September and already couple of shows under our belt with the new material. We’ve had a test run on couple of the new songs on Finnish shows we’ve played, and now it’s finally time to hit the festivals abroad. We were supposed to play Bloodstock already few years ago but we had to cancel it due to overlapping Satyricon tour. Now that this plan actually made flesh, we were more than happy to hit the road again. Story goes like this:

First leg of our journey was from Joensuu to Helsinki via Jyväskylä. Something like 500 km. Markus came to pick me up at nine o’clock in the morning. We were supposed to be early, but managed to hassle with all the gear for an hour so we ended up being in a hurry. Anyway, being on the road felt really good. We picked up Urski (the sound engineer) from Joensuu and Ville F. from Jyväskylä, and speeded all the way to Helsinki-Vantaa airport. Niilo was already waiting for us at the airport car park. Due to limitations in amount of luggage we could take to plane with us, we had to re-pack our gear before check-in. We’re used to traveling light, so we managed to check in with three guitars and only two suitcases.

The few remaining minutes before flight were filled with excitement and rotten humor. We did some tax-free shopping “just in case”, and then off we went. Quick naps and we were at Heathrow. Then we had a three-hour drive to our hotel at Lichfield. We made a brief stop at some service station to grab something to eat and decided to get some beers too, “just in case”. The original plan was to stay “relatively” sober for there was an early wake-up call waiting tomorrow. Our oath of abstinence however started to evaporate as we made our way to the hotel. Two bottles of spirits and a crate of beer evaporated too before we got to there. The party mood was on, but we had to save some ammo for the day to come. So we closed the cap, checked in and headed for bed.

Friday morning was sunny. I had messed up with the time zones and the alarm clock last night and hence woke up an hour earlier than supposed to. It didn’t matter though, none of us felt like sleeping anymore. We had a traditional English breakfast with all its unhealthy components and made ready for the gig. I played the set through with Ville F., sitting by the bed at our hotel room with only underwear on. Great rehearsals! Our driver (local guy arranged by the festival organizers) came to pick us up at ten o’clock and drove us to the festival site.

The festival organization had “professional” stamped on everything from the start. Artist manager greeted us and took us to our backstage at the general back stage are. Soon stage manager stormed in with his crew, and we went through the backline and input lists we would be using. Everything went smoothly and quickly, except for Urski. The house sound engineer showed him the input list for the main stage. Two different cultures collided as Urski’s face begun to turn into grin. “Where is this piece of shit from? This is all wrong.” It occurred that he had got a wrong input list, and soon things were sorted out.

We knew little about the festival itself, so we wandered about a bit. The festival area was kind of huge and spacious and the atmosphere among the metalheads seemed to be very relaxed. It didn’t look too different from Finnish festivals – some people were already totally shit faced before the first bands started. We watched the first two bands play and then made our way back to backstage.

There was a huge space behind the main stage, where the stagehands were able to make backlines ready for quick changeover. It was almost like a hangar, three movable drum raisers and piles of guitar amps. We got our electric equipment tested and stamped by the staff and made our gear ready for the show. Million Dollar Reload played before us and as they finished their set the hangar was swarming with stagehands and technicians. They came off stage, we went on stage and Die Apocalyptische Reiter was already building their backline. We got our drums, two Mesa Triple Rectifier stacks and Ampeg SVT “rantasauna” bass amps on stage, and started to do a quick line check. I went to the hangar behind the backdrop for my guitar and wireless and suddenly realized that they were nowhere to be found. It had been in a guitar stand ready to go, but now even the stand was gone. Soon all the staff was looking for the missing piece of equipment. I was gathering a storm inside my head – only five minutes to the show, I hadn’t played a single note yet to test the gear and now the guitar and wireless were missing. I ended up running around the backstage area and finally ended up at Million Dollar Reload back stage. There it was by some mistake. The band members were gathered around the pile of instruments drinking beer. I made few cave man expressions, mumbled something like “I’ll be needing these right now” and stormed back to the stage. Goddamn hippies…

We had less than a minute of idle time before we hit the stage. Walking on stage was quite a surprise – the area between the stage and the mixing stand was already crowded, and more and more people kept streaming to the field in front of us. Intro was playing; we raised our fists to the air to salute the Brits and the audience answered with a fierce roar. Markus kicked the roller coaster going and we took the ride with dedication. It was a blast from the start to the end. It was a big stage and we gave all our energy to fill the space. 40 min set seemed like twenty seconds, and the crowd reaction was flattering. The stage sound varied from terrible to average and the Mesa amps were on their last run with burnt-to-a-shell tubes. We didn’t mind, the feeling was confident even with the poor monitoring. Definitely one of our best festival shows, and clearly among the top five best shows ever.

After the show we packed our gear quickly and had a little debriefing. Everybody was content. We downed quickly on bottle of Tullamore Dew accompanied with some Budweisers and then got back to serious business for a while. Markus and I got the shortest straws and we went to take our equipment back to the hotel. Ville F. and Niilo went to meet Darren from Candlelight and started the first of the many interviews we had to give this afternoon. We looted the backstage and then gave it up to Sodom. It was less than an hour when our driver got us back from the hotel to the festival area.

The whole afternoon was scheduled with different interviews. We had beers, relaxed and did the compulsory media talk in turns. It was really nice actually, even when discussing the same subjects for the fifth time. Darren took care of us and kept us supplied with drinks. Later in the afternoon we had a signing session. I was quite surprised that there was a hundred meter queue outside the tent. We signed all kind of stuff from CDs and posters to clothes and tits. Some of the fans were really shy, some more talkative. But all of them were polite and none of them resembled the typical Finnish “do more this or less that” –stereotype. Sweet.

We spent the evening at the festival area just celebrating our invasion to England. We met some old friends from Katatonia and Candlelight Records staff as well. It was a pleasant and easy-going evening. The beer they served contained only something like 3,4% of alcohol, so we remained almost unaffected by the ninety cans we consumed. Almost. We went to see Carcass and Arch Enemy for a while, but were unable to concentrate to their sets longer than ten minutes at a time. Back at the bar Markus was trying to order a vodka-based drink called The Monster. He got the name wrong somehow, and ended up just yelling “Big Beast, Big Beast!” to the barmaid. The lady behind the desk stood in awe and amusement as this dwarf-like figure sweated all over the place repeating the same nonsense over and over again. It took a while before I could stop laughing and translated the Big Beast to a Monster.

It was past midnight when we finally took a taxi to the hotel. We were really treated like guests by the staff the whole evening. One fine individual escorted us to the specific production office for our taxi. The walk in a warm, dark August night turned to a rather bizarre event: There was a fireworks going on. Our guide wore a German WWII-style mantle, US style helmet, furry beard and blue nail polish. He threw himself to the ground a few times dodging fireworks and just mumbled something about being mortared back in Nam in 67’. Then he changed the subject and gave a lecture about the invasion of England by the Christians during the last two thousand years. I didn’t get much of it, but it was a great amusement as we waited for the taxi.

Back at the hotel we had to sit down for a while at the park, chat and laugh our asses off. Everybody was happy. Finally sleep caught weary eyes and we crawled to bed. I remember Ville F. starting to snore in a middle of a sentence before I fell asleep.

Saturday was just a long boring day on the way home. The driver picked us up at hotel at noon and drove us back to Heathrow. There was no air conditioning in the car, and the ghost of the hangover looming upon us didn’t make the journey any more enjoyable. Checks at the airport went with a routine. Niilo’s groins looked a bit suspicious so he got some intimate time with the officers. No lethal weapons found. We took the flight home and were back in Helsinki by midnight. Then there was the exhausting drive back to Joensuu, which I took with Markus in turns. I was back home at six o’clock in the morning. I was dead tired but happy. Thank you England, we’ll be back soon.

Ville Vänni/INSOMNIUM

Production stills from the new upcoming music video!

2009-08-18T21:05:00.001+03:00

Can be viewed HERE!

-VF/INSOMNIUM

All T-shirt sizes again availabe for the pre-order package...

2009-08-13T09:41:00.001+03:00

Our official web-store run out of some T-shirt sizes momentarily this week. However, all sizes are again available. If you ordered your package with "wrong" size, contact our web shop directly and ask them to change the T-shirt size! Now, go and order some more ;)

OFFICIAL INSOMNIUM WEB SHOP

-Ville F./INSOMNIUM

NEW GUITAR COMPETITION!

2009-08-09T21:55:00.000+03:00

Hi all!

Now you have incredible change to win authentic acoustic guitar (Ibanez pf60ce) of Insomnium’s guitarist/songwriter Ville Friman. All you have to do is pre-order any version of our new album “Across the Dark” from our official webstore and you have chance to win this good old six-string.

“I decided that this time we could have a proper competition with reasonable prize to celebrate the release of our new album “Across the Dark”. This guitar is definitely not the best one out there but has served me well until this day. This guitar has been used to compose many Insomnium songs and was used in studio sessions for the “Since the Day it All Came Down” and “Above the Weeping World”. I hope this piece of wood will be inspiration for one of you out there!” says Ville Friman.

"Across the Dark" gets 4/5 in new issue of guitarist!

2009-08-06T18:09:00.000+03:00

New Insomnium album "Across the Dark" did really well in the issue 319 of guitarist magazine, read more below. I can also warn you that more good news will follow within next month! Meanwhile, come check us out in Kotka (FI) next weekend on Dark River Festival or 14th August in Bloodstock (UK). Horns up!

-VF/INSOMNIUM

Pre-order new album special package!

2009-08-04T12:25:00.000+03:00

You can now pre-order a special package containing Across the Dark limited editon + T-shirt/girlie directly from

HERE

The limited version of Across the Dark comes with slipcase and special 16-paged poster booklet. It includes two bonus songs and a DVD containing two documents, photo gallery and both our music videos. This is a must buy for true fans out there!

-VF/INSOMNIUM

The Closure....

2009-07-06T11:31:00.000+03:00

The Closure
We spent end of the May on mixing the album at Fantom Studio. All in all, this phase went quite smoothly and we did not encounter any bigger problems. Samu set the basic sounds alone in the morning after we listened the songs and gave our opinions concerning the balance and sound levels. I think we used approximately two weeks for the mix this time and it turned out to be quite exact approximation of time we needed. We also shoot some nice promo pictures in a nearby swamp with Terhi Ylimäinen (http://www.feelthedarkness.com/) during one weekend of the mix.

Mastering was again done in the famous Finnvox studios at Helsinki with Minerva Pappi. We used basically one day for the job after Minerva did some small adjustments. We also used some time to shoot some interviews for the limited edition of the Across the Dark with our dear friend Harri Pikka from Omnium Gatherum (http://www.omniumgatherum.org/) during the mastering session. Effective use of time, indeed. All in all, everything went smoothly and we are really happy with the ending result!

Now that Wille Naukkarinen (http://www.ghostbrigade.net/hollowman/) have just finished the cover art and everything else seems to be also in order all I can say is that we feel very, very relieved! Making this album was again one hell of a job. However, we feel very confident that this is really exceptional piece of music and are really looking forward to releasing to hands of fans worldwide. The album will be stores in the beginning of the September after we will start touring first Finland and then hopefully rest of the Europe. We also hope that we can make it to USA again. In the meanwhile check some samples from new Insomnium e-card HERE!

Ville F./INSOMNIUM

2009-05-28T08:40:00.000+03:00

Keyboards

With this album we decided to record/sample the keyboard parts in Noiseworks (http://www.noise-work.com) studio Jyväskylä with Hannu Honkonen. One reason is that Aleksi Munter, a.k.a. Hippi, has been working with Hannu before when doing keyboards on previous Swallow the Sun albums. Another is that Hannu owns pretty good sample library and his studio is located Jyväskylä, which makes everything very easy logistically.

We spent total of 5 days working with the keyboards. Normally Hannu and Hippi started to work on arrangements around 2 pm and I arrived after work around 5 pm to have a listen what they had come up with. Hippi did again just an awesome job with keyboard arrangements and melodies. I had made some midi tracks to some of my songs but Hippi composed mostly all the keyboards on this new album. The overall feel is very atmospheric: when played alone the keyboard parts sounds like they were taken from soundtrack of some movie. So, basically we have lots of strings and choirs going on most of the songs but also some brass, mellotrone, hammond, and moog sounds here and there to spice it up properly. Simply, the keyboards are easily the best ones we have ever had and it was pleasure to work with such talented guys as Hippi and Hannu.

I’m sorry that all this is coming together for you guys in retrospective but I’ve been just so busy with work and all other stuff. The life just sometimes drains you dry. But don’t worry all stuff is coming here eventually. And yeah, I can reveal that the Mr. X is nothing else but our friend Jules Näveri from the band called Profane Omen (http://www.profaneomen.net/). Check them out!

Ville F. /INSOMNIUM

Desk

Hannu working

Masterminds

Some gear

Hippi landing with Enterprise

2009-05-15T11:49:00.000+03:00

Day X5

I took train to Tampere after work to meet up our Finnish gig booker, Teemu Suominen and guest vocalist, Mr. X, at the Fantom Studio. The guests arrived around 17:00 and after short welcomes we started to work with the clean vocals. I could tell instantly that we were working with professional singer and we got the parts together pretty fast. Mr. X was also pleased with my singing and the melodies of vocal lines. So, basically he doubled what I had sung with his own style and voice and did amazing job! After the work we started celebrate, wich lasted until 4 am next day. What we learned is that the new Lemon fishshots-drink is damn good, new Insomnium album will probably kick ass and the restaurant Tillikka has pretty good soup lunches to soothe your hangover. Thanks for dear Mr. Suominen and Mr. X for the great evening, to be continued…

Ville F. /INSOMNIUM

Mr. X?

2009-04-23T18:38:00.001+03:00

Day XX.

After writing the last blog entry we also recorded some clean vocals during the same night. And yes, I did the singing. The purpose was to test how clean vocals would suit to some songs at certain parts and if I could get proper sound out of myself. So, we tested different things and ended up doing demo clean vocals for three songs. The vocals sounded pretty decent and we’ll hear next week how they sound like by the real (guest) vocalist Mr. X. The other guys arrived later and the rest of the evening was spent drinking which ended up to meatball fight that ended me choking Markus. After that we decided to go to sleep and called it a day.

Ville F. /INSOMNIUM

Day XXX.

We woke as early as 10 am and started to work more with Niilo’s growls. None of us was not feeling that great but what can you do? Leave the crying to pussies, that’s right! While Markus and Vänni concentrated on Tekken 4, Niilo started shouting and I started “producing”. After few hours we had nailed one song successfully. I have to say that writing the lyrics was again something, which was left to the very nick of time and we were not able to get our shit together until the same day we started to record the vocals. So…we had some thinking to do with the vocal arrangements. However, in the end the lyrics turned out great and Niilo took last minute panicking like man and delivered awesome growls. After “producing” the first song, the hangover started to get the upper hand and it was time to open the sparkling wine. Like I would “produce” anything without it, hah! We also made mutual decision to go and see Finnish Punk/Hardcore band Abduktio’s 10-year anniversary gig to the Vastavirta club in the evening. Before that we still managed to get vocals right to one other song with the appreciated help of the assistant producer Kalle Nurmi. Great success! Then we started really get wasted with help of numerous beverages. Timo Isoaho came to have a sneak preview and later on Samu joined us after visiting shortly home. After that it all turned into chaos and at some point I found myself Bar Inferno’s backstage with Anthony and JV from Machine Men?!? Great guys as always! I have also some vague memories of us dancing around strip pole but it was probably only a bad dream. Or was it? Consider it as one until photo material proves it otherwise.

Ville F. /INSOMNIUM

Day XXXX.

We woke fresh as always with decent three hours of drunken sleep behind us. Not nice but life hardly ever is. I think Samu had pretty much similar feeling back at home. Since he was not yet around we recorded basses to the last song by ourselves. After Samu showed up we started to do vocals to the last song. After few hours of shouting we were ready and started to back our shit together and ate some pizza. It felt like being child when you have had really good play with your mates, which eventually turned out boring and ended up with cleaning up the mess you had made. Well, everything ends sometimes and we all were also very eager to go home back to our normal lives. We were tired but at the same time we knew we had given again all that there was to give and I must say that the ending result sounds pretty damn good. However, the job is not done yet. We’ll do some more vocals next week and after that it’s time to do some keyboards with Aleksi Munter from Swallow the Sun in Jyväskylä. Then we do have to mix this crap together and even master it. So, you won’t be getting rid of us anywhere soon. Stay tuned from new episodes of osaaminen!

Ville F. /INSOMNIUM

Niilo at work, with Zyklon shirt as always...

Producer 1

Producer 2