Have you ever wondered what a metal festival looks like behind the scenes? Or how a typical festival day looks for a band? Finish melodic death metal band Brymir gave me the chance to shed some light on those questions by allowing me to experience the SaariHelvetti festival with them.

On Saturday the sixth of August we met up around noon at the Rosendahl Laituri to wait for the ferry to take us to ‘The Island of Hell’. After all the stuff has been fitted onto the boat in a Tetris like manner, it was just a short ride before we arrived at Viikinsaari. 

After the equipment was unloaded, we headed to the backstage. Well, most of us at least. Drummer Patrik stayed back to make sure the material got transported to the stage safely.  
There wasn’t much time to rest yet though. As soon as all the equipment had arrived at the stage, it was time set up the drums and get everything ready. 

Around 14:00 everything was ready for the gig and we could finally take some time to relax, get some food and just have fun for a while. Well, fun means different things to different people. For Sean, stand in guitarist Antti and Bloodred Hourglass guitarist Joni Lahdenkauppi it apparently includes discussing guitar equipment and playing styles in such detail, that to me it was like they were speaking a whole other language.

Then the moment suprême: it was time for the actual show. Even though the weather wasn’t completely on our side and there were some of those inevitable, technical problems you run in at a festival, the show was a blast. They played 3 songs from the upcoming album (released on 26.08 via Napalm Records): ‘Voices in the Sky’, ‘Herald of Aegir’ and ‘Borderland’. Fans of the older material got some treats with classics like ‘For Those Who Died’ and ‘Pantheon of Forsaken Gods’. Just too bad the show only lasted 45 minutes. I, for one, along with many other fans for sure would have loved to hear some more. 

After the gig the guys went to meet with some fans and then turned into fan boys themselves during Moonsorrow. After Combichrist was done playing, some of us headed back with the normal ferry to the centre of Tampere where the guys had to check in with their accommodations for the night, while the rest of the band stayed back to wait for the artist ferry to get their equipment off the island. For me that was my queue to take my leave and say goodbye to the guys. However, from what I heard they continued the after party for a long while still.