Photo Reports

Sylosis stopped in Belgium during their UK/Europe tour with special guests Revocation, Distant and Life Cycles. De Vierde Zaal was the venue.

As the opener of the evening, Life Cycles had the task of getting the audience going — and they did so effortlessly. From the first riffs, it was clear that their mix of crossover and thrash worked perfectly: direct, unpolished, and straightforward. Life Cycles delivered a solid and energetic opening set that set the tone for the rest of the evening. Not explosive chaos, but a warm build-up with enough spunk to get everyone ready for what was yet to come.

Next up: Distant. Distant is known for their brutal deathcore sound. When Distant appeared on the stage, it literally took seconds for that built-up energy to explode. Musically, it was just tight. The guitars were heavy and dirty in the best possible way, while the drums hit through the space like a sledgehammer. The vocals were impressive: raw, deep, and constantly menacing. Distant delivered an uncompromising, intensely physical show that did exactly what it was supposed to do: completely overwhelm you. No fuss, no pause — just pure, destructive energy.

As the third band of the evening, Revocation came at the perfect moment. The venue was warmed up, the audience was fully into it. From the first note it became clear how tight and technically refined this band plays. While many death metal bands rely on brute force, Revocation combines that with an almost clinical precision. Complex riffs, lightning-fast transitions, and unexpected rhythm changes followed each other at a rapid pace, without ever becoming messy. Everything just hit the mark. And the audience? They went completely wild. Revocation delivered an impressive set that fully convinced both technically and in live impact. This was the moment of the evening when everything exploded — controlled, but ruthless.

As the headliner of the evening, Sylosis had the task of surpassing everything that came before — and they accomplished that convincingly. By the time they took the stage, De Vierde Zaal was already at a boiling point, but what followed was a set that completely unleashed that built-up energy. Sylosis effortlessly balances between brutal death metal and more melodic, layered passages, and live that combination came across particularly well. The audience went completely over the top. The pit was constantly in motion. Sylosis closed the evening with a performance that was both technically impressive and emotionally captivating. A headline set as it should be: powerful, controlled, and fully supported by an audience that was completely absorbed in it.

A SOLD OUT Sunday Funday at The King Of Clubs in Columbus, OH was a perfect day to Take a Picture of Filter, Finger Eleven and Local H! 

Local H is a two piece rock band originally formed in 1990, hit the stage first. They may be a ‘small’ band but pack a big punch! Scott Lucas is on vocals and guitar, with Ryan Harding on the drum kit. We got to witness a cool moment when a young musician got the opportunity to hop on stage and Scott handed over his guitar for the young person to play! 

Finger Eleven, a Canadian rock band also formed in 1990, played next. They were successful in working the sold out crowd to get a  little lively and a mosh pit formed in the center of the venue! Slow Chemical, Paralyzer and One Thing were my favorite songs played.

Filter is an American rock band formed in Cleveland, OH in 1993 by vocalist Richard Patrick. They were a staple band of the late 1990’s and early 2000’s and it was definitely surreal to finally see them perform live as well as get to do photo of the show. My favorite songs played were You Walk Away, Trip Like I Do, Jurassitol and Hey Man Nice Shot. 

Eye of Melian came to Tuulensuun Palatsi in Tampere on the 28th of March with a magical, sold out show. Where they finished their ‘Forest of Forgetting‘ first ever Finland Tour.

Mokoma are currently on tour to celebrate the 20 year anniversary of their 5th album ‘Kuoleman laulukunnaat‘. Together with Koljosen Tiekiista they struck down at Tavara-Asema in Tampere on Friday the 27th of March for a hot and sweaty, sold out show.

A couple of Wednesdays ago we headed over to Cactus Club in Bruges to catch Psychonaut on their tour supporting the release of their latest album ‘World Maker’. The show was part of the <Bruges is Doomed> series, a recent effort to bring back heavy music to the city. The weather was cold and dreary, but the venue became warm and fuzz-y very quickly.

Supporting Psychonaut was Belgian trio Bloed, “three siblings making heavy music”, to quote the band themselves. The band name translates as Blood, which is the theme throughout all of their releases. Fun fact: all of their track names are single words in dutch that can be combined with ‘bloed’ to form composites that result in double meanings.

I had the luck and privilege to see and shoot Psychonaut when they were only 6 months into their career. They blew me away from the start and that impression’s never gone away – on the contrary, as evidenced by their continued rise to international fame. The trio is ever kind and grateful to the audience and each other, but delivers songs with blistering intensity. They easily wrap a filled venue in their heavy but warm wall of sound, take them to higher spheres and then bring it down gently at the end.

On March 20, Belgian melodic metal band Behind the Veil, led by 2 amazing women on vocals, released their brand-new EP ‘Betrayed by Shadows’. To celebrate the occasion, they hosted an amazing release show that same day at DVG Club in Kortrijk. Joined by Ironborn and X-Pozed, the night turned into an unforgettable party!

Back in February, Idavoll kicked off 2026 by taking things up a notch again from their usual folk programming with another metal night and the first show of Vansind on Belgian soil.

The night started off silly with the fun-loving Dutchmen of Mourning Wood who played a very solid and much less parody sounding set than one might expect from their band name and on-stage shenanigans. They couldn’t help themselves to end with a metal cover of famous Dutch language children’s TV hit “De Plopdans”, with a live gnome on stage.

Next up were Morgarten from Switzerland to turn things into a somewhat darker direction with their folk-black sound. The band keeps upping their game every time they come round, they really owned the stage this time around. Despite playing since since 2005, it looks they finally taking off and touring Europe more and more. Keep an eye out and go catch them live where you can!

Vansind headlined the night on their first ever show in Belgium(!). All the way from Denmark, their style both catchy and heavy. Seeing harsh vocalist J Asgaard (does it get any more viking?) take the stage you could be forgiven for thinking he’d be brother to Amon Amarth frontman Johan Hegg and his sound wouldn’t dissuade you from that illusion. Vansind‘s style is more melodic, however, with harsh male and clean female vocals alternating and the metal augmented with flutes, bagpipes and keyboards to an infectious brand of folk metal.

The organisation & bands both seemed to have put in all effort to make sure appropriate drinks for the music were present: a plethora of mead variants were both on sale at the merch booths and at the bar besides the usuals.

This February, one of the year’s most highly anticipated tours arrived in Helsinki with full force as the “Death Over Europe” tour stormed into a sold-out Kulttuuritalo, bringing with it an absolutely crushing lineup. The undisputed kings of Norwegian black metal, Mayhem, were joined by legendary American death metal force Immolation, while the ever-formidable Swedish black metal panzer division Marduk completed a bill of truly devastating proportions. This was the kind of night that lingers long after the final note – still ringing in your ears for days to come.

Check out the photos from this intense night below!

Lord of the Lost came to Tampere’s Tavara-Asema on the 16th of March as part of their ‘Tovr Noir’ Tour, unfortunately without bassist Class Grenayde.

Together with Ad Infinitum they still easily riled up a big crowd even on a Monday evening.

It’s that time of year again when we look back and share our favorite images from the past year…

I dug into my albums and this is what came out, with pictures of Borknagar, Doro, Machine Head, Ne Obliviscaris, Room 13, Vola, Infected Rain, Luna Kills, Kickin Valentina, Art Nation, SatchVai Band, Arkona, Kreator, Cro-Mags, Bury Tomorrow, Electric Callboy, BTL and Ankor: