Photo Reports

After postponing for two years The Picturebooks finally came to Stuttgart and delivered a fantastic gig. In the tradition of White Stripes or Blood Red Shoes the two guys from Gütersloh, Germany set the stage on fire only with guitar and drums. And an extremely remarkable way of playing the drums – what a power, force and pressure. The audience was in their garage rock style music with a lot of blues elements from the first song. Ending their show with ‘No Fucks Given’ and they sure did not!

The Picturebooks were supported by Black Mirrors – Belgium (Brussels) based garage rock and blues band which was a perfect fit. They heated up the venue and delivered a great show – above all singer Marcella Di Troia.

Insomnium, forerunners of the Finnish melodeath scene hasn’t been very lucky the past couple of years, having to cancel and postpone tour after tour, including the Finnish tour they had planned with very special guests Finntroll a while back already. Now finally we’re here and the show is happening! Kulttuuritalo was the place to be, for us the first time to catch a show like this at the Helsinki Culture House!

Finally she’s back! Almost 5 years ago I had the pleasure to see Eivør Pálsdóttir for the first time live since discovering her with the enchanting ‘Trøllabundin’ track. Now the lovely Eivør is back to play at exactly the same venue I saw her last: legendary Helsinki rock club Tavastia. With in the mean time yet another album under her belt with 2020’s ‘Segl’, it’s a show I’ve been looking forward to for a long time now. With her she brought the Danish funky alt-pop artist Lucky Lo to warm us up for her sweet and mesmerizing music and storytelling.

Two of the currently hottest and most rocking all women metal acts have entered the stage of 7er Club, Mannheim, Germany on April 8th, 2022 to rock the house. Nervosa in a co-headlining position with Burning Witches on the ‘Double the Metal Tour’ and warmup by the Indian outfit SystemHouse33. A sweat driving and powerful experience nobody in the audience will forget and hoping they’ll return soon! And yes, while we just and just missed out on the openings act, the ladies did rock the house down – it was a phenomenal gig of both bands!

After two years we finally got to enjoy Brymir live again in a fully packed On the Rocks. We even got to hear a new song under the working title ‘Slava Ukraini!’ and we were told that the new album is really close to be done, what will surely make all fans, me included, very happy. As support we got to enjoy I Revolt and Kaunis Kuolematon to warm up the crowd. I Revolt were full of energy while Kaunis Kuolematon varied between an amazingly soulful atmosphere that I immediately fell in love with and a little rougher material.

Eventhough I was born 10 years after The Kids started playing, they – and the Belgian punk scene – defined a big part of my youth. Today we celebrated The Kids playing for 45 years (!) in one of the most beautiful historic venues in their home town. And they brought along the next generation with Midnight Tattoo and Captain Kaiser!

We started off with the melodic street punk of Midnight Tattoo. Also Antwerp locals and just as well part of my youth as I grew up in the same neighbourhood. I saw their first show in a tiny bar that doesn’t even exist anymore, on a stage that was no more than 30 square feet. Midnight Tattoo plays typical British sounding party punk that everyone loves to dance or sing along to. In their signature outfit (jeans, plaid shirt and suspenders) they put everyone in a dancing mood. After that Captain Kaiser took over the stage. With their heavy “Kempenpunk” as they call it (hard and fast punk rock) they blew the roof off of De Roma. A perfect intermezzo to prepare the crowd for what was coming.

And then, finally, we got to celebrating the 45th anniversary of legendary Belgian punk band The Kids. The gig started on a minor note as singer Ludo Mariman asked the crowd for a moment of silence to honour his dear friend and fantastic actress Reinhilde Decleir, who passed away the day before. Of course Ludo couldn’t help himself making a little joke, saying: “I’d like to ask you for a moment of silence before we start. Not a minute, ’cause after all we are a punk rock band and a minute is a very long time for us, so just a moment of silence will do…” after which they rocked just like 15 years ago.

In 2020, Brother Firetribe released their latest album ‘Feel The Burn’, which was the first one without founding member and guitar virtuoso Emppu Vuorinen. We had a lovely conversation with vocalist Pekka shortly before the official release (find the interview here), but didn’t get the chance since then to catch them on a stage with their new music. So now that Master Events was bringing them around Helsinki to the legendary Tavastia rock club for a show, we really didn’t want to miss out on a night of upbeat AOR and melodic rock. With them they brought the up-and-comers of One Desire to warm up the crowd and we knew it was going to be good…

Finally metal concerts in Munich without restrictions! The impressive Napalm Records created European tour “Double The Metal” with label mates Nervosa and Burning Witches is raging through the continent and made a stop at Backstage in Munich! Here are the pictures of that show with support from the Indian outfit SystemHouse33!

Piere’s in Ft. Wayne, IN was stop #2 for Fozzy’s latest tour, ‘Save the World’ with GFM, KrashKarma, and The Nocturnal Affair. It may have been April Fool’s Day, but this show was no joke! Each band brought a unique sound to this fun and rockin’ tour. If you’re lucky enough to hit up a stop, you’re bound to have a stellar time that you won’t regret!

It’s not all too common for good industrial acts to strike down in the metal-loving country that is Finland, so when the opportunity arises, we tend to jump at it. One good source for such events is the promoter Elektrik Products, who has been bringing some stellar artists through Hellsinki Industrial Festival. But throughout the year they have smaller shows as well and this time they were bringing the brand new show of Nachtmahr for us to experience as one of the first in Europe! With the addition of the Estonian misfits of Freakangel and Finnish duo Miseria Ultima, this was simply a night we could not let pass us by…