Photo Reports

Whenever we get the chance to photograph heavy metal monsters like Amon Amarth and Machine Head in a huge room and in front of a big audience, we always feel excited and nervous at the same time. Although we couldn’t attend the concerts in their entirety, for logistical reasons, we felt that it was worth leaving home and face the fears of being face to face with your idols for many years. What we can say about what we saw is that this is one of those tours that you can’t miss. A lot of sweat and explosive energy showing all the power and status that both bands have worldwide. Once again we are very grateful to all the stuff from the magnificent Olympiahalle hall in Munich, they are a great example to be followed in the city by some smaller clubs.

What a show!

If you’re in the market for supporting some of the talented women in the metal music industry, the Amaranthe and Beyond The Black co-headline tour that raged through Europe was definitely the place to be!

Opening for the night is Ad Infinitum! A symphonic metal band formed by Melissa Bonny, who has been catching attention with other projects like Rage of Light and her guest vocal appearances  with bands like Warkings and Feuerschwanz, paving the road for second warm up act Butcher Babies! Anyone who has seen Heidi Shepherd and Carla Harvey in action before just knows that they will throw a hell of a performance that gets you pumped up for whoever may come next! Tonight was no exception!

First headliner, Beyond the Black is a German symphonic metal band that has grown into quite the name in only 8 years. The show started a bit strange with 2 large fluorescent lamps as an attribute for singer Jennifer Haben. Besides an outfit change and some percussion, one of the most intriguing parts of the act was a remarkable crown with accompanying mask.

2nd headliner Amaranthe has been on stage for 14 years now and is no longer a stranger to any metalhead who visits a concert or festival every now and then. It is clear to see that everyone has come for this. Elize Ryd and the rest of the guys gave their best with their music that hovers somewhere between pop and melodic death metal and were generously rewarded for this by an enthusiastic interacting audience.

Long story short: we had a beautiful and varied musical evening! Enjoy the pictures!

Opening the night and without being announced on the official line-up was the English artist known as Cassyette, a mixture of nu-metal with some hard rock made the crowd shake and got to know a new name on the current musical panorama.

Around 8pm the Canadians Simple Plan entered the scene. The energy of the stage was easily and quickly passed on to the crowd that was eagerly waiting for them and responded positively singing and jumping in an energetic and compelling way. Highlights of the performance included a cover medley of All Star (Smash Mouth), Sk8er Boi (Avril Lavigne) and Mr. Brightside (The Killers) as well as crowdsurfing by one of the band members with the right to complete disinfection on stage in a demonstration of responsible attitude.

The main band of the night Sum 41 showed that their audience is ageless, everyone is welcome and everyone can party together. During the night the band paraded many of their all time hits, some newer and some older, so that everyone can enjoy their time at their shows. A real punk/pop-rock show with everything you need in a great concert that makes us think that time has flown by, and the money and time invested was worth it.

In short, it was an excellent night’s entertainment, in a spectacular show venue, staffed by a very friendly and professional team, thank you very much for your receptiveness.

The popular Swedish metalcore outfit Dead By April is always a very welcome guest in Finland. With a small tour through Finland, they made a lot of people pretty happy, we’re sure. With them, they brought the UK hardcore band Blood Youth to Finland for the very first time and enlisted the Finnish electro metal band Ember Falls to kick some serious ass throughout the country. We had to catch one of their shows and ended up at the Helsinki stop at Vanha Ylioppilastalo…

Ultima Ratio Fest 2022 was an urban festival that in Munich probably did not work as expected. The evening’s line up started with Americans Hinayana, followed by Finland’s Wolfheart and Norway’s Borknagar. The two co-headliners of the night gave two good concerts with more emphasis on Insomnium, which had a slightly bigger crowd. The audience was practically asleep during all the concerts with the exception of Insomnium, who gave the biggest show of the night. I think the Portuguese band Moonspell deserved a little more enthusiasm in celebrating their 30-year career from an audience that has always been the most loyal to the band since the beginning. Better days will come and better crowds at festivals will surely happen.

Even after 44 years of touring, the unquestionable legends of post-punk The Cure still deliver an almost three hour show of beautiful music with uncanny production and sound. 6500 people in Jäähalli were sent into a trance of dance when The Cure played a beautiful set consisting of almost every classic The Cure song a fan would want to hear including some surprising new songs. Even at the age of 63, lead vocalist Robert Smith still pulls off their classic tunes with no problem with his trademark look that hasn’t changed in 40 years. From stage production to the absolute fantastic shape the band was in, it was a great night spent with one of the greatest post-punk bands ever, The Cure.

A night with very good hardcore bands with the crowd knowing how to celebrate hardcore with lots of moshpits, crowsurfing and beer.

Prost!

Rude & reckless. That’s still the best, most accurate way to describe these old school rude boys. The Slackers have been preaching the finest ska and rocksteady tunes all around the globe since 1991. These New Yorkers have had a great relationship with Belgium and the Netherlands since the very beginning and they still love the smaller, more intimate venues, like Kavka. For example, I first saw them at Ernesto’s Cantina in Sittard, Holland after Ernest(o) America himself had lured them in from their dressing room at Effenaar with a tray of tequila shots so they decided to play another show on the spot. Yes, they’re that kind of band!

Proof of The Slackers loving local culture is their support act. In this case Jason of El Topo (for whom this was his last gig with El Topo, you will be missed Jason!) booked Moodcollector. A reggae & ska party band from the Kempen that did an awesome job warming up the crowd, getting them moving with their groovy tunes.

I’m not sure why Sonata Arctica didn’t come to the bigger city of Tampere on their current ‘Acoustic Adventures‘ tour, but they’re that good that it’s also totally worth the time to travel an hour to see them. I simply couldn’t miss this tour. Sonata Arctica‘s shows are always of very high quality, but their acoustic tour are on a whole other level of perfection. I can just highly recommend to go and see it for your d´self if you have the chance too.

While the show wasn’t sold out, it was still pretty well filled and the venue offered excellent sound. It was a real blast and the 1 hour 45 minutes went by far to fast.

Finally Brymir made the step up and got to play their first headlining show at the legendary Tavastia club. What a fantastic way to celebrate the release of their 4th album ‘Voices in the Sky’. Although the show was on a Wednesday, there was still a decent crowd, which was a very pleasant surprise. Getting showered in sweat was a much less pleasant surprise, but I guess that’s part of the deal when you go to club shows. Speaking of surprises, there where more. Like Andriy Shevchenko reading the poem ‘My Testament’ before the song ‘Borderland’, as well as Antti Nieminen joining on stage for ‘Far from Home‘. They also played almost every song for the new album, only missing ‘Rift Between Us‘ and ‘All as One‘

To sum it up: An overall very nice evening, let’s do this soon again.