Finland is another festival richer: this year marks the first edition of The (Big Stone) Rock Fest. Surprisingly enough they managed to get quite a few major names on their line-up. With names like Rammstein and Evanescence as the headliners for the event, it seemed to hold much promise and we just had to be there to see what was going on there at Vehkala park in Vantaa.

While I was standing in line waiting to get in, Royal Republic (***1/2) kicked off the festival. A bit of not so thankful job since visitors were still standing in a huge line to get in, but they did it with the energy and gusto we know these Swedes for. On the huge main stage they looked a bit lost, but that’s a problem a lot of the bands had that day. We got a series of their greatest hits like Tommyknockers, Baby and of course Timemachine. A really great band to get your rock fest started!

With Brother Firetribe (***) a big chunk of the people that already got in turned towards the second stage in the tent. When I got there quite near the beginning of their show, it seemed like the tent was already mostly filled up. My first thoughts was that it was going to be interesting to see how this was going to work with the even more popular bands looking at the capacity of the tent. The show itself was of course a really decent (hard) rock show for fans of the kind of “easy-going road trip” music with a lot of work from their most recent (more positive and happy sounding) release Sunbound (read our review here).

One of the more popular rock acts in Finland is Viikate (**1/2). The often melancholic rock songs are usually quite a hit in their home country and there what you could call rock stars over there. The music can be pleasant to listen to, but for me personally live they weren’t really too exciting with their kind of “down” energy. Combine that with also getting lost on that huge main stage and this definitely wasn’t my most favorite performance of the day. Still a cool band to check out if you’re into the typical Finnish melancholy and aren’t afraid of Finnish lyrics.

We missed most of Kotiteollisuus‘ show since we were looking for some food to strengthen us for what was yet to come that day: a holy trinity of industrial metal. That started with the Swedish  Pain (****), the perfect warm-up for the headliner on an already hot day! To me it was actually the first band that took the main stage and showed that they belonged there. The stage didn’t feel too big for them and they got the crowd to go wild. Peter Tägtgren and his friends played a mix of new and old songs and had the fans in their hands when playing favorite tracks like The Great Pretender, Dirty Woman, I’m Going In and Shut Your Mouth. And of course the Joakim Brodén puppet popped up again during Call Me, bringing tons of comic relief. Simply a great industrial metal show in the blistering sun, the only thing that I missed (and silently hoped for) was a surprise guest performance with Lindemann. Since both Peter and Till Lindemann were both there it seemed that the possibility could’ve been there for a unique performance. Not this time though, too bad…

Finnish industrial metal or “disko metal” outfit Turmion Kätilöt (***1/2) is nothing less than a legend in their home-country. They proved that at the Rockfest yet again with a tent that was bursting of people (including the fences keeping people in the +18 zone bending under the weight of slightly intoxicated fans leaning against them). A mix of fan favorites and songs from their latest album Dance Panique quickly raised the temperature to previously unknown heights. When their only English song Grand Ball found its place in their setlist, they received a gold record for two of their singles: Teurastaja and Pyhä maa, proving that metal still has a place in this world! Also praise for their new live vocalist Shag-U (or Saku Solin, vocalist of Fear of Domination), seemingly a worthy replacement for long-time member Spellgoth, who sadly parted ways with the band.

And then there it was, the event everyone was looking forward to and the reason why this day was sold out: Rammstein (****1/2)! The German grand masters returned to Finland to bask us in the heat of their fires and glory of their theatrics. Their opus of about 2 hours went over many of their classics like Feuer Frei, Links 2 3 4, Du Hast, Sonne and many others. Surprisingly enough only one track from their latest album Liebe fur alle da made it on their setlist (Ich tu der wir) and not even Mein Land was played. But maybe they just wanted to have a bit of a “best of” tour right before they release a new album. Though still there were some songs sorely missed, with their extensive list of hits I guess you can’t play them all.

Compared to when I saw them years ago in a venue on their Liebe ist für alle da tour, I maybe wasn’t as impressed of their show now. But even when Rammstein has a bit of a “less good” show, it’s still pretty damn awesome! It was most definitely cool to see them at an open air show this time where they didn’t have to worry about setting anything on fire. The fire and fireworks went off relentlessly to a point that even 100 m away you could still feel the heat. Of course keyboardist Christian was again his own crazy self, running around in a glitter suit at a certain point and as usual experience quite some abuse again by Till Lindeman. Rammstein is simply a performance machine without a single flaw… If there’s one remark that I would make, is that I would’ve rather heard another one of their great songs instead of the Depeche Mode cover Stripped. But hey, no complaints really otherwise, especially since I got to enjoy my favorite track Engel live again…

For those who weren’t tired yet, the organisation had quite the afterparty planned: the DJ outfit Infected Mushroom (***1/2)! They maybe seemed like a weird fit at a rock and metal festival, but for this reason they adjusted their set a bit and played a more guitar oriented one. We of course went to check out what they were all about and were impressed by the party that took place in the tent. For a moment we felt at a more electronic music festival than rock, but the rave settling after a long and hot day kept everyone moving and going. Definitely a good move by the organisation…

We decided to leave a bit early to not get to bed too crazy late since another eventful day seemed ahead. It took awhile still to get where we needed to get due to a crazy line to get on the trains, but looking at the amount of people waiting for a train it went surprisingly fast actually! Anyway, up to day 2…