Photo Reports
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.
Persefone, whose name is derived from the Greek Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, Goddess of Spring, the dead, the underworld, grain, and nature were on stage tonight, supporting Australian band Ne Obliviscaris. They are no strangers to each other as they have worked together in the past: Persefone released the single “In Lak’ech” in 2018, featuring Tim Charles, singer and violinist of Ne Obliviscaris.
Both bands were on tour in Europe, promoting their latest albums (Persefone: Metanoia (2022) – Ne Obliviscaris: Exul (2023)) and we caught them when they landed at Trix club, Antwerp, to provide us with an evening of the best progressive death metal around!
The warming-up was provided by Asymmetric Universe. This band brings a kind of jazz/fusion with the aggressiveness of progressive metal.
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. So on ascension day, we already got to make the trip to Hyvinkää for a first day of exciting shows… On the outside stage it’s always interesting the variation of bands playing in full sunlight, going from bands that actually thrive on it to fully corpsepainted black metal bands that sometimes look a bit out of place. But once the sun starts to set a little bit, magic really starts to happen…
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. So on ascension day, we already got to make the trip to Hyvinkää for a first day of exciting shows… As usual, on the inside stage, you could find mostly acts that required a darker setting to create just right atmosphere and mood for their music to properly translate to a live setting.
Aesthetic Perfection has been around for well over 2 decades, and Daniel Graves, main man behind the project, has never really slowed down much. Because of the rising costs of touring, he has decided that this will be the very last headlining tour of Aesthetic Perfection. This could be the very last time we see him on stage with this project, unless he finds some supporting gig that is financially feasible. But since nothing is sure, we couldn’t let the possibly very last Aesthetic Perfection show on Finnish soil slip past us. So off we went to On The Rocks in Helsinki for an evening of industrial tunes!
After three years of postponing the goth legends, The Mission finally took over Tavastia, Helsinki on a Monday evening. The last time The Mission has graced the Finnish crowd with their melancholic music was exactly 33 years ago in 1990. So for some it’s been a long wait. Looking at the crowd, you could see many generations of goth music fans, from old school fans who have been there since the band’s inception to fans that weren’t even born when this band last visited Finland. Even when it was a Monday evening, Tavastia was packed to the brim of a gloomy looking crowd ready for a gothic rock ‘n’ roll experience. See it all from our pictures down below!
By now ‘The Tour To End All Tours’ is over, but of course Sabaton still had to stop by Finland first for a grand finale. Like before, they were supported by Finland’s very own Lordi as well as Babymetal from Japan.
The sold out and burning hot Jäähalli was on fire that night (not literally, but almost) thanks to not only the great music, but also because of the insane amount of flamethrowers Sabaton brought along. There was snow, confetti, on stage actors and fire, fire and more fire. I really don’t know how they plan to top this on the next tour.
SCORPIONS – Support Act THUNDERMOTHER
Do we actually need to write more? Really? Honestly? OK.
On one of the gigs of their tour stops in Germany on the European leg of the ‘Rock Believer World Tour 2022/2023’ the mighty SCORPIONS came to Stuttgart. As always on this tour, THUNDERMOTHER were opening the stage as support act. This energy and power-loaded all-women rock’n’roll band is definitely part of Sweden’s finest rock bands at current times. As usual and as always the crowd got into the mood perfectly with a simple, clear, and straight rock gig. The new line-up doesn’t stand back behind former performances, even though Linnea Vickström‘s voice is different and gives vocals and songs a new timbre. The power you can see on stage is still the same.
Once the audience was heated up, it was time for the one and only SCORPIONS.
Even after 50 plus years, this band is able to present a top-notch show and sets the bar extremely high for other bands. In Germany we would say ‘Die Scorpions haben den Newcomern gezeigt, wo der Frosch die Locken hat!’ – and no, there is no real good translation available for this. Yes, these guys may have a little less stage action than in the past, but the stage, light, and sound is almost unbeatable. Presenting a mix of songs of five decades of band history, including four songs from their latest long-player ‘Rock Believer’ they controlled the almost sold out venue totally. Massive LED panels in the back, playing song specific animations and graphics and a curtain of lights surrounding the stage just like in the 70s and 80s are so much fun to watch. The songs definitely haven’t lost any of their attraction and sometimes get a little tweak to match the current events in the worlds – e.g. giving ‘Winds of Change’ a text referral to the war in Ukraine. Klaus Meine is giving away generously souvenirs on stage – he is tossing a huge amount SCORPIONS branded drumsticks into the audience. When closing the show with two encores ‘Still Loving You’ and ‘Rock You Like A Hurricane’ the massive Vegas-style show came to end and left a happy crowd. Overall, this performance is and was a must-see.
