Photo Reports

Steelfest 2022 is 4-day celebration of devil`s 10 year path.
50 bands in 4-Days full of un-compromised metal terror.

We’ve been steady supporters of the Steelfest events and now finally after 2 years of delays and much drama, the 10th year anniversary edition of Steelfest was happening! With twice the amount of days than normally, way more bands and a couple of more surprises along the way, this is simply a festival you didn’t want to miss out on if you’re any bit into underground metal without compromises!

Steelfest 2022 is 4-day celebration of devil`s 10 year path.
50 bands in 4-Days full of un-compromised metal terror.

We’ve been steady supporters of the Steelfest events and now finally after 2 years of delays and much drama, the 10th year anniversary edition of Steelfest was happening! With twice the amount of days than normally, way more bands and a couple of more surprises along the way, this is simply a festival you didn’t want to miss out on if you’re any bit into underground metal without compromises! The first day featured already an impressive collection of stellar bands from Finland, Belgium, Serbia, Germany and Poland:

Except for her work with MaYaN, we haven’t heard from Merel Bechtold anymore since she stopped with Purest Of Pain and also left Delain…. until now! Together with Joey De Boer (also ex-Delain, on the drums, who, unfortunately couldn’t play this show because of an injury)  she looked for (and found) David Pear, to join them as a singer in their new metalcore band Dear Mother!

Their first album, Bulletproof, was independently released on July 16, 2021, but thanks to corona we had to wait until now to hear it live. Only 2 shows to officially show it to the world, one in Belgium and one in The Netherlands, but I’m sure more will follow soon!

They pulled off a great show, until their last song. It started off solid but didn’t last long. Problems with the electricity meant that after about ten seconds we could only hear the drums anymore, until the drummer realized that he should stop too. The electricity had gone out, the whole venue was in the dark… It was quickly fixed, but it came back also quickly! Up to 3 times they tried again but each time the power went out. Unfortunately they had to stop like this, it promised to be a great finish, but there was nothing they could do about it… that’s the risk if you play on a Friday the 13th I guess?

Warm up act was none other than the Belgian band Cellar Twins! Founded in 2014 in Namur, they are also very promising! We recently had the chance to see them live on the Durbuy rock festival, and next year they will be at the ‘Apocalypse in the desert metal festival’ in Las Vegas! No need to doubt it, we will be hearing more from them in the future!

I had a very memorable night from the legendary British band Skunk Anansie, showing that they are still a blast of live energy, in a rarely used venue in Munich with a beautiful atmosphere. Warming up the crowd was the Canadian/British post-punk band Shelf Lives.

As a closer for the 9 years GRIMM birthday week, none other than Hexa Mera was back on our stage!

A welcome guest, certainly not the first time in Asgaard, but for sure the first time in the new Asgaard in Gentbrugge! Just like all the other bands we received this week, they were also happy to be able to perform live again and you could feel that in all the energy they emitted (not that we expected anything else from them)! Preceded by warm-up band Hunter, they gave the best of themselves during a successful closing of our anniversary special.

Afterwards, the party continued with a (metal) karaoke where (among others) Yannick (singer of Hexa Mera) was once again unstoppable on the stage! It has been a great week with a great closing and accompanying after party until the early hours!

While GRIMM celebrated their 9th anniversary,  Fat Bastard Promotions invited Batushka (Poland) to visit Asgaard on their 2022 Black Liturgy Pilgrimage tour and Diabolical (Sweden) as part of their 25th anniversary tour.

Batushka’s black metal act summons pilgrims over and over again. A sold out Asgaard proves that they don’t want to miss the liturgy!

Warm up act was Polish black metal band Hore!

The Swedish indie rock outfit The Sounds is a highly popular band, especially in the Nordic region, including Finland. After a couple of delays due to the pandemic like many other tours, it finally was happening! Because of how fast the 1st date sold out, Fullsteam Agency and Tavastia quickly announced a 2nd date, that’s how popular the return of The Sounds was! We joined the mass of fans on the sold out date and were ready for quite the energy boost and rock party! Support came from local pop/R&B star Isaac Sene.

May 4th, 2022 at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, IN was about the halfway point of Breaking Benjamin‘s month-long spring tour with Seether, Starset and Lacey Sturm. With a lineup of seasoned musicians, it was a night of strong talent. From Lacey’s intimate acoustic set, to Starset‘s dynamic lights and production, Seether‘s 2 decades of experience, and Breaking Benjamin‘s melodic rock sounds, it was an evening not soon to be forgotten.

Ever since I discovered the magical world that Kælan Mikla brings with them whenever they take over a stage, I try to catch these mesmerizing nymphs whenever they’re in the neighborhood. It was since they came to Helsinki as support for Alcest before the pandemic hit, so I knew I couldn’t miss out on them showing up at On The Rocks in the beginning of May. With the in 2020 released album ‘Undir Köldum Norðurljósum’ in their pockets, they came to take us on a magical trip, with support from the equally intriguing US artist Kanga who also came to present her latest album ‘You and I Will Never Die’.

Sometimes you need something good and fun to get your weekend properly started on a Friday night. The Swedish/Norwegian sleaze rock outfit The Cruel Intentions could be the perfect solution for you. They came to set On The Rocks on fire with quite the rock ‘n’ roll party! We even got the honor to hear their latest singles from the upcoming new album ‘Venomous Anonymous’ live as the very first in the world! Those explosive tracks together with their older work really set up a banging atmosphere with plenty of booze flowing… We really couldn’t have thought of a better act to celebrate the start of the weekend!