How popular is Opeth in Scandinavia?

[Lina]

This question is for you guys in Scandinavia,

How well-known and/or appreciated is Opeth (and metal in general, I guess) in Scandinavia? Can you walk into any music store and pick up their CDs? Are their shows well-attended?

 

[Johan]

Not that well known of course, except on the metal scene.
I have one friend who listens to them as well.
I only ever saw one person with an Opeth shirt.
But I think you can find the latest Opeth in pretty much any store except maybe Åhlens and such today.
At least when it's still really new.

 

[splump]

What? where did you see the guy in an opeth t-shirt? i have sure as hell never seen one..

but yeah, their known on the metal-scene..
One of my friends also listen to opeth, but i dont think i know anyone that is an actual "fan"..

but i like calling me a fan..

 

[Windom Pearl]

My little sister wears Opeth t-shirts.

Yeahanyway. Opeth is less known here, but metal-oriented shops sell their records. Funny that most metallists I know don't even know Opeth. Or they maybe have heard of Opeth, but never heard the music. But then again, most metallists don't know a shit about music anyway

(I've had MAJOR difficulties in spreading the gospel of Mr Bungle...)

 

[Silhouette]

I live in a city that's about an hour south of Sydney ... Wollongong. This city has about half a million ppl so isn't huge, but just a good size.

What's cool is that Opeth seem to have a pretty big fan base here. There are about 5 or 6 different record shops where I could walk in and buy Opeth. I personally know about 30 ppl who love Opeth and I own 2 Opeth shirts that I bought in Sydney.

I know it wasn't really the topic, but I just wanted to put that in to see how it compares with where everyone else comes from.

Later

 

[Johan]

Actually I think it was a long sleeve.
And I saw it here in Linköping.

Linköping has 200,000 inhabitants and I think I could also have found BWP in 5 stores when it was new. now I can find it in 3, maybe 4... but what does that say? Depends on how many stores there are etc.

 

[svenske kocken]

Well known? Hahaha! Opeth is extremely underground in Sweden. Of course (some) people into metal know them, but that´s all.
Opeth shows? Opeth don´t play in Scandinavia. OK, they´ve made two gigs this year, one in Borås and one at Hultsfredsfestivalen, but that´s it. Before those gig it was 5 years since the played here.

 

[Lina]

Thanks, guys. Here's another question for you:

How is metal viewed in general? Here in the US, well, first people think of Marilyn Manson or Korn. Then after trying in vain to explain the difference, they just think you worship Satan or have too much testosterone. True metal isn't mainstream here at all. Is it more accepted there? I keep hearing how metal bands win Swedish equivalents of Grammys for best band.

The reason for my questions (and this is a bit embarassing): I have relatives coming to visit me from Norway in a couple weeks, and I'm just curious what kind of background knowledge of metal the average Norsk has. Whether metal is accepted there, or whether it's thought of as weird like it is here.

 

[benny]

I have heard compared to the rest of the world Finland has a lot of metal heads. I heard that some bands reach really high on their charts, like Amorphis and such.

 

[HoserHellspawn]

Apparently Children of Bodom singles went to #1 in Finland twice. They would never EVER make... probably even the top 100 in North America.

 

[Morningrise]

I live in Austin Texas and I have seen about 5 people wearing Opeth shirts in about the past year. Most noticably at the Final Fantasy Movie opening date (which I thought was a great movie) and at the G3 concert thats coming through (amazing show worth seeing John Petrucci alone!!!!) As for record stores I have only seen Still Life in one shop and Blackwater Park in about 4 shops... Spotting fellow Opethians is definately an Eye Catcher! hehe sorry i just had to use that face, hehe.

 

[Orchid]

Lina wrote: "I keep hearing how metal bands win Swedish equivalents of Grammys for best band."

Yep, that would be Dark Tranquillity. I'm not quite sure if they won or were nominated for the Best Album of the Year with 'projector', but anyway, I think it's wonderful.


winter-frost wrote: "I have heard compared to the rest of the world Finland has a lot of metal heads. I heard that some bands reach really high on their charts, like Amorphis and such."

That's true. At the moment, Stratovarius is 8th and Cradle Of Filth 22nd on the weekly top 40 charts. When Dimmu Borgir released their latest album, it climbed up to top 10.

In general, usually when a metal band releases an album, it shows up on the top 40 chart after a while.

 

[Villain]

It is pretty easy to crab any new metal-CD's you want around here in Finland. I live in a small town of 35 000 or something and there are two shops selling Blackwater Park in here. Also, bands like Children of Bodom, Nightwish and Sentenced are almost as popular as those teeny pop-bands (you name them, for I can't remember their names) among kids. I have worked in youth-houses and there metal is played almost as often as pop. So, I guess I should be happy living here.

-Villain

 

[svenske kocken]

Ok, let me explain. Here in Sweden we have a category for hårdrock (metal) and this year The Haunted, HammerFall, Misery Loves Co. and The Hives were nominated. Everyone thought that HammerFall was gonna win since their Renegade album made it number one in the swedish chart. I, on the other hand, was pretty sure that The Hives were gonna win. You see, it´s always seems that the band who are least metal wins. Hellacopters, Sator, Backyard Babies, Misery Loves Co. and so on. None of them plays metal, and therefor they are winning. But this year it was different cause this The Haunted won.

Dark Tranquillite have never won a Grammy and neither have they been nominated for Best Album. But it´s correct that they were nominated last year - or was it the year before that? - for Projector. But they didn´t win. I think it was LOK who won that year.

Talking about Norway, both Dimmu Borgir and Kovenant have won Grammys for Best Metal Albums. Sorry, Dimmu have not won yet, but I´m sure they will this year. But both bands played live at the norweigian Grammy festival, with corpse paint and everything. =)

 

[Silhouette]

Originally posted by svenske kocken

Talking about Norway, both Dimmu Borgir and Kovenant have won Grammys for Best Metal Albums. Sorry, Dimmu have not won yet, but I´m sure they will this year. But both bands played live at the norweigian Grammy festival, with corpse paint and everything. =)

I have the "Grotesquery Conceiled" clip of when Dimmu played. Looks funny that a band in corpse paint is playing to ppl in tuxedos, hehe.