Muistopuhe poisnukkuneelle

On the 8th of January 2013 Laura Osella Odervång left this world.

You may remember Laura, together with her husband Fredrik Odervång, as the most active guest writers here at Metalmoments. Together, they specialized in their most beloved genre, the folk/pagan metal style, in which they have written both of their favourite band, Moonsorrow, and Finntroll.
They were also kind enough to give a helping hand when I, Tobias, was otherwise engaged, and thus wrote a piece on another great act in quite a different style, Raubtier (supported by Perception Of Darkness).
When not writing their own reviews here, they have also from time to time been able to help me out with details about especially their beloved Finnish bands when I have been in doubt of certain details.
As with most things in her life, Laura was not content at doing even such a short-term task half-done, and thus Fredrik and she took the time to sit down and really work out what they wanted to write about these experiences, and I can only hope that you, our readers, have appreciated their reviews as much as we have, and it pains us that we will no longer be able to draw on their immense strength and knowledge in the future.

Laura was much more than a part-time colleague however, she was also a close and dear friend of ours.
I can no longer count the many delightful dinners we spent at each others’ places, more often than not resulting in too long nights with a lot of beers (at least for Fredrik, Lunah and I, Laura used to prefer a nice rosé wine), and metal blasting either out of the stereo or YouTube, depending on what we wanted to hear. In this way the two couples, Laura and Fredrik, Lunah and I, taught each other much in music – I can only hope that we have helped inspire them to some new things, as they certainly did open our eyes to others.
So if I said we would miss their help and input on Metalmoments, it is nothing even remotely close to how much we will miss Laura as the wonderful friend we enjoyed spending time with when the work-day was done!

It wasn’t just at home that we enjoyed the great company of Laura and Fredrik, we also spent some very memorable times at various festivals together, and where or whenever we hooked up, party was sure to ensue, not only between the four of us, but also everyone around us – Laura and Fredrik was a very open couple who gladly invited new people into their friendly surroundings.
It was not always that our roads crossed, even though they went to at least as many festivals as we do each year, maybe even more, as they have visited several places that we have yet to enjoy. You see, if there was one couple who really lived the “carpe diem” quote, it was Laura and Fredrik – as soon as there was something that seemed interesting to them, they didn’t stop up and think about it or say that they’d do it next year, they just went ahead and did it! This was probably one of the most inspiring strengths the memory of Laura should teach us.

There is so much more that could be said about the life of Laura, and much have been said by Fredrik and other friends as well, so I think I will leave this text as it is now, and send our loving thoughts to Laura with a song from her beloved Moonsorrow.
May you stay strong until we meet again dear friend!

Laura Osella Odervång (1973 – 2013)