Finnish bunny metal duo Rabbit Cult released their new single ‘Pink Rifle’ recently, another delightful mix of different elements! Catch them live opening for Lordi in Finland and at Hellsinki Metal Festival this summer!
News Posts
Hellsinki Metal Festival completed its 2025 line-up last week with the addition of Venom, Michael Schenker, Cult of Luna, our friends of Brutal Sphincter and Rabbit Cult!
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Finnish rockers Shiraz Lane share the new video single ‘Dangerous’, the first of their upcoming album, and first new music since they returned to Frontiers Music recently!
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Finnish blackthrash institution Urn have revealed the new track ‘Burning Blood’s Curse’, the first taste of what is to come with their highly anticipated album ‘Demon Steel, set for release by the end of this month via Osmose Productions! If you wanna catch these maniacs live in the nearby future, we’d highly recommend you to get to Steelfest 2025 in May!
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Finnish atmospheric gothic metal outfit The Man-Eating Tree comes with the new track ‘To the Sinking’, another single from the upcoming album ‘Night Verses’, set for release in April via Noble Demon!
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Finland’s melancholic goth doomsters Hanging Garden recently shared another preview from their upcoming EP ‘The Unending’, set for release in a couple of weeks on Agonia Records, with the single and video ‘The Passage’!
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Iconic Finnish hard rock monster squad Lordi lived up to their name in presenting the frightening music video for their latest single ‘Hellizabeth’, another track from the upcoming album ‘Limited Deadition’, which will be out in March via RPM!
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Finland’s largest rock festival Rockfest is back this summer at a new location, and has just before the weekend completed the line-up with the addition of Manic Street Preachers, D-A-D, Millencolin, H.E.A.T., Crownshift, Sara, Awake Again and Toivo-Olavi!
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Finnish modern metalcore outfit Beyond Awareness unleashed the new single and video ‘Inferno’, a fifth preview from their highly anticipated debut album, set for release with Ranka Kustannus in autumn!
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Finnish alternative hard rock trio Luponero released another relenting burst of raw energy with their latest single ‘Pickup Artist’, another track unveiled from their upcoming debut album, set for release in March via Icons Creating Evil Art!
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Photo Reports
With their 5th album ‘Attracted To Danger’, THE NEW ROSES are currently on tour in Europe. With MOONSHOT from Finland as the support act, the German rockers are thrilling the masses. At their gig in Stuttgart, we had the pleasure of witnessing this amazing rock performance.
Vola’s ‘Friend of a Phantom’ tour passed through Finland last week and hit Tampere’s Pakkahuone on Tuesday November 5th. It was a filled with emotion, not only from Vola, but also the support acts Feather Mountain and Charlotte Wessels. This almost overwhelming rollercoaster ride of emotions was brought to us by TuskaLive.
Within Temptation dropped by in Helsinki on their “Bleed Out tour 2024” that is taking over arenas all over Europe and treated us to a visual and musical spectacle like only they can deliver. With them they brought guest artists to do some songs with them and support band Annisokay!
The pictures of an amazing night with the headlining show from Future Palace at On The Rocks in Helsinki, with the support from Our Promise and Revnoir!
The last weekend of October, Apulanta played two glorious shows at Nokia Arena in Tampere, Finland in front of a huge crowd of fans, and joined by Lahtis Sinfonia Orchestra. A show that somehow felt simultaneously simplistic and very grand, with a well-thought-out light show and setlist featuring rarely played tracks live!
Smash Into Pieces were back in Finland a while back, and we got to see their show at Tampere’s Pakkahuone, where they played in front of a full house alongside Cyan Kicks. A wonderful night of good music and atmosphere, hosted by Live Nation Finland.
1349 and Kampfar joined forces to invade Europe with their Norwegian black metal onslaught and brought along the Danes of Afsky, and we caught them at their stop at Ääniwalli in Helsinki for a much needed black metal fix at the start of our week!
GHØSTKID came back to Finland to play an excellent show at Tavastia in Helsinki, and they brought with them Within Destruction and SETYØURSAILS for a splendid night of modern metal and metalcore!
This past summer, Assemble The Chariots released a monumentally epic debut full-length album, a concept album that is the first chapter of a massive world they’re building. And there was only one way to properly celebrate this: by having a release show, playing the album from start to finish live as it’s intended to be listened to. And with the addition of supporting guests acts IA and Lightbearer, it was truly a mind-bending night to remember for a long time! If you want to catch Assemble the Chariots live, this weekend is your shot with their show at Helsinki Techfest this Friday and their first ever arena show with Lost Society in Järvenpää this Saturday!
A couple of months ago, Elektrik Products satisfied our need for some good beats to dance to yet again by bringing the popular Swedes of Priest back to Helsinki for a crazy night at On The Rocks! And with them came the intense industrial duo Ambassador21, a special “old school electro” set of Freakangel and an opening show of Teknohirvi, the electro version of thrash outfit The Hirvi!
Gig Reports
Last month, we got to go to the very last stop of the Polish black metal collective Batushka “Black Pilgrimage tour 2023” at Vanha Ylioppilastalo in Helsinki, with the good company of Arkona, Aeternam and Varang Nord!
Earlier this year, Hexvessel released their new album ‘Polar Veil’ via Svart Records, taking the psychedelic folk rock towards the black metal origins of their leader Mat “Khvost” McNerney. And to celebrate the release, they did a few release shows in Finland, of which we got to enjoy the captivating Helsinki show in Kuudes Linja, with support from Unfyros.
Poisonblack returned for a couple more shows in October 2023, organized by Fullsteam Agency. We were present for the gig at Klubi in Tampere, a true celebration of the gothic metal legends they are.
After a long wait we finally got a regular Sonata Arctica gig again in Finland as they kicked off their “Arctic Storm Finland tour 2023”. At the end of September, they hit the stage in Tampere’s Pakkahuone, together with Reckless Love and Luna Kills. A great night organised by TuskaLive and Grey Beard Concerts and Management.
A report of Go_A performing at Coolhead Live in Helsinki, Finland.
Lost Society and Amorphis played at Logomos Terassikesä in Turku, Finland last Friday and although there were some issues it was still a very enjoyable show from two great Finnish bands.
Ice Nine Kills finally made it to Finland for 2 sold out shows, and we were at the Helsinki show in Vanha Ylioppilastalo back in May with support from special guests SKYND and openers Lansdowne! They quite literally killed it!
HIDE is easily the most oppressive, yet mesmerizing live performance I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing, and a couple of months ago at Kuudes Linja in Helsinki I got another chance of being blown away by them. Support came from the gloomy metalpunk locals of Keretik.
Grave Pleasures came to Korjaamo in Helsinki at the end of April to celebrate the release of their latest album ‘Plagueboys’, and with the band we danced our way into the weekend. But not before we first got an intense show from the industrial metal support act Dome Runner.
Ne Obliviscaris came to Tavastia in Helsinki to kick off their tour promoting their recently released ‘Exul’, and proved that they can overcome anything with an intense and masterful performance! Supported by their Andorran friends of Persefone and the Italian instrumentalists of Asymmetric Universe, they gave us a night of mind-bending prog music!
Album Reviews
The Finnish veterans …And Oceans have delivered one of their best works to date ‘As in Gardens, So in Tombs’ which stands as their most accomplished album since their masterwork debut ‘The Dynamic Gallery of Thoughts’. This is simply a feast for fans of symphonic and melodic black metal. Out via Season of Mist.
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Smoulder’s sophomore record ‘Violent Creed of Vengeance’ continues the epic quest of this Canadian-Finnish fellowship through the realm of epic heavy metal doom. Out via Cruz Del Sur Music.
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Finnish post-punk revivalists Grave Pleasures have released their new record ‘Plagueboys’ with Century Media Records a couple of weeks ago. A celebration of bleak early goth as if it were a lost record from the eighties, while still being remarkably upbeat and danceable.
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Finnish black metal quartet Ondfødt has refined its craft on the fourth album “Det Österbottniska Mörkre”. The songs are packed full of tremolos and blistering tempos, showcasing an outstanding songwriting talent from these Finns. Set for release via Black Lion Records on May 26th.
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The debut offering “The Ravening” of the Finnish symphonic black metal project Argenthorns shows the unique flair from the sole composer Lord Vrăjitor (Warmoon Lord). The album presents the imaginative and creative art of baroque symphonic black metal that aligns with bands like Bal-Sagoth, Limbonic Art, and Tartaros, released via Avantgarde Music.
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With ‘Anno 1696’, Insomnium created a new refreshing album that shows a different kind of style than what they have released of late. It became a raw, blackened and fierce release that really embodies the dark part of history that it’s based on. Out this Friday via Century Media Records!
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With “Aamongandr” Satanic Warmaster retains its status in Finnish and European black metal, every nuance of the following eight tracks makes the new album close to a masterwork. The sheer brilliance of the effective riffs and the stellar production, and the addition of the orchestration will make you behold the greatness of the composition. Released via Werewolf Records.
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After Volume 1 of ‘Acoustic Adventures’ came out in January via Atomic Fire Records, its follow up wasn’t far behind. Volume 2 focuses more on the faster tunes in Sonata Arctica’s catalogue, but is just as filled with tender emotions.
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‘Rise’ is a pretty average album. It’s been executed fine, but it can’t hold up to the pretty high standard The Rasmus has set in the past. The songs are very catchy but not that much more. That “something” that made The Rasmus great is just mostly missing on this record. Out since today via Playground Music, what do you think of it?
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8 years after the near perfect ‘The Year is One’, one of the longest running Finnish doom acts Spiritus Mortis has returned with a new lineup and a fifth album ‘The Great Seal’, easing down a bit on the heavy doom riffery and replacing it with simply epic sounding heavy metal. Out on Svart Records since last Friday.
