Since last year Finland is yet another big rock and metal event richer. The Rock Fest immediately caught the attention of people all over the country and far beyond those borders with big names like Rammstein and Evanescence gracing the line-up. Despite quite a few obvious flaws and bugs in the organisation, it was an overwhelming succes and they quickly announced an even bigger event of this time 4 days on a brand new location. Of course we had to be there to see if they improved on certain things and if this would be a legendary festival in the making…

After parties

Every day after the music stopped at the festival area, if you felt up for travelling all the way down to the city center of Hyvinkää, you could go enjoy a few more (Finnish) bands at the local bar Ravintola Hopealyhty. We were curious about a few of those, so we did our best to make it to those shows after the long tiring days at the festival.

Day 1 – The Backstabbers & Bob Malmström

When getting to the bar, the first band The Backstabbers (***1/2) just started to play their show. The 3 guys brought straightforward and groovy rock ‘n’ roll/hard rock that made the few people present quickly nod along to the music. Both the guitarist/vocalist and bassist were all over the stage and got the energy immediately through the roof! Definitely a cool band to keep an eye on if you’re into that fast and raw rock ‘n’ roll stuff with a lot of fun and no bullshit!

Headliner of the night Bob Malmström (***) was a whole other beast. They got on stage dressed up quite nicely with the vocalist even completely suited up all in black with a white dress shirt. Not really knowing what to expect, I got pleasantly hit in the face with a fistful of hardcore punk with a metal undertone that was dirty, vicious and raw. I did not expect this small nuclear assault to take place at this time of the night… after my first surprise ebbed away a bit, I have to say that things started to sound a bit too much of the same to my liking. I don’t know if it was because of me being too tired at that point or just not understanding any lyrics, but they didn’t manage to keep me captivated for the whole duration of their gig. Still pretty cool to see anyway.

Day 2 – Cyan Kicks & Ikinä

On the second day of The Rock Fest I didn’t manage to make it to the bar in the center on time to see Cyan Kicks playing still, but I got to see plenty of Ikinä (***1/2)‘s set to get convinced of the potential of this band. Headed by 2 girls on vocals who sing like angels, but can scream like devils at the same time, they bring very melodic and catchy modern metal. Together with the 3 guys playing instruments and occasionally add some backing vocals, I can see why this band is steadily getting really popular in Finland. They took the best use of the small stage with the pillar in the middle, showing excellent performance skills and stage presence. Even without understanding anything of the Finnish lyrics, I didn’t feel bored or detached at any time. I’m looking forward to see where this band is going still and to see them at a bit bigger venue.

Sadly the following days tired me out just a bit too much, so I didn’t make it to the 2 other after parties anymore. On day 3 you were in for quite rocking time with Kolme Sanaa and The Empire Strikes and on day 4 the amount of catchy rock went up even more with rock ‘n’ rollers Block Buster and our friends of the psychedelic vintage rock band Blue Eyed Sons!

For more pictures go here.