What is the deal with Sweden?

Totally off topic.. I've wondered why I got in trouble for calling it Holland instead of The Netherlands when I lived there, yet people do it all the time. Was it just the Northern bastards that got shitty about it? Or I had shitty friends?
Strictly officially Holland incorporates only the provinces Noord and Zuid Holland. Since you were in Groningen (which is not in Noord or Zuid Holland) your friends probably agitated against you calling it Holland. Also because there's this typical 'rivalry' between the 'city people' from the 'Randstad' region (the region within the circle of Rotterdam, The Hague, Amsterdam and Utrecht) and the 'country people' from the East/North.
 
Strictly officially Holland incorporates only the provinces Noord and Zuid Holland. Since you were in Groningen (which is not in Noord or Zuid Holland) your friends probably agitated against you calling it Holland. Also because there's this typical 'rivalry' between the 'city people' from the 'Randstad' region (the region within the circle of Rotterdam, The Hague, Amsterdam and Utrecht) and the 'country people' from the East/North.

That makes a lot of sense now. I had wondered why they got so shitty when that is what we learnt in school.

:zombie:
 
Oh don't get me wrong, I respect Opeth alot, and they're good people. I like alot of their stuff but they're not a band that I fervently follow, though some people seem to think they're a big influence on my band, which is incorrect, honestly. I guess it surprises people because they think they hear alot of Opeth in our sound, which honestly is more coincidental than anything, whether you wanna believe it or not. Personally I'm much more inspired by Katatonia, they've yet to release anything that I dislike, and I love the way they structure their songs. But I think Opeth deserve the accolades they get, because they're crazy fucking talented musicians and they've worked hard to get to where they are now.

The only resemblance I can see with your band and Opeth is the growl/clean vocal switches.
 
Black Metal / Christlich / Experimentelle Musik

Formed sometime in 2005. The intention of Gurz was to make dark music with a huge impact. The band consists of an all star line-up of session musicians as well as Stormführer Selbstmord and Greve Stalingestapo, who are the integral composers of the music. Guest musicians from several other countries have also been used to great effect. Gurz are often compared to the coldness of Darkthrone and Burzum, with more of a violent and unrestrained edge.

Do I sense some bored children? Wtf is that, Stefan? :D
 
That makes a lot of sense now. I had wondered why they got so shitty when that is what we learnt in school.

:zombie:
If you want the whole story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holland :)

"Holland" is informally and quite incorrectly used in English and other languages, including sometimes the Dutch language itself, to mean the whole of the modern country of the Netherlands. (This example of pars pro toto or synecdoche is similar to the tendency to refer to the United Kingdom as "England".)
 
Yep, while I totally appreciate Belligerent's compliment, I agree that there's some other really good bands from Chicago. In addition to those mentioned, there's also TROUBLE, Cianide, Kommandant, Centaurus, Twelfth Gate, Ion Vein, to name a few.
No problem Larry, and I'll check out a few of those bands (since i've never heard Cianide, Kommandant or Twelfth Gate).
 
Oh come on! We all know it's Aqua!

Ey! The the once hot singer is norwegian, so danish/norwegian to be correct. But yes, let's just call it danish. It's better to dent a smashed, burnt and melted car...

Good thing there aren't any danish people at this board?
 
The only resemblance I can see with your band and Opeth is the growl/clean vocal switches.

Agreed, and admittedly there's some occasional similarities in other places (the frequent heavy to clean guitar switches, the 6/8 time stuff with alot of minor & dissonant chords) but again it's probably just a case of drawing from similar influences. I make no bones about the fact that Mike is 10X the musician that I am, the guy's really talented.

One of these days I'd like to get to Sweden to play live.