Blowup festival vol.4, the 2018 edition of the festival, organised by Blow Up That Gramophone. What a line-up! With these names we could only decide to attend this event and enjoy several of the biggest doom and sludge bands on these days, among other less-expected choices in the scene. We have been blown away for 3 days in Helsinki’s Korjaamo venue.

A little bit of a black sheep in the flock was the Swedish Hällas (***). These flamboyant looking dudes clearly traveled from the exciting times in the sixties/seventies, bringing psychedelic vintage rock to this modern day. They might have sounded a bit light compared to most of the bands that performed at this event, but they clearly knew what they were doing. Surrounded by colorful lights and smoke they took us back to those glory days and mesmerized everyone who was awake enough to show up early. A very cool way to start the second day!

British outfit Conan (***) brought us back on the “right” path with their doomy metal. These English guys had their guitars hanging very low, bringing forth a distorted sound that shook the whole place to its core. “Caveman Battle Doom” is almost an understatement when you talk about their music. Since they released their latest album not too long before the festival (check out our review here) we got to enjoy a couple of their new songs that fit in perfectly with their classics!

The intro of Lingua Ignota (****) was a bit strange coming from the more ‘normal’ doom settings of earlier bands. She brought a lot of atmosphere to the Kulmasali though. For her artful performance she had installed her keyboard and other gear in front of the stage on the same level as the crowd. The audience around her was completely quiet, listened carefully and some got dragged deep into the spectacle of her passionate play. She moved around in the circle bordered by the crowd and the sparse light, kicking and throwing the spotlights around, moving within her kind of dance. The small almost frail-looking woman that moved around on the floor expressively, while alternating het vocal output between calm singing and frantic shouting was something that kept our attention for a long time, almost in a sort of infectious daze. I think this is one of the highlights of the day for the audience in general as everyone looked very impressed. Unfortunately there were some small technical errors with her set-up now and then that kind of broke the performance for a few seconds. She was experienced enough to take care of those things quickly, and those moments almost vanished from our minds instantly.

The fourth band on Saturday was the industrial band Godflesh (****). These British guys are seen as one of the most influential bands in the creation of the industrial (metal) genre and were a band a big part of audience was looking forward to. A lot of people came for them in particular that day. The audience was of course enthousiastic but unfortunately early in the show the guitar connection with the speakers fell out causing some issues in the performance. Which leaves already more of an impact when there’s only two of you playing. Bassist G.C. Green looked like an immovable rock on bare feet and guitarist/vocalist Justin Broadrick had a more nervous presence on stage. At first they were bathing in the red lights coming from the side but after a comment by Justin to the technicians that the projection in the background was more important, they were barely illuminated by the visuals behind them. Too bad we couldn’t see those important images very well because of all the smoke, since they must have added a specific special meaning and dimension to the show.

Strangely enough only half an hour in the Godflesh show, at the other stage an artist, inspired by this same band and sharing a lot of similarities in sound, started playing. Despite the weird overlap in music style, the room filled up quite well for Author & Punisher (****1/2). This industrial doom project was an immediate eye-catcher during out pre-festival research with the impressive looking setup created by the one and only man behind the music, Tristan Shone. Not a very obvious choice in this line-up, the artist fitted in very well, so kudos to the organisation for daring to book him. He already convinced us with his latest release Beastland (check out the review here), but Author & Punisher is something you need to experience live. Tristan pushes and yanks on the selfmade instruments around him to create crushing and pounding music that is a perfect blend of organic and mechanic sounds. As soon as he started cranking out the nastiest beats and melodies from his machinery, the crowd started moving almost synchronized to the music as if they were all part of a hive mind.

Another band a lot of people came for specifically (including us) were the guys of Amenra (****1/2). We had a chat with them before their show and we can confirm that they’re some of the nicest and open people in the business. Which is somewhat confusing when you see the switch they can make from being funny and relaxed dudes to being completely in their own mental, tormented world. The emotions all the band members have during a performance are immense with especially vocalist and founder Colin H van Eeckhout front and center on this level. Being part of the audience you easily get absorbed in the concert, the music and the atmosphere. When you allow yourself to be carried away by what a lot of people call a “religious experience”, you are almost blown off your feet and are simply gone from this world for the duration of the show. As always Colin, with his back turned to the crowd almost the whole time, got into the music and his inner demons so deep that his clothes had to be ripped apart. With eyes closed, the screams were scratching your soul… but in an inexplicably good way. Feeling somehow relieved and sad that the draining experience was over, we look back fondly at the performance. One thing that sadly took us out of the trance-like experience from time to time, were the (probably drunk) people in the crowd shouting during the more quiet and atmospheric moments in the music. Just shut the hell up and go drink somewhere else guys, you’re ruining it for the people that are actually invested in this!

The very last band of the final main festival day was the American based noise rock band Whores (***). Being a band that rarely performs over here and actually sounding pretty good when we checked out some of their music beforehand, we were curious to see them. By the time we got to the room, the audience was completely hyped and in a party weekend mood. This type of music paired with an enthusiastic (and probably slightly intoxicated) audience gave the show a good vibe. Somehow we didn’t manage to really get into the music, possibly because of the earlier draining experience at Amenra. Some of the repetitive noises got a bit on our nerves and for some reason one of the band members made weird faces from time to time. Was this to highlight the music we wonder?