With an act as unique as Dev Mod, we made sure we got to the venue in time to catch some of his set. Which was an absolute delight, and a great way to officially start the festival weekend on day 1. Just one guy with one machine cranking out some really cool and tasty beats that soon got some of people dancing already this early in the night. What was really unique about this whole performance, was that the “one machine” is a Gameboy modified to be the tool to play the beats and samples he has programmed. There is just something captivating about a guy hunched over a Gameboy, seemingly playing on it, to construct the quite banging songs, while moving to his own beats!

First up on the main stage was the infamous dark electro and industrial act Siva Six, which was clear from how many people already showed up this early already. It was not completely packed yet, but the venue was quite nicely filled up. Bathing in smoke, the duo cranked out fan favorites and hits, with a good chunk of the crowd singing along. Even quite a few tracks of their latest release of 2021, ‘DeathCult‘, got quite some people singing along and dancing to. And with the vocalist seeking connection with his fans on the first couple of rows, this whole performance really felt like one big fan service. Really nice way to get those dancing juices going!

Onwards to the next band! Occult industrial misfits King Satan have been steadily building and expanding their influence on the world, and that was very apparent when they got on the club stage here. If we’re completely honest, they deserved to be on the bigger stage, looking how absolutely packed the room was, what an energy they brought with them and how much the crowd was into them. The whole set was from start to finish one big occult electro party, and the whole room really went absolutely wild. But what do you expect when the setlist brings banging tracks like ‘Psychosadomasochism‘, ‘The Pagan Satan‘, ‘This Is Where The Magick Happens‘, and of course fan favorites ‘Satanized (Praise Hail Satan!)‘ and ‘The Killing of God‘. This really is a band that is ready to take over the world with their infectious songs, and that you really don’t want to miss out on. Here’s hoping for a longer set and a bigger stage a next time they get booked for a festival like this!

Time for another fan favorite and regular guest at Hellsinki Industrial Festival and Elektrik Products events! The Estonian outfit Freakangel brings the kind of intense energy to a stage time after time again, and has really grown to be a beloved sighting ever since their first appearance at the very first HIF. Frontman (and wildman) Dmitry Darling is always quite the presence on stage, pacing around like he doesn’t know what to do with his cooped up energy, regularly bugging bassist Ocean Black with some pushing around or almost wrestle level hugs, and jumping and kicking around like crazy. Even though I personally somewhat missed Tanya on the drums, their new drummer was more than up to the task, and besides her always entertaining way of being behind the drumkit, you wouldn’t have noticed. It was an intense, gritty, and banging show yet again, as to be expected, and it got quite some people in the crowd going quite hard. And I’d be remiss to not mention the high amount of ladies throwing some lustful eyes in mr. Darling and his buff appearance’s direction. A killer show by one of the industrial scene’s favorite collection of rebels and misfits.

Back to something less conventional, in the sense of the usual goth/industrial vibe of most acts booked at HIF. Mechanical Vein is a quite new project that promises to blend industrial tunes with drum & bass and hints of hip-hop and metal throughout the songs. And it’s not just the sound that is different than your usual act. A MIDI Fighter controller console mounted in the body of a bass guitar, giving the aesthetic of them playing a guitar, while they’re actually controlling the beats, bass and other sound samples. It really gives the whole performance a way different vibe than when they’d be standing at their laptop and MIDI controller to put the music together. There’s more interaction, more intimacy in a sense, and higher energy than what I would imagine it would be without the modded bass guitar. Added to the live performance, came a familiar face on guitar and screaming with Biomechanimal‘s frontman, adding another level of intensity and energy. And when Moris Blak joined in for a couple of tracks, the roof got really blown off!

Time for an artist I’ve been wanting to see live for probably about 15 years or so, but somehow always missed out on. HIF finally brought party animal Faderhead to Finland and quickly turned the first night of HIF 2022 into a damn memorable moment. With a setlist that was built mostly of fan favorites and tracks that have gotten the most listening to in for instance streaming, it was not too surprising that we had quite the celebration on our hands pretty fast, not to say the party of the weekend. Tracks like ‘All Black Everything’, ‘Swedish models and Cocaine’, and especially ‘Fistful of Fuck You‘ and ‘TZDV‘ brought the gritty beats and a big kind of energy in the room. Of course, it helped that Faderhead was his charming self thanking his fans for all the dedication and enthusiasm, with a big grin from ear to ear. I did miss some of my personal favorites from all that time ago when I first got into this kind of music and scene, but with an extensive catalog as he has, that was to be expected. I mean, go take a look at everything he’s been releasing, he’s not one to sit still clearly. Here’s for hoping that he gets to return to Finland for maybe a headline show with a longer setlist, I’d very much welcome that!

Time to turn our attention to the club stage for one last time, with the last act of the first day there! System Noire brings a mix of dark electro, EBM and synthpop, and a very engaging, energetic show. A drumkit that doesn’t look like your usual drumkit, manned by a drummer who provided some hard beats while standing all the time, regularly providing some harsh backing vocals and took out his illuminated drumsticks from time to time, a guitarist running around the small stage whipping his dreadlocks around, 2 keyboards adding the necessary synth qualities to the music and a vocalist that more than often came really up close to the crowd screaming in the faces of those manning the front rows. I was really pleasantly surprised by the energy and overall stage presence of the guys who most of the time were somewhat cloaked in the darkness of the stage, at some points only visible through the light of the projection of their logo on the back wall, and thought it was a great closer for this stage, getting us ready and pumped up for the headliner of the first night!

And there we are: the headliner of the first HIF 2022 night! The last time we caught the Belgian industrial icon Suicide Commando live in Finland was at the very first Hellsinki Industrial Festival back in 2018, in front of an absolutely crammed Nosturi. And yet again, Johan Van Roy got to greet a completely filled room that was eagerly awaiting his hard beats and catchy songs. After over 3 decades being an integral part of the industrial/EBM/aggrotech scene, he shows no signs of slowing down with just recently having released yet another new album, of which we of course got a couple of tracks like ‘Kill All Humanity‘ and ‘Bang Bang Bang‘. But a Suicide Commando show wouldn’t be right without absolute bangers like ‘Hellraiser‘, ‘Cause of Death: Suicide‘ or ‘Die Motherfucker Die‘. He yet again completely knocked it out of the park, and squeezed every bit of remaining dance moves and energy that we had left for this first day of the fest!