~ * ~

Thunder tore the already tense silence, as everyone prepared mentally for the final showdown.
“Do we really have to?” asked warily an already exhausted Aleksi.
“You know we don’t have a choice,” answered Paavo, completing a bandage on his leg. “We can’t let it continue any further.”
Aleksi turned to Alarik, who was snoring softly on the floor. “I fear we might not come back from this one…”
The bearded hero regarded his companion gravely.
“I know, but this is the life we chose. If we backed up now, would you be able to live with yourself, knowing everything that is at stake? People trust us, we have to live up to their expectations, or perish trying to protect them.”
His friend sat down beside their sleeping partner. Poking him distractedly, he answered in a tired voice, “…I know.”
Lightning brightened the inside of Dog’s Home for an instant, highlighting their worried faces as Alarik stirred in his sleep, annoyed by Aleksi’s poking.

~~~

“Your evil days of frightening people are OVER!”

The statement hung heavy in the air, to be soon chased away by the wind. Rain had ceased, for now at least, you know the weather in Tampere, and a fresh breeze reminded of the nice summer days and strawberries sold by the street.

The blond hero stood defiantly in front of his enemies.
“…you think you can stop us?” asked Kimmo, his eyes squinted in a mild glare.

Theon replied with a duck face.

“…alone?” added The Scary One, stretching his arms.

From his mighty dolphin steed, Iso T refused to flinch.
“I vowed to protect the people and I will risk my life to fulfill my promise!”

The Glaring Finns glanced at each other, careful not to wound themselves by doing so.
“Very well,” replied Grumpy Antti. “If you are willing to give your life, we’ll gladly take it.”

Thunder rolled again, and rain resumed pouring, extracting a loud “SHIT!” from everyone present. Theon was introduced to the ground as his fearless dolphin ran for cover, cursing the freaking rain that would ruin his hair.

Already, Kimmo, Oskari and Antti were glaring at the sky, scaring the clouds away. When the sky proved empty of everything, they had to threaten the sun to go back in place, after finding it hidden behind a building.

They were all ready to pick the fight where they had left it – Theon had straightened his costume while his enemies were arranging the scenery – when a voice was heard.

“You didn’t think you could begin without us, did you?”

Theon looked up in disbelief.

“…is that you, GOD?”

Through the loud clap of simultaneous facepalms, the voice added, ignoring the previous question,

“We are the Flying Potato Junkies, and we shall not let you rule this Earth with your Evil Glares!”

Eyerolls from the enemies’ side.

“You again? I thought we’d gotten rid of you french fries like, an hour ago!” answered a very annoyed Antti.

Alarik looked suddenly alarmed. “WHAT? Really?? Did I miss that again??”

Aleksi comforted his friend as Paavo flew to Iso T’s side. He placed a hand on the young hero’s shoulder, declaring solemnly, “I will not let you down.”
His blond associate looked at him, bewildered. “Who’re you??”

The Glaring Finns snickered, which was almost scarier than them simply glaring. A moment later however, everyone was in position.

Alarik, decided to make the best out of this one, would take on The Scary One. It might ressemble a bitch fight with drumsticks, but the best drummer would win.

Aleksi would take on Antti, though he wasn’t completely sure his frown and middle finger would be able to defeat the drummer’s grumpiness. It would be a tight match.

Paavo would bravely go against the Glariest Finn of All Finns, though the outcome was far from obvious. Used to bear with Aleksi – who had luckily stayed on the Good Side, he might be able to resist Kimmo’s glare.

Theon had run off after Vivian, because he’d already lost his duck, not his dolphin too.

The air was charged with electricity. Everyone was jumpy, and thus everyone almost had a heartattack.

“What is going on here?”

All eyes turned toward the source of the question. A purple-haired girl, dressed vaguely punk, was looking pointedly at them.

Antti gulped and replied, in a tiny voice, “….nothing.”

The atmosphere was heavy, and soon everyone slowly inched away toward their respective home. An eyebrow raised, the girl continued to watch them without another word, until her eyes fell on the Glariest Finn.

Frowning, she said warningly, “Kimmo… your beard.”

The bassist knew what was at stake. He also knew he only had a few seconds to make a move, but that he would never have the time to remove his facial hair.
His eyes widened, and upon uttering a terrified “OH SHIT”, he ran for his life.

Immediately, the purple-haired girl called for her associate, and soon the two of them were gone after the poor Kimmo.

The remaining fighters looked at each other.
“Again?” asked a very annoyed Aleksi.
“I thought the Selo were supposed to hold them back!” replied apologetically Oskari, just as confused.
“They’re going to be grumpy at me for the rest of the week,” whined Antti, who didn’t manage to get anyone’s sympathy.
“Well, I guess we’ll have to try again next week,” concluded Paavo.

Exchanging greetings and drumstick hits on the head, both camps departed back home, flinching as they heard the fallen King of Glare scream in terror.

~ * ~

The above would have been utterly epic if I had been able to pull it off as a comic, but alas, backgrounds and I do not mix well (failed my classes as a chameleon, see). It was inspired by my friend Las’s awesome name mixing ability, which transformed “The Potato Junkies” (the name of the Therapy! cover band Paavo, Alarik and Aleksi formed after Bloodpit imploded in 2007) into “The Flying Potatoes”. It sounded so much like a superhero league that I did the above sketches, and eventually found them “villains” (the Glaring Finns) and wrote the above story.

                          

~~~~~*-*~~~~~

Apocalyptica released their 7th Symphony album at the end of August, and the video for their single “End Of Me” (feat. Gavin Rossdale from Bush) a bit before that. Check your local music store for the album, and the video below for a bit of Apocalyptica madness
They have recently wrapped up a tour in North America (including a date in Quebec City at a festival with Rammstein TT__TT) and are preparing for their upcoming European one, starting in October. Check out the tourdates HERE.

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According to their Twitter, Day Eleven is in the process of writing new material. They are also preparing their next shows at the beginning of October, on the 1rst in Tampere at Amarillo, and the 6th in Helsinki, at Club Liberté.

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2 years after their last album (Irrallaan), Flinch is finally entering the studio to work on the next one. No info on a release date yet.

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Very much absent this summer, Lovex has been slowly but surely recording their next release. They just started mixing the album, be patient

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Our favorite small-animal-eating haired singer is finally back with news! Naked‘s fourth album, “Double Down”, has a release date scheduled for early November. They will soon shoot a new video (“In color this time!”) for the first single. They also have a brand new website, which you should keep checking for more news like the following video.

~*-*~

Negative has been touring much this summer, following the release of their (AWESOME) album Neon. Next they are preparing to embark on a German tour, starting at the very end of September. Tour dates on their website.
In addition to shows, Jonne has been busy on his own – well, almost – learning how to drive. HERE is a video (iltasanomat.fi) of it. Ville has also been learning, and do notice how he got out of the way when Jonne returned >8)
The band is also in the works of making the video for their next single, “Jealous Sky”, which should feature artwork from fans, according to their request for some 2 weeks ago. Looking forward to that!

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On break after a very intensive and exhausting tour for Dark Passion Play, Nightwish has been hiding at their summer camp to rehearse and record demos of their next album. Anette has joined them this month, as she was taking care of her newborn son =) You can read the Camp Diary HERE.

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Missed Private Line the 4 times they played in 2009, or the 4 times they played this year? Never fear: they’re playing Trashfest in March again this year right, next March, I guess you’d have figured that out, for the 4th edition of the event. Though it’s not showing up on their website (which still shows June’s gig as “upcoming”), they appear on the Trashfest part of Mama Trash’s website. Also playing, The Salvation and Iconcrash.

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If you live in Austria, Germany or Switzerland, and haven’t bought your copy of Poets Of The Fall‘s “Twilight Theater” album, you will be able to buy it at a local music store: the official release is set for October 29th.

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Reflexion sadly doesn’t have any more gigs this year, but luckily they’re writing new stuff. Looking forward to it

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“Kultakalat”, the upcoming Uniklubi album, will be released on the 22nd of September. The first single for it, “Aikasi On Nyt”, got the video treatment, which you can see below.
You can also see new promo pictures on their website.

                          

The Glaring Finn is glaring for a reason. Anyone would be bummed about losing such awesome glasses. I know I would be.

This actually came from the Tammerfest gig that Day Eleven played on the 15th at Klubi. That was my first time seeing them live, and I was not disappointed They were great, and they played my favorite song off Matador (the new album), Montage <3
Another of the highlights of the gig was Kimmo wearing heart-shaped glasses with blinking red lights. Yes. In case you’re not convinced, I confirm it: it was awesome. Definitely looking forward to their next gig around here.

As always, a reminder: the characters you see here now, are characters. Kimmo’s not glary. At least that I know of.

                          

In random other news, tonight was the end of Tammerfest. I’ve only been to 3 gigs, but they were all great

Day Eleven were really great. Janne (Octopussy) was jumping everywhere and generally having a good time. Kimmo (Glaring Finn) sported awesome heart-shaped glasses with blinking red lights. It doesn’t get any cooler And they played Montage, which is my favorite song off their latest album, Matador. <3

Poets Of The Fall were amazing. Now I understand why their last 2 gigs in Tampere were sold out. They have great chemistry onstage and it feels like they couldn’t be truly happy doing anything else. Marko (Butterfly Ballerina) seemed to have every single cell of his being animated by the music. It’s quite contagious

Negative were just awesome. As I’ve said before, I love Neon, so seeing them for a third time in less than 5 months was not overdoing it Though seriously, they were overdressed. I mean, erm, it was already hot, no need for those vests and jackets, right? Also, Antti got a nice arm for throwing roses to the crowd :3 Wish we’d have been closer to catch some.

But we weren’t. We had a nice spot higher than the stage (“we” as in my friends and I, including Pinkass), from which we could see the whole thing. I was also surprised when 2 girls waiting beside us asked me if I was the one drawing the comics (so weird to have people recognize me! but nice ) and I drew Rumors for them ^_^ I still don’t know how they actually knew it was me… but hei, if you were those 2 girls, hello You easily made my night

I actually got many more ideas for comics now, so next week should resume the schedule as usual. We’ll take a break from the Wiwian/mic/Theon love drama for a little while and I’m gonna try to draw other characters for a change XD
(also I need to come up with the rest of the drama, though I already know the underlying story. They live in my head, after all.)

That’s about it. Almost 4am now, sleep for me X) Have a nice weekend everyone!!!

                          

~*~

Apocalyptica have announced the title of their new album: 7th Symphony. Which is such a very fitting title, as it’s their 7th album
As a new album comes out touring starts again! First dates are in Finland, starting with Savonlinna. Of course, they’ll be coming near me, but in the middle of the week, so it means I won’t be able to see them. *sighs*
For all the dates (hopefully some near you! and more convenient than in my case >_>) click HERE.

~*~

Bloodpit is currently on a creative break.
Not completely sure what it means but we just have to wait. Hopefully new material soon
In the meantime, Alarik is having fun with a new band, The Cloudycators. According to their Facebook page, they’re currently recording a new song. You can here them on their MYSPACE.

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Day Eleven put their third album out, Matador, at the end of January. It’s quite awesome, obviously (my favorite off it is Montage =3). GO GET IT!

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Negative are preparing for the coming of their 5th album, Neon, in June (Finland: June 2nd). The first single, End Of The Line, is speeding up chart now!
(In my opinion it’s promising to be a very good album )

~*~

Nightwish didn’t really put anything news out there in a while, not directly concerning the band anyway. However, the Nightmail has been reopened (until today, sadly, it’s now closed) so the next answers will be published in the beginning of April.
In related news however, Anette proudly announced last week that she’s halfway through her pregrancy (surprise!) and that everything is going great. At 38, she’s already a proud mother to a boy who will be 9 by the time the new baby arrives. Though she insisted that it does not change anything regarding Nightwish, she has decided to push back the release of her solo material to an ulterior moment. Recordings for the new NW album will begin this fall, but she will probably only record her vocal in the beginning of 2011.
Marco, on his side, has been having fun in women’s swimming suits and braiding his hair. No, he’s not any madder than he always was. He’s just directing a choir for the Finnish TV show Kuorosota (“Choir War”) and seems to be enjoying himself very much. You can watch him on Nelonen if you’re in Finland, or HERE if you’re not.

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Poets of the Fall released a new video a month ago now (“Dreaming You Wide Awake“) and damn, do I love that man’s voice <3 Their new album, Twilight Theater, is coming out on March 17. Stay tuned!

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Private Line still haven’t updated their website from like, 2 years ago or something? They played Trashfest III in Helsinki last week though, which I couldn’t attend as I was being sick in Sweden. If anyone got pics or a review of it, feel free to send links or such ^_^

~*~

Finally, Sonata Arctica is currently touring North America, which is absolutely awesome since I’m not there to see them /sacrcastic. Check HERE to see if you’re on their way! (ARGH! Club Soda in Montreal! That was my first venue ever, for The Rasmus concert…. T_T)

                          

This is my official excuse for this year’s absence of advent calendar comics.

Sorri for the delay. Here’s a tree.

Happy Holidays, whichever you celebrate or not.

I just wish you all pleasant times and good company!

~Laury M. Dragon

                          

Dudes, he DID cut his dreads.

Too bad it actually looks cute, I can’t set the League to hunt him.
Ah well.

No, I don’t sharpen my pencils like that for real.

                          

Based on the observations of Las and Commodore, Kimmo (bassist for Day Eleven) looked so serious that they feared he might not find Commodore’s interview questions very funny. ‘He will glare the questions away…’ What a nice mental image.
Made a nice little pic ^_^

(turned out Kimmo did not glare the questions away and answered them nicely =D)

                          

Ahah. Before you ask, no that’s not Jonne.
It’s Las. Commodore’s caretaker?

She attended Negative & Day Eleven’s show in Germany.

She said that Janne’s dreads (Day Eleven singer) look like an octopus… Ok, she said he was very sexy, too, but that is just not comic material enough

                          

This is a feature in two parts, one for Close Inc and this one for Eurobands. Their simultaneous publication on their respective site brought me the most visitors within 24 hours so far in the Closet’s 4-year history.

Among the featurees, 3 characters from worlds foreign to the Closet: Cat Casino (who, I learned later, actually DID sport a flaming sunburn at the time) from Swedish goth band Deathstars; Josey Strandman, from Finnish band To/Die/For; and Big Boy, Swedish/German musician featured on Eurobands (about who I can’t find anything anymore >_>).

You can find Closet’s part HERE.

Link to original post on Eurobands

To/Die/For on MySpace

Deathstars’ website