Kiuas is a quite popular power metal band that just a couple of years ago made their return to the public life after about 8 years of absence. They’re back at full force and were basically the perfect choice for a night like this, opening and warming up for Battle Beast. They definitely brought the energy to convince even those who were not familiar with them and brought everything a power metal band that is darker in sound should. The more heavy bits, the couple of moments with growls and at times lengthy compositions were all highly enjoyable and worked great at the already halfway full arena show.

Who could be a better pick than Ensiferum to get your crowd amped up? They’ve been around for close to 3 decades and their popularity keeps on rising. Which is no surprise when you see the energy that these guys continue to have whenever they take over a stage. Markus pulls his usual faces when cranking out some tasty guitar solo, while Sami still runs around like a madman trying to amp up the crowd. The addition of Pekka on keyboards and vocals has been a widely discussed topic, but I have to say that both on record and live he really adds a new energy that I do not mind at all. Opening up with ‘Rum, Women, Victory’ and ‘Andromeda‘, 2 of the more energetic, going tracks from their latest album ‘Thalassic‘, the party started early. But especially when they came with ‘In My Sword I Trust‘ and ‘Lai Lai Hei‘, both old Ensiferum classics, you could the response of the crowd go even more through the roof. I haven’t seen a bad show from Ensiferum to this day and don’t expect to catch one soon. It’s been a couple of years now since their latest release, here’s for hoping that a new one could be on the way…

Battle Beast has been getting more and more popular over the past half a decade or so and all of that came to a grandiose party at Jäähalli with a show that had a great stage production. It all began with vocalist Noora Louhimo coming down from the rafters, fire, fireworks and smoke, kicking off the set with ‘Circus of Doom‘ from their latest album of the same name, released last year. And we were off for a fantastic set of heavy metal greatness. Their music is damn catchy and the whole band plays with a kind of energy that is infectious and entertaining, not even counting in the pyro and stage props that came into play. Their setlist ranged from high energy all the way to their more melancholic calm songs, all from their last 3 albums ‘Bringer of Pain‘, ‘No More Hollywood Endings‘ and ‘Circus of Doom‘. Personally I always find it a pity when there is absolutely no representation of the really old school stuff, but clearly no one had an issue with this looking at the energy that exploded in the room. Battle Beast is most definitely one of Finland’s up-and-coming heavy metal great ones and if tonight’s show didn’t prove that wholeheartedly, nothing will.