Photo Reports
Ever since I discovered the intensity and noise that comes with the electronica/industrial duo HIDE, I’ve been very intrigued by this project. And seeing them live at Blow-Up festival back in 2019 only solidified my fascination for them. So when I realized that they were dropping by Helsinki again with their own headlining tour and show, I jumped at the chance to experience HIDE again properly. With them came the local support in the form of Keretik…
The time came last Saturday! Feuerschwanz were present at the Metfest in Munich at the Tollwood arena. In 2022 the band celebrated their first number one album on the German album chart with “Memento Mori”. A brilliant festival season followed – and then a club tour in the spring of 2023. This one is already sold out in some cities – including Munich. So it was clear: there has to be another show in Munich – and that calls for a Metfest!
To further quench the Munich party goers’ thirst for party, Tollwood prepared a superlative folk-metal party program on this day: The legendary Irish speed folkers Fiddler’s Green, who not only share their hometown of Erlangen with the Feuerschwanz, but also a long-standing friendship between bands, were present. In addition, contemporary power metal acts Warkings and Grailknights also performed at the Tollwood Music Arena.
A huge party took place, bringing together folk music, vikings, superheroes and of course, plenty of mead to quench your thirst.
The Tollwood festival, summer version, is back this year, and we were already there to witness what’s going on. In the big tent next to the Olympia Park in Munich, several concerts take place for about one month with excellent world-class artists of various musical styles. Tollwood is a party for the crowds and very popular, with other activities that can be consulted in the official website https://www.tollwood.de/
Abranham Alexander was the man chosen to open the concert of the American The Lumineers in Munich. The artist took the stage for about 40 minutes and together with his musicians gave an intimate and very soulful show that brought joy to the audience. The new album “SEA/SONS” is excellent and shows that Abraham is a gentleman to be followed with great attention by all lovers of blues rock/ soul.
The Lumineers are a phenomenon of worldwide popularity, and the proof was the full house in Munich to watch their show. Despite the difficult conditions to photograph the band, we managed to get something to show a little of the great atmosphere that is created around the show. The band presents itself on stage very close to their fans and the connection is very strong. The public sing their lyrics, and in the third song comes the biggest hit to date “Ho Hey” that leaves the public completely hysterical.
A certainly memorable night for all present, hoping that moments like this will happen again soon.
We were present at this show to report on British metalcore band Invisions, special guest for Spiritbox. Seven years after their formation, Invisions proves to be a promising band in the genre. The fact that they were on the main stage of Hellfest last year (2022) only reinforces this statement. The show of the also up-and-coming Spiritbox was rightfully sold out! Last year they were also on the main stage of Hellfest and not so long ago we saw them as support act for Ghost in Lille, France!
The charisma of both bands was disproportionate, and they took the venue like no other! They knew how to charm the audience, and it was mutual: the audience was only too happy to go along with the rousing sound of the metalcore brought here tonight!
The lighting, on the other hand, was not worthy of either the show or the venue. We don’t know what went wrong, but there was hardly any light to capture, and the light we had at our disposal was only backlight, almost no frontal light, which explains the sad quality of the photos. Nevertheless, both bands put on a top-notch performance there in front of an audience that was warmed up by none other than the band Unprocessed (who certainly put on a creditable performance as well!).
Day two started with a pleasant surprise, to help with the heat they more than doubled the amount of water taps, which drastically decreased the waiting time. Just as much if a pleasant surprise was Carnival Academy, who got their spot on the festival through the Tuhdimmat Tahdit band competition. Next up were Heavy Metal Perse and then Antony Parviainen Trio playing their versions of Iron Maiden songs. Turmion Kätilöt were a big party, of weirdness, as usual.
Metalite from Sweden, like so many others on the smaller Tahtilava had some technical problems. But at least that didn’t seem to dampen their mood. Wolfheart gave us a bit of a contrast in the programme with their slightly melancholic and melodic music. And with their tormented reindeers from hell. It was great to finally see Sara Strömmer and Shereign again, they just have such a nice atmosphere. Before the Dawn have been in the business for a while and that shows, everything looks to work like a well-oiled clockwork.
Yet again there were technical problems at the Tahtilava, but Brymir played it well, by first using the time to introduce the band members and when things still didn’t work after that Viktor gave us a little improvised rap. Finally, Steve the pike went flying into a ‘fishpit’. All in all, a great show. Mokoma started of the celebration for the 20th anniversary of their ‘Kurimus‘ album. Swallow the Sun are simply in their own world and try hard to bring us to this gloomy dark world too. Which isn’t that easy on a hot and still very bright summer day, but I think they still succeeded quite well.
Last but certainly not least were Battle Beast, who also brought along enough pyro to burn down the festival area. Between all the fire, it’s only safe to let us in the photo pit for 1 song. But they’re also a lot of fun from a bit further back, and so it was a very lovely why for me to finish off this festival weekend.
Although the continuous troubles on the Tahtilava were a bit annoying and the heat really taking a toll on me, l had a really good time, and I’m quite sure I’ll be back some other year. This many bands for this price is already a great bargain, but combined with the small kinda intimate feeling of the festival and the very friendly staff this is certainly a festival you should consider visiting. Especially if you’re like me, the type of person who doesn’t like things to be too crowded.
The day already started very hot, with the sun unforgiving, burning down on us. Shadow and water were our two best friends, unfortunately there wasn’t quite enough of either, as no-one expected the weather to be quite this hot. Nonetheless, there was a great atmosphere and already at the early time of 15:00 on a Friday the festival area was acceptable well filled when Verikalpa started. Transworld Identity had a lot of technical problems at the beginning of their set. Unfortunately, a recurring thing on the Tahtilava stage.
It was a pleasure to see Ensiferum again, it’s been a while since I got to see them last time. Prestige had a surprisingly big number of fans with them. Next up was Lordi. They were even better this time than when I saw them some weeks ago with Sabaton. As if it wasn’t hot enough already, they also started using pyro from this set on.
I’m filling up my water bottle after each band, which isn’t even that easy, as huge lines are constantly building up at the water station. By this point, getting water takes about 10–15 minutes of standing in the sun. So it’s no wonder that the first people already gave up and went home by this time. Luckily, I can still manage, and so I get to see Mors Subita showered in the light of the slowly setting sun. Dead by April burned us up even more with their pyro. But I feel quite a lot of people are at a little low by this point. The sun is still shining strongly on our heads. Thankfully though, it’s slowly beginning to cool down a little and the shadow areas are increasing. So by the time Diablo starts, the low point had already passed, and the guys get to enjoy their home show fully, getting celebrated by their countless fans.
The highlight of this first day was Beast in Black though. As usual, they had a great energy. Their happiness is contagious. I’m very happy to have caught them here at Tuhdimmat Tahdit as they don’t have that many shows in Finland this summer. And then day 1 finally draws to an end. The performances were great, but after countless layers of sweat I sweated, I’m very tired. But although I’m exhausted, I’m also hugely looking forward to the second day.
A massive three band package hits German concert venues at the moment – Behemoth‘s ‘The Deathless Summer Tour 2023’ with Spiritworld, and Hypocrisy. It got hot as hell, literally!
The evening is opened up by Spiritworld. There is no need to warm up the crowd on that day as it is one of the hottest days so far this summer in Germany, and the Substage in Karlsruhe is an old industrial hall with no rooftop windows or other air-conditioning. But these guys should know to handle the heat – the Las Vegas originating band comes out of the US desert. Probably the world’s only band with a country music influenced death western metal style. Vocalist Stu Folsom and his crew hit the stage in best of class western glam rock outfits and have blown the audience away. Definitely a unique but highly recommendable experience.
Second on stage were Hypocrisy. Unfortunately and very dearly missed was guitarist Tomas Elofsson, who suffered a heart attack just to days before the concert. All our best wishes go out to him, and we all do hope he’ll get well and back on stages soon. For this gig, his tracks came from tape, where his live performances have been recorded. Kudos to the Hypocrisy sound engineer who mixed it all in perfectly. Despite being a missing a band member that is part of their life performances, the gloomy and dark atmosphere created by the band on stage was perfectly set in the scene, well fitting their musical themes of the mysteries around alien life, UFOs and potential encounters on earth.
At last, it was time for Behemoth to make the night even hotter than it already was. Demonic music intro…. Kabuki drop… Here we go! With their massive stage production, that had to be reduced for this smaller venue (no pyro!), they fulfilled the audience expectations to the fullest. Playing songs from old and their current album ‘Opus Contra Natvram’ the presented musical variety and creativity showed the band’s full potential. Death and black metal in a well orchestrated way came over the venue like a thunderstorm – which was happening at the same time outdoors. Everybody was just pulled in; simply everybody was all in for this show. Lights, sounds, and stage action were top-notch.
It was a perfect night without death – a truly deathless summer night!
De Casino in Sint-Niklaas organizes Great Gigs in the Park, three weeks with all kinds of music in an idyllic park setting. For all those who were missing out on the first day of Graspop Metal Meeting this Thursday was dedicated to the raw sound of guitars and alternative music.
If there is a need for more energy, the singer of Penus can help you out. Five seconds in, and he is already dancing on the fences of the kiosk. Penus makes great space rock/psych punk, sucking you in and making time fly by.
Something absolutely different is the poetry reading of Johan Sebastiaan Stuer. No music, just humor, insights, and beauty.
With the setting sun, the boys of The Hickey Underworld prove they are back after a break of eight years. They certainly haven’t lost their vibe of quirky alternative rock and are ready to become a great band once again.
Last year, a brand new metal festival popped up in Helsinki that was trying to do something new by offering an interesting mix of extreme and progressive, named Hellsinki Metal Horizons (reports here and here, photo galleries here and here). This year, the organization behind the festival scaled down somewhat and made a slight name change (probably to not be confused with another new Helsinki metal festival), but definitely didn’t scale back on the extreme part. Offering some of the weirdest, heaviest and most extreme bands of their genres, this was a metal club festival that we didn’t want to miss out on!
The first day had a very death metal heavy line-up with Eradication of the Unworthy Infants, Devenial Verdict, Corpsessed, Marianas Rest and headliners Baest!
Grave Pleasures is a band that takes up a rather unique space within the Finnish scene. With a very post-punk and Goth rock sound, they appeal to a wide range of music lovers while not really fitting the mold of any specific subgenre completely. About a week after the release of their new album ‘Plagueboys’, they played 2 release shows, and we made sure to be at the Helsinki one since there don’t seem to be any set plans to play more shows than this in 2023. Much to our surprise, we first got a destructive set by Tampere natives Dome Runner to get us loosened up somewhat…
