Once a year, every year, we have to endure the music extravaganza that is the Eurovision Song Contest. Countries from all over Europe send a band to represent their country and every year we here in the UK get embarrassed with our entry. The majority of the music has moved on from the “happy clappy plinky plonky” style to a more modern pop music fayre - BUT what about us? Those of us that follow the gods of rock? Well, other than the odd entry (remember Lordi) there’s not too much to shout about.

So, we here at R13 have decided to bring an ‘Alternative Eurovision’ where we have found a band from each country that is taking part in this year’s official event to represent their said country and we think we have come up with a bloody awesome line-up!

We did come up with some strict rules for ourselves, the tried to follow the Eurovision style of avoiding big known bands - this meant not taking the easy route of bands like Rammstein for Germany and System of a Down for Armenia, which made a lot of fun scouring countries, listening to numerous good (and not so good) bands. We also wanted to try and cover all aspects of the rock and metal world and quite proud of ourselves with the bands we discovered.

There’s no voting, this is just a bit of fun and a great way to be introduced to some new overseas bands. But what do think? Any bands you like on here, think we missed out? Drop us a comment on our Twitter page @roomthirteenmag or Facebook and let us know.

The list is purely alphabetical by country, so let’s kick start the ‘Alternative Eurovision’ into life with……

ALBANIA
TROJA.

To kick off proceedings we head to Albania, well kind of. Here’s our first bending of the rules. Troja are based in Kosova but their Facebook page has band’s nationality as Albania too and that’s good enough for us. So, welcome our first act, Troja.




ARMENIA
BLOOD COVENANT.

Armenia are no strangers to producing legendary bands, System of a Down are made up of Armenian descendants and last month closed its ‘Wake Up the Souls Tour’ with a free show in Yerevan's Republic Square (which you can watch here). Meanwhile, here is our Armenian entry Blood Covenant.




AUSTRALIA
THE GRAVELTONES.

Yes, Australia! Someone needs to buy the organisers at Eurovision a map of the world! Apparently, Eurovision is quite big down under so they have been invited to participate as a one-off but possibly could be a regular thing. At least there’s a chance UK might get another point. Anyway, to represent Australia here we have a duo that are causing a big stir right here in the UK with their awesome blues based rock and quite frankly storming live sets.




AUSTRIA
BLOOD SHED REMAINS.

Back to Europe again with the host country of the real thing. There’s no bearded ladies with our Austrian entry, just pure fast, aggressive rock.




AZERBAIJAN
ALTUN ZEYNALOV.

Once we saw this video we knew we had a winner as to who was going to represent this country. 'Nuff Said.




BELARUS
FORODWAITH.

Belarus is probably more famous for its Biathlete Darya Domracheva and Team Sky cyclist Vasil Kiryienka over here but their music scene is pretty lively too as this track from Forodwaith proves.




BELGIUM
DO OR DIE.

The country that brought us Hercule Poirot and Tin Tin (ok, neither of those are real) but thankfully Do Or Die are very much real and with their fast, aggressive style they make the “little grey cells” say they are the perfect band to represent their country.




CYPRUS
Winters Verge.

We are not going to get involved with the political situation between North and South Cyprus, basically, fuck politics, we just want the music to talk and with Winters Verge it does just that.




CZECH REPUBLIC
AWRIZIS.

Time for some groove/death core/good ol’ fashioned thrash from the Czech’s. Awrizis have not been around for long but are making all the right noises.




DENMARK
FOREVER STILL.

Forever Still have just returned home following their first ever UK tour and those of you that saw them live will not be surprised to see us put them down as Denmark’s representative.




ESTONIA
NO BIG SILENCE.

Our first visit to the Baltic countries brings us No Big Silence a band who have been producing good quality music for the last decade. This track has a bit of an industrial feel to it and even though it was made way back in 2006 it has certainly stood the test of time.




FINLAND
SIX INCH.

While Six Inch are our Finnish entry, it should be said that Finland’s real Eurovision entry is the only one in the entire contest that actually is worthy of a comment here (unfortunately they didn’t make it past the semi-final). It sees Pertti Kurikan Nimipaivat, a punk band completely made up with people with “development disabilities” and in honour of this, here’s their song for the competition:



Meanwhile, our entry Six Inch also hail from Helsinki and are a band we have crossed paths with recently here at R13 and looking forward to hearing more from them in the not too distant future.




FRANCE
ZE GRAN ZEFT.

Our French entry, Ze Gran Zeft, are known for their combination of metal and hip-hop, with electronic influence, we gave it a go and have to say it sounded pretty awesome.




GEORGIA
SCRATCH THE FLOOR.

Being a regular visitor to the beautiful country of Georgia, this was one of the easiest countries to pick a band from. Scratch The Floor are just simply a superb band. In July they will be supporting Black Label Society on the Main Stage of the Tbilisi Open Air Festival, fully deserved too. Look out for their new EP Hellhound, well worth a listen.




GERMANY
DUNE PILOT.

Germany is a rock heaven and one that is well covered in the media, so we decided to find a brand new band that sound like they have the quality to go all the way, given time and a lucky break or two. Dune Pilot play quality stoner rock to the standard that you would have thought that Pearl Jam would have been desperate to support them.




GREECE
NIGHTSTALKER.

Nightstalker have been mainstays on the Greek rock scene for some time, they play good quality classic rock and who can argue with that.




HUNGARY
ANGERSEED.

Debrecen outfit, Angerseed, sure have a lot of anger, their brutal sounding Death Metal kicks ass.




ICELAND
IN THE COMPANY OF MEN.

In The Company Of Men have just won the Icelandic leg of the Wacken Metal Battle, where they will now go to the international winner’s battle. So, to help them prepare for the international battle, they can represent Iceland here.




IRELAND
ALTAR OF PLAGUES.

Ok, we admit cheating here a little, of course Altar Of Plagues are a bit better known but that’s because the Irish band are no strangers to us here in the UK and let’s be honest, we still love them.




ISRAEL
GEVOLT.

Calling themselves ‘Yiddish Metal’, the 6 piece have been around for over 10 years gaining a big following in their homeland and abroad and gained a few more here at R13 too.




ITALY
OVER.

Over are a young and rapidly up and coming band. Like the Danish entry, they too have just finished a tour of the UK, their alternative punk-rock sound is fresh and impressive.



To see the remainder of the countries, - PART TWO