Photo Reports

Rockfest, the biggest rock festival of Finland, that often brings some of the biggest names to the country was doing it again. With bands like Pantera, Def Leppard and Volbeat headlining, and a bunch of pretty cool bands on the rest of the line-up, after missing out on it last year, we just had to be at the 2023 edition!

On the first day of the 3-day weekend, we caught massive shows of the Finnish monsters of Lordi, American punk rockers Rancid and the masters of groove metal Pantera on the main stage:

Aephanemer is a French symphonic/melodic death metal band that has been living somewhat under my radar until just recently. Much to my surprise, because a lot of their pretty epic compositions is exactly the kind of music that appeals to me greatly. So I was all too happy to see them appear on the event schedule of On The Rocks in Helsinki, and didn’t want to miss out on experiencing this live! Add to that the modern extreme prog act Numento for the Finnish stop on Aephanemer‘s tour, and the night promised to be a pretty epic one!

It’s that time of the year again: The Finnish festival summer gets kicked off properly with the black metal festival Steelfest! The gathering of the wolves of the underground is easily a yearly homecoming for anyone who has a love for the extreme and obscure. And as always, the lineup is massive with an impressive list of 46 bands filled with cult bands, legends of the underground scene, and exclusive and rare performances.

After last year’s extended anniversary edition, they decided to permanently add an extra day to what used to be a 2-day celebration of the underground. After a first day of great shows, we got back to the festival ground early to catch as many bands as we could. Sadly we missed out on Rienaus, Gaurithoth and Ritualization because we simply couldn’t get there that early, but luckily there was more than enough to fulfill our need for extreme and underground music with some explosive bands on the outdoors stage, crowned by the live comeback of the legendary Finnish black metal band Behexen.

It’s that time of the year again: The Finnish festival summer gets kicked off properly with the black metal festival Steelfest! The gathering of the wolves of the underground is easily a yearly homecoming for anyone who has a love for the extreme and obscure. And as always, the lineup is massive with an impressive list of 46 bands filled with cult bands, legends of the underground scene, and exclusive and rare performances.

After last year’s extended anniversary edition, they decided to permanently add an extra day to what used to be a 2-day celebration of the underground. After a first day of great shows, we got back to the festival ground early to catch as many bands as we could. Sadly we missed out on Rienaus, Gaurithoth and Ritualization because we simply couldn’t get there that early, but luckily there was more than enough to fulfill our need for extreme and underground music with some proper dark and weird performances on the indoors stage…

We were happy to attend Jinjer at their stop in Lille, France. As might be expected, most of what they performed was from their most recent album, “Wallflowers”. Great show, drive, power… as we are used to from Tatiana and the guys. Only… those who were waiting for the great classics were still left a bit hungry. Even a legendary “Pisces” was not on the set list tonight.

The show began with a brief word about ‘all the crimes being committed these days’, referring to the war in their homeland of Ukraine. The men in this band did get permission to leave the country at the time of war because they are a cultural export, the least they can do is to publicly condemn this war internationally. That the audience is in full agreement is evidenced by sold-out merchandise at the end of the concert!

French avant-garde metal band Hypno5e warmed us up properly as the direct support for this stop on the tour.

The kings of weed metal Bongzilla brought the smoke with them to a packed house at Kuudes Linja in Helsinki, Finland. It had been a year since their last visit to the same venue, and these stoner legends from Wisconsin delivered their usual absolutely crushing wall of sound to a highly anticipating crowd. The night was opened by a Finnish black metal band Frigid Winter which delivered a grim performance full of eerie vocals and blast beats. Witness this night of smoky riffs from our pictures down below!

During the pandemic, Charlotte Wessels decided to lock herself in her home studio and write 1 new song a month. Her home studio is located in the basement and was therefore named ‘Six feet under’. As a result, she now has 2 new albums: ‘Tales from six feet under’ vol I & II.
It is a collection of songs that have nothing to do with each other. With those 2 CDs, she has now done some club shows in Holland. We all know Charlotte as the former frontwoman of Delain, and we immediately get what is familiar to us and what we came here for: her unique voice! The music we get to hear certainly does not disappoint, but those who came for metal are left hungry. We do get to hear some metal now and then, but the whole thing consists mainly of a very diverse palette of genres, more in the direction of pop music than metal.

Guest appearances were made by Elianne Anemaat (Cello), Zora Cock (lead singer of Blackbriar who did the support act, with whom she performed the song ‘Mary on a Cross’ (Ghost cover)) and surprisingly, George Oosthoek also dropped in to grunt on the song ‘Toxic’. Surprising because this was never shown at the other gigs of this tour: George himself was here as an audience guest, but Charlotte had asked him if he didn’t want to do that, which of course, as a good friend, he couldn’t refuse. They have worked together with Delain so many times in the past.

As a finale to the series of Dutch club shows, Charlotte was somewhat emotional when she received a standing ovation at the end of this one-and-a-half-hour performance.

Support act: Blackbriar.

It’s that time of the year again: The Finnish festival summer gets kicked off properly with the black metal festival Steelfest! The gathering of the wolves of the underground is easily a yearly homecoming for anyone who has a love for the extreme and obscure. And as always, the lineup is massive with an impressive list of 46 bands filled with cult bands, legends of the underground scene, and exclusive and rare performances.

After last year’s extended anniversary edition, they decided to permanently add an extra day to what used to be a 2-day celebration of the underground. 2 days into the fest, we got back to the festival ground as early as we could to catch as many bands as possible. Though by hanging around and party with Carpathian Forest the night before, we sadly rolled out of bed too late and missed out on Ruttokosmos, Vornat and Sotherion, luckily there was more than enough interesting stuff to come and to fulfill our need for extreme and underground music…

It’s that time of the year again: The Finnish festival summer gets kicked off properly with the black metal festival Steelfest! The gathering of the wolves of the underground is easily a yearly homecoming for anyone who has a love for the extreme and obscure. And as always, the lineup is massive with an impressive list of 46 bands filled with cult bands, legends of the underground scene, and exclusive and rare performances.

After last year’s extended anniversary edition, they decided to permanently add an extra day to what used to be a 2-day celebration of the underground. 2 days into the fest, we got back to the festival ground as early as we could to catch as many bands as possible. Though by hanging around and party with Carpathian Forest the night before, we sadly rolled out of bed too late and missed out on Ruttokosmos, Vornat and Sotherion, luckily there was more than enough interesting stuff to come and to fulfill our need for extreme and underground music…

We went to see Ghost’s concert at the Zénith Arena in Lille France. They are still touring the world with their album Imperia. Photogenic they certainly are, just too bad we were only allowed to take pictures during the first 3 songs (as usual), but that Tobias Forge was not wearing his cardinal robes during those songs. Otherwise, Tobias feels at home on stage and exudes a certain calm. His guitarists, in between flawlessly playing their riffs, take ample time to look into the camera. Ghost delivered a top-notch performance as usual! Ghost does not disappoint!

Support was provided by the Canadian band Spiritbox, who are on a roll everywhere. (All their shows in the UK in July are already sold out!). No wonder when you see the self-confidence of Courtney LaPlante. She takes the stage like she owns it!

Warm up act was Lucifer.