Finland has a rich history in the metal scene, with some highly influential and important bands having sprouted from the fertile grounds there. And with that, also comes a whole series of great events, going from unique one time concerts to excellent festivals to pick from every summer (and throughout the year) like Tuska, Steelfest, Nummirock,… And this year it seems another one will establish itself as a crowd favorite with Hellsinki Metal Festival. With its first edition it immediately showed off how the organization seems to want to do things slightly different from most other festivals with a line-up that really showed a clearly different approach. And while this first edition wasn’t without its issues, Hellsinki Metal Festival will be marked in our calendars as a yearly “must to go”. On the first day, we caught excellent shows from Arion, Clawfinger, Blind Guardian and Apocalyptica on the 1st outdoor stage “Hellsinki 01”!