Tag Archive Iceland

ByGD

Esa in Iceland

Amorphis is from Finland, but they are partly responsible for my obsession with Iceland. That’s because I got super into their music, which at the time drew on the Kalevala for lyrical content. Being me, I had to read the Kalevala. Once I read the Kalevala, the Eddas and the Icelandic sagas were an inevitable next step, and the rest, as they say, is history.

I dreamed of seeing them play in Iceland. Despite the geographic proximity of Finland and Iceland, Amorphis had never, in their 20+ year history, played that country. Until Eistnaflug 2016. Well, I flew to LA to see them once. This one was a no-brainer. I wanted to go to Eistnaflug anyway.

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EistnaWho?

For a few years, I was pretty obsessive about keeping a record of every band I saw perform. I tried to get at least a couple decent shots of every set at every show and festival I attended, and saved details in the metadata of my photos.

I started doing that partly to become a better writer and blogger, and partly because I was old enough to realize that I could no longer remember all the great music I saw when I was young. You know, “What was the name of that band we saw at that club that doesn’t exist anymore the time when X happened?”

But I guess I forgot the second reason and at some point decided that the documentarian approach was keeping me from fully experiencing the moment. So when I went to Eistnaflug in 2016, I didn’t take as many pictures and I didn’t take notes at all. When I got home, I didn’t spend weeks cataloging images. I just used my new energy to hop right back on the pitching treadmill.

Now I have dozens of photos of bands I can’t identify because I only saw them once at festival four years ago, half a world away when I’d probably been awake for 18 hours and seen 12 other bands that day and had beer instead of meals.

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Dark Landscapes

Last week I posted a picture of Dimmu Borgir, an area of unique rock formations in Iceland. This week I’m pulling the camera back a bit for a wider view. I think it’s interesting that in a country famous for unique rock formations, this particular area is named for such. Actually, what is most notable to me about it is its lush vegetation. That is far less common in this volcanic land.

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Dark Cities

The name Dimmu Borgir translates to Dark Cities. That’s quite the evocative name, and certainly worthy of an elven castle or a metal band. But like its namesake Norwegian band, the real Dimmu Borgir is not really very scary. It’s actually quite lovely. Much nicer than the Fire Swamp. I’d like to build a summer home there.

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Bucolic

This lovely, riparian scene appears quite bucolic. But it’s actually the slope beside the festival parking lot cum campground at the Eistnaflug heavy music festival in Iceland. Which actually says a lot about the festival, and about the country.