We got back to the venue just in time to catch a good portion of the Ruoska set. It was clearly a good move to put the band this early on the second day, because the room was absolutely packed already at this early time! For those who don’t know about this band, you can describe them the easiest with “Finnish Rammstein“. The music sounds very similar, but with lyrics completely in Finnish, hell, even the vocalist has a striking resemblance to Till Lindeman. Within their country, it’s a very popular band and live they’re always quite the riot. Fans were singing along to the songs at the top of their lungs, and dancing/moshing was ever present till the very end of the set. With some cool stage outfits I hadn’t seen on them before, and a new guitarist who was doing an admirable job replacing their longtime guitarist who just moved on, this was again a pretty cool show to start my night with. Ruoska always delivers, and is a perfect fit for an event like this.

Antibody apparently really impressed the organizers at an event they saw his set earlier in the year, causing them to book him immediately for this year’s HIF. Basically a DJ act, he brings a more techno sound with an industrial and power noise touch. Something somewhat different than your usual fare at this fest, especially looking at the quite understated show with the guy behind the name just sporting “regular clothes” with a shirt and some jeans, standing behind his mixing table and some cosmic looking visuals projected behind him. But he clearly really convinced the crowd with the beats and music he pushed out of the speakers, getting quite some people dancing. Proof yet again that the alternative scene can be very inclusive, welcoming a “normie” with open arms like this!

Agonoize is another one of those German aggrotech projects that has a couple cyber party hits and has become a really well-known and established name in the scene, having been around and active for about 2 decades. With vocalist Chris L sporting some colored lenses and devil’s horns, he had a quite menacing presence leaning over the first rows of fans quite regularly. His stares could give anyone the chills despite the heat in the room coming from the heavy dancing to their gritty beats and harsh music. Kicking off with the massively popular ‘Koprolalie‘ was clearly a good move, because the energy was immediately from the start through the roof and never came back down. Yet another aggrotech legend checked from my bucketlist!

Time for something completely different and somewhat left field! The Finnish self-proclaimed “pixel metal” duo Nestruction combines their love for playing cool and somewhat intricate metal music, and arcade video games into a completely unique entity. They set up a big old school looking TV as their backdrop, on which they show bits and pieces of old school video games while they play one after the other instrumental metal versions of the official soundtracks. While some people seemed a bit confused about the whole setup, those who were any bit geeky/nerdy (including me) seemed to absolutely love the rather weird experience. I had the feeling that it was a bit lost on a lot of attendees, but it was a blast! And for being a completely instrumental thing, the guys were surprisingly engaging! Really cool stuff again!

The Norwegian gothic/industrial metal act Gothminister was up next on the main stage, yet another very popular band that has been around for over 2 decades. And with them having released their brand-new album ‘Pandemonium’ just a couple of weeks before HIF 2022, the excitement was pretty up there. With some cool gothic visuals on the screen behind them, some fake heads on spikes, and vocalist Bjørn sporting a very pointy crown and big cape, we immediately got a good dose of gothic cheese. They remind me in some regards of acts like Powerwolf, where there is a certain amount of kitsch that plays a big role in the overall live experience, and I wasn’t sad about it. Fittingly, they kicked off their set with the title track of their new album ‘Pandemonium‘, and treated us on a couple more tracks from that album with ‘Demons‘, ‘Star‘, and ‘Sinister‘. The rest of the setlist seemed to be built mostly as a fan service with favorite tracks like ‘Ich will alles‘, ‘Monsters‘ ‘Liar‘ and ‘Darkside‘. This was really a blast to be able to see live!

All the way from Boston, Massachusetts: the masked and hooded Moris Blak taking up shop on the club stage as the last act of the fest there. With is bass heavy industrial music, he got quite some enthusiastic people moving pretty soon. And not only the music was pretty violent, he got some wild and at times even disturbing visuals projected on the wall behind him, really enhancing the whole experience into a glorious dark dance party.

Last but not least, the headliner and very last band playing HIF 2022 was yet another German harsh electro act. Centhron has also been around for over 2 decades by now and can be described as harsh in every sense. Not only harsh and gritty beats (just how we like it), and harsh vocals, but also the lyrics themselves are what you could call harsh. Tracks like ‘Slutbutt‘ and ‘Fuck off and Die‘ are not really the most subtle pieces, right? Besides that, the testosterone seemed through the roof and the whole “German Viking” bit was actually a real fun part of their overall presence. A pretty wild and hard hitting show with a great ambience in the room, where I could see a large part of the crowd dance, throw fists in the air and shout along to the songs, to wrap up yet another excellent edition of Hellsinki Industrial Festival!