Hellsinki Industrial Festival 2021 is happening! After having to cancel last year, they’re back in full force with an incredible line-up for all of us who like some beats and dark music. As has been the case with as good as every edition, there is again a preclub show at On The Rocks in center Helsinki to get properly warmed up and used to getting pummeled with relentless beats and noise. This time around, we got a special release show of Khroma, who earlier this year brought ‘EX NIHILO’ into the world. Support came from the Estonian industrial metal outfit Pedigree and Finnish nihilistic darksynth collective VVOV.
VVOV (***)
Opener of the night was Finnish outfit VVOV. Having listened to some of their work beforehand, I thought I was in for a quite chaotic and noisy experience. Surprisingly enough, everything came together quite nicely and we got hit with a blast of blackened and nihilistic darksynth music. The black metal vibes were really strongly present with the vocal delivery, barking Finnish lines, and dissonant sound, besides the visual aesthetics. All in all a really interesting experience that was the perfect opener for this year’s preclub show.
Pedigree (****)
Wow! Pedigree absolutely blew me away! Even though they’re from just across the water, somehow these Estonians completely passed me by. Hard industrial beats, heavy music with touches of sludge, doom and many other influences. This is the kind of industrial metal I really like and should speak to fans of the likes of Godflesh and Ministry. And while with Godflesh the beats are handled by a computer, Pedigree impressed with an absolute beast of a drummer! The pace of the beats in some of the tracks was absolutely relentless and he did not falter for one single moment. Pedigree came on my radar and will probably be a regular guest on my playlists from now on!
Khroma (****)
The main attraction for me personally tonight was Khroma. The Finnish industrial metal outfit had left an impression on me when I caught them opening for 3TEETH just before the lockdown and I couldn’t wait to see them again. And on top of that, this being the release show of their recently released album ‘EX-NIHILO’, an absolute banger of an album which easily could be called a staple for the booming “modern metal” scene, only made it more interesting. They started off with a very beat heavy intro and kicked in hard with an incendiary level of energy. Sadly once everyone really started to get into the highly engaging blend of catchiness, heaviness and beats, there were some technical issues that took a moment to get fixed. That’s the risk of using a bunch of different digital and technical elements to be able to bring your music live, I guess. But it didn’t take any of the fun away and as soon as they got into full gear again, both the band and the crowd let loose. I think we all lost quite a few liters of sweat throughout the show and we all left absolutely elated and prepared for a weekend of beats and lots of dancing at the actual festival.
For more pics, go see our photo report here.
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