Veteran touring musicians are able to tune all sorts of things out, from tinnitus-inducing treble to terrible opening bands to snoring bandmates. Still, it must have been quite the endurance test for Barren Earth’s Oppu Laine and Mikko Kotomäki to talk to MetalSucks from the balcony of L.A.’s Key Club, right in the middle of sound check for their first ever tour. They were there as part of the Finnish Metal Tour Part II package, in support of last year’s excellent debut Curse of the Red River. As snare drums thwacked repeatedly and guitars sprayed ear-splitting distortion at regular intervals, the Finnish band’s bassist/founder and lead vocalist (respectively) opined about their musical pasts and presents, why Finland seems to produce folk and funeral doom bands almost exclusively, and what excites them about being on the road.

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If you’re anything like me (And, really, who isn’t a Jewish Thalidomide baby up in this piece?), you’re sick of wading through the mud puddle of rehash thrash that’s collected below the metal drainage pipe over the last few years. Not only is most of it redundant, but it also overshadows the older bands that are still double-kicking ass. Take Kreator, granddaddies of German thrash. You want a thrash revival? After a pretty lackluster stretch in the 90s, these tusslin’ Teutons began a second golden age with the glorious Violent Revolution (2001). THAT was a thrash revival, and it predated the debuts by newbies Fueled By Fire, Warbringer and Avenger of Blood by years.

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