Photo Reports

Completely full house at the Backstage club in Munich to receive the Swedish Katatonia. The band has just released their latest album ‘Sky Void Of Stars’ and that was the motto of their visit to the Bavarian capital. The live presentation of new songs was already noticeable and the band itself admits to still being nervous when playing some of them, but everything went perfect in our humble opinion. The sound in the room was very good and allowed us to savor all the melody of this beautiful Nordic band.

Opening the hostilities were the North American SOM, who left a very good impression, presenting their songs with melodic and dragging guitar riffs in an impeccable way. Co-headlining this tour, the Icelandic Sólstafir, gave an excellent concert presented in a theatrical way by Aðalbjörn, who still had time to take a walk around the audience spreading love and positive energy in the audience.

Judging by the reaction of the public present, all bands will always be welcome here again.

The Scottish pirates of Alestorm docked their pirate ship in Torhout, Belgium. Venue De Mast was sold out to feast with them, fantasy power metallers Gloryhammer, the dwarves of Windrose and fellow pirates Rumahoy.

At the end of January Battle Beast brought the Circus back to town when they finally got around to perform two shows at Pakkahuone for their ‘The Circus is Coming to Town‘ tour after an epic show in Helsinki. They also brought along One Desire as their support act.

Unfortunately due to having two shows in one evening, the schedule was quite tight, which is why One Desire‘s show was moved to the Klubi side, which made it a bit difficult for people to see both bands. Especially as this show was just sold out, I’ve been to sold out shows at Pakkahuone several times before, but this one felt much more crowed.

But in the end it was still a nice evening and both bands delivered a great show.

With their new album ‘Sky Void Of Stars’ (read the review here) Swedish melancholic rock band Katatonia is currently touring all over Europe and UK. Along to round up the line-up of the ‘Twilight Burials’ tour, there was co-headliner Sólstafir and additional support by SOM. On 27 Jan 2023 this package entered the stage of LKA Longhorn in Stuttgart, Germany. With gloomy lights, a great sound, it was a perfect night for a big audience and all fans of the darker sounds of rock and metal.

Check out their tour schedule to see if they’ll come to your hometown or some place near since the tour has just begun, until then check out our photos to raise your anticipation:

With Battle Beast’s Helsinki Icehall show, this was the 3rd Finnish band that I got to see at that venue that was playing their biggest show yet. Every time was a celebration of what the bands were about, and I expected no less of this ‘The Circus Is Coming To Town’ stop in Helsinki. Curious for what we were about to see and experience, we set out to the hockey arena to see one of Finland’s more popular bands play an epic show with support from the special guests Ensiferum and Kiuas!

If you’re any bit familiar with the Finnish metal scene, you will have come across Turmion Kätilöt at one point. The industrial metal outfit, or “disko metal” as they call it themselves, has been very prominently around the past couple of decades and has grown to be one of the biggest and most popular bands within their own country. Just before the pandemic properly hit, they released ‘Global Warning’, their first album with Nuclear Blast and their attempt to break through outside of Finland. But then the live industry got screwed royally and the planned big arena show at Jäähalli in Helsinki to kick off their campaign to take over the world got put to a screeching halt. But now finally the “midwives of ruin” are back home, ready to show what the real Turmion Kätilöt circus is like at their biggest show ever. And timed just perfectly with the release of their 10th album ‘Omen X’, we were ready to kick off 2023 with the party of the year!

Finally! After several times having to postpone due to the pandemic, we have a sequel to 2019’s well received Hoarsefest, the small festival put together by the Oceanhoarse guys. A fest that heralds the local Finnish up-and-comers in the metal scene and provides clinics by renowned names from that same scene like… We sadly had to miss out on the first couple of bands, and Thy Row, but I’m pretty sure they all killed it!

Katatonia recently released their new album ‘Sky Void of Stars‘ (read the review here) and on the same day they started their European tour in Tampere, where they played ‘Colossal Shade‘, ‘Birds‘ and ‘Opaline‘ live for the first time ever. In addition, they also gave us a couple of songs that they haven’t played live in a while, like ‘Residual‘ and ‘Ambitions‘. But before Kataonia‘s long awaited show, there was also support band SOM and as co-headliner Sólstafir, who gave us a huge Viking party to warm us up.

If you’re still hesitating to get tickets for a show near you, check out the pictures of the first show of the tour and be convinced:

Pain gave us a huge party, not just in our head, for the start of their short Finland tour. While the crowd was still a little thin during Detset‘s performance, Olympia-Kortteli was pretty packed by the time Pain started.

They also brought with them a great light show and a huge back screen which showed videos and very entertaining little game animations.

German veterans of Heavy Metal Grave Digger are back on tour in 2023. After being postponed twice, the ‘Knights and Riots Tour 2023’ finally made it to the streets and is running. To warm up the crowds are Cellar Stone from Greece and Mystic Prophecy, another experienced German metal outfit. Mid of January 2023 this combination made a stop at LKA Longhorn – which I have to say with a very sad and heavy heart – was only filled with a few hundred people. This was really a shame for the show presented. Especially when considering that Grave Digger are rocking stages worldwide for more than 40 years and had a phenomenal gig in Wacken 2022 on the big stage.

Yes – all of you who had doubts have missed a night of the finest metal. All the bands fit perfectly together, rocked the house down or to say it in Grave Digger‘s words: they created a ‘Heavy Metal Breakdown’ and delivered a great show.