compurocker
rocking out
What are your OTHER favorite bands?
Symphony X
Circus Maximus
Iron Maiden
Megadeth
Metallica
Sonata Arctica
(no particular order)
What OTHER bands got you into the metal scene and around when?
As a Freshman in high school I bought Metallica's Load for the song Aint My Bitch, and I bought Megadeth's Cryptic Writings for the song Trust, both of which I had heard on the radio. These were my first forays into metal. I hated Load but really loved Cryptic Writings and bought more Megadeth discs. In my Sophomore year, a friend turned me on to real Metallica. I was hooked. Incidentally, I turned him on to Megadeth and he got hooked too. I also got into Pantera and I referred to these three as the "holy trinity of metal" which was about all the metal I listened to throughout high school.
At my first career-oriented job after high school, my boss and still great friend to this day turned me on to Dream Theater. At the time I was still part-timing at Best Buy and was often known to walk out with stacks of CDs, many of which I had never even heard of (I enjoy many genres of music so these included rock, rap, swing, ska, punk, etc). One day I bought Iron Maiden's self-titled and I didn't even know who they were. Just though the cover looked cool. Holy crap was it awesome.
Then I started branching out and checking out more and more metal. I got on Amazon and read customer reviews of albums I enjoyed and looked for where people would say this "sounds like this" or is "better than this" or "isn't as good as this" and I'd go check those bands out. I got on Pandora. I still think of myself as a metal newbie 11 years after graduating high school. There's still so much out there I need to check out.
How and when did you get into Kiuas, and what sets Kiuas above and beyond those other guys?
I learned of Kiuas fairly recently when they were added to the bill of the 2009 Chicago Powerfest. I was trying to check out as many Powerfest bands ahead of the show as I could by downloading them on Zune Marketplace. I downloaded The New Dark Age and was instantly hooked. Downloaded Spirit of Ukko and Reformation and couldn't believe how awesome this band was. Saw them at Powerfest and they made the weekend for me. As a mid-tier band they had a short set but it was so awesome to get a chance to see them live in the states. Hope to get that chance again soon. Picked up The New Dark Age at Powerfest but couldn't find the others there or at ProgPower. Preordered Lustdriven online and it friggin rocks, of course. Hope to pick up the other two discs at ProgPower this year if I can find them this time.
What sets them above and beyond other bands for me is that they meld a lot of different sounds together, while still having a coherent Kiuas sound that is uniquely theirs, yet never sounding repetitive from song to song or disc to disc. I love the vocals, the lyrical content, the guitar work that goes from crunchy to intricate to delicate, the Finnish touches, and everything else that makes Kiuas tick. Admittedly I've only been listening to them for a year and a half, but I just don't get tired of them.
Keep the fantastic metal coming guys. And come back to the states!
Symphony X
Circus Maximus
Iron Maiden
Megadeth
Metallica
Sonata Arctica
(no particular order)
What OTHER bands got you into the metal scene and around when?
As a Freshman in high school I bought Metallica's Load for the song Aint My Bitch, and I bought Megadeth's Cryptic Writings for the song Trust, both of which I had heard on the radio. These were my first forays into metal. I hated Load but really loved Cryptic Writings and bought more Megadeth discs. In my Sophomore year, a friend turned me on to real Metallica. I was hooked. Incidentally, I turned him on to Megadeth and he got hooked too. I also got into Pantera and I referred to these three as the "holy trinity of metal" which was about all the metal I listened to throughout high school.
At my first career-oriented job after high school, my boss and still great friend to this day turned me on to Dream Theater. At the time I was still part-timing at Best Buy and was often known to walk out with stacks of CDs, many of which I had never even heard of (I enjoy many genres of music so these included rock, rap, swing, ska, punk, etc). One day I bought Iron Maiden's self-titled and I didn't even know who they were. Just though the cover looked cool. Holy crap was it awesome.
Then I started branching out and checking out more and more metal. I got on Amazon and read customer reviews of albums I enjoyed and looked for where people would say this "sounds like this" or is "better than this" or "isn't as good as this" and I'd go check those bands out. I got on Pandora. I still think of myself as a metal newbie 11 years after graduating high school. There's still so much out there I need to check out.
How and when did you get into Kiuas, and what sets Kiuas above and beyond those other guys?
I learned of Kiuas fairly recently when they were added to the bill of the 2009 Chicago Powerfest. I was trying to check out as many Powerfest bands ahead of the show as I could by downloading them on Zune Marketplace. I downloaded The New Dark Age and was instantly hooked. Downloaded Spirit of Ukko and Reformation and couldn't believe how awesome this band was. Saw them at Powerfest and they made the weekend for me. As a mid-tier band they had a short set but it was so awesome to get a chance to see them live in the states. Hope to get that chance again soon. Picked up The New Dark Age at Powerfest but couldn't find the others there or at ProgPower. Preordered Lustdriven online and it friggin rocks, of course. Hope to pick up the other two discs at ProgPower this year if I can find them this time.
What sets them above and beyond other bands for me is that they meld a lot of different sounds together, while still having a coherent Kiuas sound that is uniquely theirs, yet never sounding repetitive from song to song or disc to disc. I love the vocals, the lyrical content, the guitar work that goes from crunchy to intricate to delicate, the Finnish touches, and everything else that makes Kiuas tick. Admittedly I've only been listening to them for a year and a half, but I just don't get tired of them.
Keep the fantastic metal coming guys. And come back to the states!
