Hi Mia! Thanks for having me!
You have a huge fan base not only in your native country of Finland but all over the world, but for those of our readers that aren’t familiar with WINTERSUN; How would you define your music?
Wintersun is a unique mix of different flavors of metal, including influences from melodic death metal, black metal, power metal and folk music to movie scores just to mention a few. White all the three albums released so far have been a bit different from each other production-wise and also musically, they are all still share with similar majestic and melancholic melodies, and extreme attention to detail to arrangement and instrumentation. Wintersun is not restricted musically to do any one particular thing and on the future albums we are looking forward to explore again totally new musical territories. We like to call Wintersun EPIC METAL.
Referring to your latest album release “The Forest Seasons” from 2017 I can hear a lot of Power metal, and Symphonic Death Metal, But also the lyrics are very much “folk metalish”. The fans that has followed you know that this album was crowdfunded. Was this your choice to have such a broad variety in your music, or were you taking “fan requests” in deciding the sound of the album?
Indeed, there’s again a wide variety of influences on The Forest Seasons. Jari, who writes all the Wintersun songs, rarely tries to please others with his music, rather just sticking to making music that sounds good to himself and when his happy with it then sharing it with the rest of the world.
The forest theme of the latest album came about quite spontaneously as Jari was jogging through a forest nearby where his living. Some of the folky influence was kind of obvious fit to the forest theme but interpreting the four different season musically it made sense to build contrast with different musical styles and arrangements to give each season/song it’s own feel.
How do you work within your band writing your music? Who is the brain behind it all? Who writes the lyrics and who writes the music?
Early form of Wintersun started as a one-man project by Jari Mäenpää, and some of the musical ideas for the first album were already written around 1995. In 2004 Jari and drummer Kai Hahto recorded the first Wintersun album together and by the end of 2004 Jukka Koskinen had joined on bass and myself on the guitar to form a live band and to help working on the sophomore album (TIME I, released in 2012). All music and lyrics on all Wintersun albums have been written by Jari.
Some of your songs have many symphonic details and I wonder how that comes to life? Are there members of the band playing some additional instruments? Or is it all pre-recorded and mastered on a computer?
The orchestrations are made on the computer. Jari self-studied a lot of orchestrating while working on the the TIME I and II albums, being influenced mainly by epic movie scores. We are hoping that one day we’ll have a chance to also work with a real symphonic orchestra on some occasion.
Any new material / album in the making for WINTERSUN?
Jari is currently working on several new album projects side by side and we are all eagerly waiting what he’s going to come up with. From what we’ve heard the material sounds very promising! We are now starting a longer break from shows and taking time to put together our next release, while also planning to continue our crowdfunding project.
Well, now I (and our readers) have learned a little bit on how you make your music in recordings. How about your live shows? You have been playing some festivals around Europe this summer. What has been your best moment?
This summer we’ve been playing selected festivals and club shows celebrating the 15th anniversary of the first album’s release and it’s been great getting to play the first album back to back! Every show is somehow special but personally I’d say Summer Breeze festival in Germany and sold-out hometown club show in Helsinki were some of the most memorably ones of this summer so far.
And now you will be visiting Denmark for the first time ever at the venue Gimle in Roskilde August 30th with a headline show! What can the Danish audience expect from your live show?
This show will be our last this summer and also the last of our two-year long touring cycle that started in summer 2017. It will be a 15th anniversary celebration as well so we will play the full first album back to back plus some other selected tracks. It will be a very special high-energy show for sure and there will be some surprises as well!
And what do you expect from the Danish audience?
Really looking forward to to playing there for the first time! It’s supposedly going to be quite intimate show with good amount of people and we can’t wait to rock and have great time with the audience!
Can the attendants of your upcoming show in Roskilde, Denmark look forward to some new material from WINTERSUN?
That’s very much possible… 
Thank you Teemu, for taking the time to talk to me. Is there anything you would like to tell our readers about your upcoming show, and why they should experience WINTERSUN live?
Like mentioned above, this will be very special show, possible one of the last times we play all the songs of the first album in a while. We’re never holding back during our live performances but as we’ll be entering an undefined break afterwards with no other shows currently in the calendar in a long time, I think this show will have a very special energy and feel to it! We’ll be partying on stage and probably even shedding a few wistful tears after the show is over. Thanks for reading the interview and hope to see you at Gimle!
Our PowerofMetal.dk team wishes WINTERSUN welcome to play their first show ever in Denmark August 30th! You will NOT want to miss this! Our PoM team will be there for sure!
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Rob Zombie is once again visiting COPENHELL, and I remember seeing him live two years ago at this festival and not being particularly impressed with his performance. I am hoping, though, that he will put on a more special show this year, as COPENHELL is celebrating Ten years in Hell.
My body is letting me know that I have been spending too much time in the sun today without sunblock, and also telling me that I am not 20 years old anymore. I therefore decide to sit down on the hill to let my body rest for a while, but still having a complete view over the Helviti stage where ROB ZOMBIE is to perform on this last day of COPENHELL 2019 at 20:45 CET.
To those of you that are familiar with ROB ZOMBIE probably know that he is very much into horror films and the whole horror concept of things, which he also uses for his shows. And today is no exception.
When ROB ZOMBIE and his band enter the stage there are several monitors showing different horror clips and scenes, and I actually feel myself getting a bit distracted as I am not sure where to watch. But I try to focus on the whole entire stage, and therefore I am glad I took a step back to get the whole picture and all the impressions.
Somehow I feel like I am back in 2017, when he last played at the exact same stage, because nothing has really changed. Yes, he has his image, his voice is not bad and neither are the musicians, but I feel like this is a copy of the last time he visited COPENHELL.
I have to admit, though, that when watching the crowd having a party in the huge space I am looking down upon from the hillside, they seem to enjoy themselves a lot more than I do.
I am not very amused or entertained by the whole ROB ZOMBIE circus. Indeed, I call it a circus because somehow he feels outdated and I have trouble taking him seriously. I am actually enjoying watching the crowd more than watching and listening to ROB ZOMBIE, and that is not a good sign.
Alright, the band and the front man have their moments, and ROB ZOMBIE actually has a great sense of humor, trying to pull off a few jokes from the stage and I get a few laughs… But that’s kind of it.
And when he starts playing cover songs instead of his own material I find myself shaking my haid in despair… What’s he doing? He did the same thing two years ago. With such a big reportoire of his own, it feels kind of sad that ZOMBIE gets more response from the audience playing covers like “Enter sandman”, “School’s Out”, “Blitzkrieg Bop” and “Helter Skelter” than when playing his own songs.
Well… I had hoped for a better performance from ROB ZOMBIE than back in 2017, but this feels just like a bad and outdated copy of that same performance. Sorry, but this spot on the Helviti stage this evening could have been given to another, more fresh band.
P.s. As I was losing focus I am unsure if the setlist is 100% accurate.
The living legend Glenn Hughes is visiting COPENHELL 2019 to perform classic Deep Purple songs, and as a big fan of “The voice of Rock” I have HUGE (Hughes? heehee) expectations for this performance. As a singer I always looked up to Glenn Hughes and his singing, and I really hope he will deliver the goods today.
But as I have seen a lot of “older bands” that I have looked up to in my 41 years of existence, I have to keep a cold mindset and attend this concert trying to be realistic and remember that the guy is almost 70 years old and is probably not going to have the energy and voice that he had during the seventies and eighties. So I am actually nervous on his behalf, hoping he will not screw this up.
The Glenn Hughes backdrop is really “flower power” and when the band enter the stage and I see Glenn Hughes I feel almost like I am attending a COPENHELL Woodstock.
Hughes is wearing the typical 70s bell-bottoms, a colorful shirt with a vest over it, dark sunglasses and sideburns growing almost to his knees like he had way back when, before I was even born.
Unfortunately, as the band start to play their first song, the classic “Stormbringer” from 1974, there are some sound issues, so I am not able to hear Glenn Hughes singing at all, but fortunately enough the sound engineer fixes the problem halfway through the song, and the Voice of Rock is hitting me in the face like well… a STORM!
I am standing amongst people I don’t know personally, and we are just looking at each other with our jaws dropping… How the H*LL does he do this?! We are standing around looking at each other like idiots, not belieiving what we hear… Glenn Hughes, 69 years old, is singing like he was 20 years old! He is better than EVER! And then we all just start to smile… This is amazing! I even have a guy standing next to me with his little son who is nine years old, and he is loving it just as much as us “old folks”. This is just epic.
I do not know how many exclamation marks I can use about this performance, but I am honestly in shock. And the few goosebumps I have had earlier during COPENHELL is nothing compared to what I am feeling right now. Glenn Hughes is really the best singer alive at the moment in my opinion. He has NO boundaries at all with his voice, he can do it all and this is pure perfection!
Glenn Hughes is also accompanied by two Danes, guitarist Søren Andersen and Jesper Bo Hansen on classic organ.
And what Søren Andersen is doing playing these classic Purple songs is pure enjoyment! God damn he is really showing his talent! This guy can really play that guitar!
Søren has apparently known Hughes for a long time, and when the front man is talking about Søren on stage he is actually referring to him as his son. And I can clearly see that these two guys really love each other, and that they enjoy sharing a stage. They keep on applauding each other all the time and it seems like they have an endless mutual respect, and it really cool to watch.
I never actually thought I would have the opportunity to hear “Smoke on the water” live with Glenn Hughes on vocals, but when Søren Andersen starts to play the opening riff, I am totally in heaven. This is a dream come true, and now I can die a happy woman.
The Deep Purple hits keep on coming one after the other and when “Highway star” is played I once again am amazed about not only Glenn Hughes, but also the two Danish musicians with him on stage. This is probably just as amazing for them as for us in the crowd. To be able to share a stage with a living legend , and to do so in their native country, must be incredible! And they are really kicking some butt up there.
I feel almost drained of energy as Glenn Hughes and his amazing band leave the stage. One of my childhood dreams has come true, and I have to agree with Glenn Hughes when he stated “Rock n roll will never be dead, at least not as long as I am alive”. And Rock’n’roll will still be alive long after he is gone, as he is and always will be the true “Voice of Rock”
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Because this “little lady” was late once again, I didn’t catch the first few songs from Swiss folk metal band ELUVEITIE, but when I DO arrive to the Hades stage at Copenhell, I am met by the BEAUTIFUL voice of singer Fabienne Erni.
But it only takes a really short while until Chrigel Glanzmann starts to scream/growl.
I have to admit that I thought ELUVEITIE would sound more folk than metal, but this actually sounds more metal than folk metal (if you catch my drift) and I am NOT hating it!
This sounds like a newer, more updated and fresh type of folk metal than I have heard before when listening to this metal sub genre.
It becomes obvious why this band is called a folk metal band as I witness almost all eight band members (normally nine, but Matteo Sisti is not present today due to personal reasons) start to play some instruments not particularly known in the metal scene.
I see harp-like things, bagpipes and flutes, mandolins and fiddles (and some other instruments I don’t exactly know the name of) and I am totally into what ELUVEITIE do up on that stage. I have to say I am totally mesmerized by this performance!
I love the fact that this band is playing their “odd” instruments, but still keeping it totally METAL!
Some people might think that it’s the growls of Chrigel Glanzmann that makes this more metal than folk metal related, but no. The whole band and their performance are totally living up to the COPENHELL concept, and the band is really giving me (and hopefully the entire crowd) a show we won’t forget very soon.
ELUVEITIE have so many different elements and layers to their music that I can’t help just standing still and simply enjoy their music and performance.
And when I hear the two vocalists sing the same lyrics (like a duet), one singing in pure high pitched voice, and the other growling in total synchronization, I get goosebumps for the second time during this festival.
I know I am mentioning and focusing on Glanzmann and Fabienne Erni a lot right now, but trust me, all the members are just amazing with their instruments (including the two singers who play bagpipe and flute) – ooops… I did it again… Sorry
But the entire band is really putting on a show that I personally would love to see again.
This is a band that is not to be labelled as a “folk metal” band in my opinion. They are a metal band with native expressions, and if any of you readers enjoy metal with “special elements and instruments” you should really check this band out. They are truly talented and unique in what they do. Trust me.
The sun is about to set and I can feel it getting a bit colder as I walk toward the Hades stage to see American rockers CLUTCH play at 21:30 CET. It’s time to put on my hoodie to keep warm (yes I’ve been to festivals before and know to always have a bagpack with extra clothes with me).
But as soon as CLUTCH enter the stage and begin to play “Ghoul Wrangler”, I can feel the heat from both the stage and the audience and the hoodie comes off.
I can’t help but start moving around and so does the crowd. Now THIS is pure, great old school rock, and the band are really getting the crowd going straight away.
The band keep the high energy going with “Noble Savage”, and I feel like I am at a smoky biker bar, listening, dancing, headbanging and stomping to some great rock. The big difference is that here at COPENHELL, I am accompanied by thousands of people and different types, not only bikers.
I really love the energy the band are sending out. These guys don’t care if they are surrounded by other much heavier bands… They are just doing their thing, and it sounds GOOD!
As I know the rest of the evening will be a lot heavier in regards to music and bands, this is a really great way to start off a huge party and getting the crowd going. Great move from the COPENHELL planners!
Singer Neil Fallons’ voice is rock solid live and he is really rocking the stage along with the band. Actually, the entire band is rock solid and that’s one of the great things about a band like CLUTCH. They give each other space and every single band member is shining. A true rock band with one common goal; to entertain their audience.
A big WOW (at least from me) comes when LAMB OF GOD singer Randy Blythe joins CLUTCH on stage to perform “Passive Restraint”. I actually cheer for a moment until I hear that this is a “no no” in my opinion. Even though I really like LAMB OF GOD, this performance and guest appearance I could do without. But many in the crowd seem to disagree with me and begin to mosh, so I guess it was a good call from the band after all.
Overall this was a really good and solid performance from very experienced musicians who are keeping themselves true to their music (if you set aside the guest performance) and they do one hell of a job doing so! Now, let’s ROCK ON!
As a huge lover of all types of progressive music I feel ashamed that I have actually totally missed the band TESSERACT (sorry my fellow prog people).
But as TESSERACT is the only pure progressive band playing Copenhell 2019 (although some might disagree) I of course have to see and hear them.
And as soon as the Brits enter the Hades stage at 15:15, I am SO happy that they are here.
Even though there are some sound issues in the beginning of the show, singer Daniel Tompkins has great energy, running down to the photopit, getting right in face of the audience, trying to get the crowd going.
And wow, what a singer! This is the first time (so far) during Copenhell 2019 that I actually am getting goosebumps all over! He has a beautiful, perfectly pitched voice that goes SO well with the progressive music played by the extremely talented band. And the singer has a feeling to his singing that is totally amazing and contagious.
Unfortunately the crowd is a bit small, and it makes me sad that there aren’t that many prog heads present. But the ones that have made it to see this band are truly enjoying themselves. A typical prog crowd that is not maybe headbanging so much but listening in awe to these talented five Brits, stomping their feet instead of headbanging.
Tompkins thanks the audience for sticking around and makes a joke saying that they are not really good musicians, and actually do not know what they are doing. Oh, my godness, that’s a HUGE joke, because this band is so talented, and we are the ones who should be thanking them, not the other way around.
I can see that there are some more people coming around to join us to watch this band halfway through the show, and I love the fact that prog metal is still interesting to some people, even at a festival like COPENHELL. And that the band play not only progressive rock, but have many metal elements also, makes it even more interesting.
The whole band are really getting warmed up the last half hour of their show, and singer Daniel is spinning and jumping around like crazy, and his body language and energy is just as contagious as his voice. I can tell when I look around me that I am not the only one getting caught up by this band’s performance.
It has been a while since I saw such a tight and talented progressive band live, and once again I cannot believe that I have never heard of them before, but TRUST ME, I am going home after this festival and will find out everything I can about them, and purchase everything that they have released until now, because TESSERACT have certainly found a new fan in yours truly.
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To see TRIVIUM live has been something I have wanted to do for many years. I love hearing them on album, and I am very much looking forward to see what they can do with their music live.
TRIVIUM enter the Helviti stage at 14:00 CET on Friday, which is my first “must see” band of day 2 at Copenhell.
It is really cool to see that singer Matt Heafy instantly shows great energy and tries to get the crowd going, and he succeeds in waking up the (maybe a bit hungover) metalheads who have shown up to see TRIVIUM this early afternoon.
It doesn’t take long until the first moshpit appears when guitarist and singer Corey Beaulieu starts to scream and the band encourage the crowd to spin.
Even though I saw some great bands yesterday, I feel that TRIVIUM will probably be one of my highlists this year. The rough sound from the band and Coreys’ screams combined with Matts’ great voice has always been appealing to me, but that they could perform so well live was something I wasn’t prepared for. I am happily surprised!
The way TRIVIUM interact with the crowd is amazing to see and hear. Matt Heafy says with a smile that the best festival crowd they have seen this summer was at Download in the UK, and when he is met with boo’s from the crowd he says that the Copenhell crowd needs to prove they are better, and this is when I see something rarely seen; Four (almost five) moshpits appear in the crowd, and one even appears by the far right side of the stage where I am standing, and I catch myself smiling from ear to ear.
Matt also gets the thousands of people watching to get down on their knees, and getting them (us) to jump up at the same time and I feel I just need to film what’s going on, as it is totally amazing how the band has the crowd almost hypnotized and totally into their show. I LOVE THIS!
No matter what I will hear and see during this festival, watching TRIVIUM live is something I will never forget. The music, the energy, the crowd! I am a happy camper at this moment, and I hope that TRIVIUM agreee that the COPENHELL crowd ARE the best in Europe!
I know at least that I cannot wait to see TRIVIUM live again, and for our readers I can strongly recommend you catch them live if you get the chance. It’s an experience you will never forget.
In Waves – or Row, Row, Row your boat…
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I will never forget when I was living in Oslo, Norway, in 2004-2005, and I had a neighbour who was obsessed with TOOL, and I really mean OBSESSED!
This guy was literally trying to get me to love this band as much as he did, and he tried to brainwash me every single day for almost six months. He actually even took the time to burn two CD’s with his favourite TOOL songs and banged on my door, begging me to give them a listen (I still have the CD’s).
He told me to just keep my mind open, sit down by myself in peace and quiet and just give them a chance, and simply LISTEN (this guy knew I was a music lover).
After about six months, I sat down with a beer, turned the lights down in my apartment, totally realxed and focused and thought to myself; Ok, if someone is this passionate about this band and their music, there has to be something to check out, so let’s see what’s so special about them.
I remember listening to the first few songs, thinking that this was not really my cup of tea, but the stubborn side of me thought that I know that sometimes you need to listen to more than a few songs to actually get the message a band is trying to bring out, so I kept listening and the band started to grow on me.
TOOL playing live at Copenhell 2019 is a huge thing for many people. TOOL is one of the most wanted bands for Copenhell and that they are playing the Copenhell 10th anniversary is something I wouldn’t want to miss.
I can feel the anticipation from the crowd a few minutes before the band enter the stage.
The band finally enter the stage at 22:30 CET, and I feel I am standing too close to the stage, so I need to take a few steps back to be able to see the entire stage and the amazing light show going on. And the stage is totally lit up, so it is difficult to see the band on stage, but OH do I hear them! They start up playing Ænema and they do it close to perfection! These musicians are SO talented and they provide that mood that is typical for this band. A little bit dark, melancholic and emotional.
Although singer Maynard James Keenan is the front man of the band, he seems to be distant from the crowd. And of course this could be something they want to do as a band to keep focus on their music, but after seeing other bands today with front men and women giving it their all, trying to connect with the audience, it’s a bit of a “downer” that Keenan is literally staying at the back of the stage.
But his voice and way of singing is close to perfect.
I just wish there was more of a connection between TOOL and the audience, more than “just” the music they are playing, and that makes me think that I would love to see them live in a full concert, with only them as a headliner instead of watching them live for the first time at a festival.
There is absolutely nothing bad to say about the musical talent of these four guys. They are really good at what they do, and their light show is amazing and totally in sync with the songs. I just wish there would have been more interaction and talk between songs.
But for me this is a good, calming end of my first day at Copenhell.
HALESTORM was playing live in Copenhagen a while ago, and I wasn’t able to attend the concert, so I was really happy to hear that they were going to be a part of the Copenhell 2019 lineup.
Lzzy Hale and the band enter the Hades stage at 21:00, Thursday evening.
The sun is starting to set, but it’s still really warm, and HALESTORM are really heating it up, starting off strong and with great energy. And let’s face the fact, Lzzy Hale is HOT (and yes I noticed she has cut her hair short)!
The charismatic singer is wearing insanely high stilettos, has her guitar strapped on, and has that body language that tells us that she is truly loving being the centre of attention on that stage. She is a true front woman!
I have to tell you guys/fellow readers that I am a huge lover of strong female rock vocals, and when I discovered Lzzy Hale about three years ago, I fell in love with her raspy, strong and passionate voice. And I am SO happy she delivers 100% on stage, both the visual rock act and the amazing voice she is born with. Her voice is close to perfection, going full force in both the lower registry and the high pitch screams.
I have to admit that I wasn’t aware that HALESTORM are this popular in Denmark, but when I hear the crowd sing along at the top of their voices to songs like “Love Bites (so do I)”, “I miss the misery”, “Amen”, “Freak like me” and “I get off”, I understand that they have a huge fan base at Copenhell. And the entire band are thanking the audience several times for the support during their show.
When Lzzy Hale introduces her little brother Arejay Hale, we get to experience something rarely seen and heard at a festival performance; a drum solo!
Arejay Hale proves to the Copenhell crowd that the entertainment gene is not only something Lzzy is born with. Also little brother gives us a few minutes of pure entertainment. With a huge amount of energy he is banging the drums like a maniac, but also adding some humour into it when he plays with oversize drumsticks, with great beats and precision, even.
I just LOVE what this rock band is doing on stage, and I cannot wait to attend a full concert with HALESTORM and see what they can come up with! Because they are really tight performers and have an energy that is contagious.
I am SO looking forward to seeing my childhood hero Slash on stage again! I am a little bit nervous that he is accompanied by Myles Kennedy, though, because I really don’t care for his voice when singing live with Alter Bridge, but I am hoping for the best.
The band enters the Helviti stage and Slash with his well known hat and sunglasses is instantly showing a great energy. I am also really happy to hear that Myles Kennedys’ way of singing live with Slash is way different from what I have heard him do with Alter Bridge. He actually sounds really good.
I am thrilled to see that the years have been good to our dear Slash, and he is still making his signature jumps/runs on stage like he did when he was younger.
It is also really funny to look around me when the band is playing. I have never seen so many airguitar sessions going on at the same time. And I have to admit I do some “playing” myself at times. I just can’t help myself!
I know that many people in the crowd (myself included) came to see this band due to Slash, but it is great to hear and see that he is giving space to the other band members as well and not entirely stealing the show.
I saw Myles Kennedy live with Alter Bridge a couple of years ago, and his performance today at Copenhell is WAY better than back then. It seems like this type of music suits his voice better than with his other band.
I have to come back to the man with the hat and sunglasses, though, and say that the way Slash is playing his instrument is guitargasm de luxe! One could think that the years would have made him slower, calmer and less of a shredder, but he sounds as good as ever! Eventhough I can see he is getting a bit sweaty up on the stage, he doesn’t relax for one minute and gives his all.
This is pure enjoyment for me, and I am smiling from ear to ear. It is great that there is room for some pure rock in between the harder genres at this festival, and the crowd seems to agree.
When the intro of my favorite song from the album Apocalyptic Love, “Anastasia”, begins, I go nuts with my airguitar and totally enjoy the magic shredding of this amazing guitar player.
We have now officially all been SLASHED!
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