Finland: Blind Channel – Dark Side

Martin: Hahahaha, holy shit. Have I stumbled through a timewarp to 2001?

I mean, I’m not complaining. My genre credentials are solid: I repeatedly requested Limp Bizkit’s “Break Stuff” at the Mayfair nightclub in Newcastle; I saw Coal Chamber in concert; I even paid money for an Alien Ant Farm album, for God’s sake.

So while it’s not a great song, “Dark Side” takes me back to my roots. Whenever I hear it, I’m whisked away to my basement room in Mainz, when life was all about the next paycheck and wondering whether my DSL connection would cope with simultaneously downloading mp3s on KaZaA and watching a Melodifestivalen semi. But what on earth is it doing at ESC in 2021?!

And yet, and yet…

I remember once seeing a cartoon in a magazine about the various “tribes” in music fandom, and tucked away in the corner along with all the various forms of hipster, there was a long-haired fella in black with the caption “Omnipresent Metalhead”. A grudging yet respectful acknowledgement: Metal is the genre that never dies.

So yes, every generation has its metalheads, not to mention its angry teenage boys (and the men who used to be them). There’s lots of us… ahem… them around. And even in their more sedate, ESC-watching adulthood, I think they might vote in sufficient numbers to send this fairly high up the scoreboard, as generic and old-school as it is.

Shi: “The genre that never dies” is a good starting point for predicting this. There are certain things that, given a good execution and limited competition for that spot, often do well enough. And quite a few entries from the neighborhood of this one have managed to sneak onto the left side of the scoreboard.

Felix: No, I’m not allergic to electric guitars, see my love for “Deli” and “Identitet”. But one thing has to come last on my list, and this one does so – not out of necessity, but out of conviction: I can’t stand it. But it can do well, it really can.

video and title image source: eurovision.tv