Photo Reports
Tuska organization killed it again, considering the line-up with a solid combination of established and classic names with modern and upcoming greats. Staying in touch with their roots and history, while at the same time looking to the future and moving forward. The first day was surprisingly opened by the ever popular Avatar, who tempted a lot of people to show up early on the festival grounds, and with local heroes Lost Society, Ukrainian sensation Jinjer, Swedish melodeath legends Arch Enemy, and French modern metal mastodons Gojira as headliners, the main stage of the first day was a really good place to be.
It was Time to Rock on Friday July 7, 2023 as Tesla rolled into downtown Lima, Ohio and absolutely rocked to a SOLD OUT crowd at the Veterans Memorial Civic Center! The Civic Center venue located in downtown Lima, Ohio was alive and buzzing with concert-goers pouring into the doors as soon as it opened for the evening’s concert.
Fastest Land Animal got this started for the night! From beginning to end, they kept their set energetic and got the crowd ready to rock for Tesla!
Tesla is an American rock band with its roots formed in Sacramento, California in 1981. Their first album was released in 1986 and since then the band has had an incredible 40-year career. Current members consist of Brian Wheat [bass], Frank Hannon [guitar], Jeff Keith [lead vocals], Dave Rude [guitar] and Steve Brown [drums]. From start to finish, they kept the crowd in Lima, Ohio rockin’ and rollin’! The room was buzzing the entire night! Tesla played an amazing 18 song set including hits such as ‘Modern Day Cowboy’, ‘Changes’, ‘What You Give’, ‘Little Suzi’ and their hit cover of ‘Signs’. This band has been around for a long time but definitely still put on an amazing show with sound and performance spot on. If you get the opportunity to catch Tesla live, do it, and you won’t be disappointed!
Ice Nine Kills is a band that has been experiencing quite the exponential growth in popularity the past years. And their tour supporting Metallica probably will give them yet another boost. When a band an as excellent live reputation drops by in a city near us, we simply cannot ignore this and have to attend. Add to that their special guests SKYND to add to the overall murderous themes of INK, and support from the US heavy metal/hard rock band Lansdowne, and this was a must to be at. Clearly we were of the same mindset as many people in Finland since both the Helsinki and Tampere stop were hopelessly sold out.
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!
