Photo Reports
It’s that time of the year again: The Finnish festival summer gets kicked off properly with the black metal festival Steelfest! The gathering of the wolves of the underground is easily a yearly homecoming for anyone who has a love for the extreme and obscure. And as always, the lineup is massive with an impressive list of 46 bands filled with cult bands, legends of the underground scene, and exclusive and rare performances.
Sadly we missed out on Cadaveric Incubator and Ereshkigal because we simply couldn’t get there that early, but luckily there was more than enough to fulfill our need for extreme and underground music with some explosive bands on the outdoors stage, with headliners Kroda, Infernal War, Ved Buens Ende, Délétère, and Corpsessed.
It’s that time of the year again: The Finnish festival summer gets kicked off properly with the black metal festival Steelfest! The gathering of the wolves of the underground is easily a yearly homecoming for anyone who has a love for the extreme and obscure. And as always, the lineup is massive with an impressive list of 46 bands filled with cult bands, legends of the underground scene, and exclusive and rare performances.
Sadly we missed out on Chamber of Unlight this time around because we simply couldn’t get there that early, but luckily there was more than enough to fulfill our need for extreme and underground music with some proper dark and weird performances on the indoors stage with the second Horna show of the weekend, this time with vocalist Corvus, Misþyrming, Krzysztof Drabikowski’s БАТЮШКА, Strid, and Inferno featuring Matron Thorn as a special guest!
It’s that time of the year again: The Finnish festival summer gets kicked off properly with the black metal festival Steelfest! The gathering of the wolves of the underground is easily a yearly homecoming for anyone who has a love for the extreme and obscure. And as always, the lineup is massive with an impressive list of 46 bands filled with cult bands, legends of the underground scene, and exclusive and rare performances. On the outside stage it’s always interesting the variation of bands playing in full sunlight, going from bands that actually thrive on it to fully corpsepainted black metal bands that sometimes look a bit out of place. But once the sun starts to set a little bit, magic really starts to happen… with headliner Unleashed, Aeternus, Hellbutcher, Craft, and Deathchain on day 1.
It’s that time of the year again: The Finnish festival summer gets kicked off properly with the black metal festival Steelfest! The gathering of the wolves of the underground is easily a yearly homecoming for anyone who has a love for the extreme and obscure. And as always, the lineup is massive with an impressive list of 40 bands filled with cult bands, legends of the underground scene, and exclusive and rare performances. As usual, on the inside stage, you could find mostly acts that required a darker setting to create just right atmosphere and mood for their music to properly translate to a live setting with on day 1 headliner Gorgoroth, the first iteration of Horna with vocalist Nazgul, Antimateria, Commander Agares, Aegrus and Black Altar!
Fans were definitely ready to “FACE IT”, the show with Nothing More, Veil Of Maya and Of Virtue, that is! Concert-goers were lined down the sidewalk and around the block in anticipation of the concert at Kemba Live in Columbus, Ohio.
Of Virtue got the party started for the evening! Hailing from that “state up north” as Ohio State Buckeye fans like to say, the four piece metal band is from Lansing, MI. The band is composed of Tyler Ennis [vocals], Damon Tate [guitar/vocals], Michael Valadez [guitar] and Ryan Trinh [drums]. I had been wanting to catch these guys for awhile and was happy to see they hopped on this stop of the tour while Wage War and Sleep Theory stepped away for the evening due to festivals. They came on stage hard hitting and didn’t let up during their entire set. The singer even sang the hit song “Cannibals” from the crowd. They had lots of energy and they seemed to have a lot of fans in the crowd, which is always great to see!
Second in the lineup was Veil Of Maya, a metalcore outfit formed in Chicago, Illinois in 2004. They are made up of Lukas Magyar [vocals], Marc Okubo [guitar], Sam Applebaum [drums] and Danny Hauser [bass]. They came out and rocked their set from start to finish. A pretty consistent flow of crowd surfers began to come over the barricade by this point, which included the bands photographer, Meredith [drummer in the band VCTMS]. I looked up and realized she had her camera in hand and just got the biggest kick out of that! I was very impressed overall and I will definitely be adding them into my regular rotation of listening. I live for the breakdown and they check that box 100 percent!
After Of Virtue and Veil Of Maya, the crowd was totally amped up at this point and more than ready for Nothing More to take to the stage. The band originated in Texas and the current lineup consists of Jonny Hawkins [vocals], Mark Vollelunga [guitar], Daniel Oliver [bass] and Ben Anderson [drums]. I had high hopes for seeing Nothing More, and it was beyond what I had expected. Music can be a therapeutic and an emotional experience, and this was one of those cases. They are an energetic band, they connect with their fans during the set. Both Jonny and Mark sang/played at the barricade right in front of me during the first 3 songs that I got to photograph. Again, a steady stream of crowd surfers was going on during their set. The circle pit (which I stay away from!) was pretty crazy! There is a balcony at Kemba, and I was able to observe from above and it was gnarly! The one thing I love about this band is that their lyrics do provoke you emotionally. I knew I would cry at some point and it was during Fadein/Fadeout. I didn’t even try to stop it! That’s the great thing about music and that healing piece of it, even at a metal show, we can allow it to heal us a little bit at a time. I was blown away like I had fully anticipated, which means I am looking forward to seeing these guys again!!
Back in April on a very rainy day the gothic-western-blues group Me And That Man led by Nergal, better known from the black metal band Behemoth, flanked by the American rock ‘n’ roll group Frank The Baptist took over the seemingly sold out Korjaamo venue in Helsinki. From all the times I’ve seen Nergal performing with Behemoth with massive stage production and pyro, it was nice to see him playing in an intimate club setting with no barriers, no special stage production, just a band playing rock ‘n’ roll and having fun doing it. This was by far one of the better shows I’ve seen all year, check out the pics down below!
It’s Friday night and the party begins for many young people at the Neue Theaterfabrik in Munich, a beautiful room with friendly people and a very healthy atmosphere. On stage, after nine years and with a much bigger crowd than the first time the band performed in Munich, is the Welsh project Novo Amor. The simplicity and sincerity of the songs is a perfect match for the authors. On stage, there is no cynicism and a complete openness that makes the show authentic and enjoyable to savor. This new European tour is to present their latest album, “Colapse List”, released on the All Points Label this April. The popularity and acceptance of Ali Lacey’s songs seems to be reaching a wider audience, the result of hard work and love for the art he makes. In the midst of so many questions and answers during the show, one doubt remains in my mind: why “Novo Amor”, a Portuguese name that means, “new love”!
It was a beautiful evening and let’s hope it doesn’t take them so long to return to Munich again.
Anneke van Giersbergen, the talented Dutch singer, guitarist and songwriter, has been captivating audiences with her unique blend of rock, metal, and folk music for quite some years. At current, she is on the road exploring new musical territories with her ‘Heavy Strings’ tour in 2024.
While being on stage, her performances are accompanied by string quartet and a piano. In the program, heavy metal and rock classics are interpreted in a new way of semi-classical formats.
Some power ballads are in as well to round up the set-list. Besides her past in metal and speed-metal bands as well as her musical roots in classic and jazz: this approach is not a complete surprise but more like a potentially expectable fusion. The idea was actually already born in 2021 when she performed Metallica’s ‘Nothing else matters’ in a similar arrangement.
Her wide areas of metal genres covering set includes songs like ‘Still Loving You’ (Scorpions), ‘Run To The Hills’ (Iron Maiden), ‘November Rain’ (Guns & Roses), ‘Thunderstruck’ (ACDC) and many more. Probably the most outstanding arrangement is ‘South Of Heaven’ (SLAYER), which was just stunningly amazing. A song you usually would not expect to be arranged like this at all.
With Anneke‘s flawless singing and the ensemble’s performance, each appearance creates an unforgettable experience on stage.
On the 3rd of February Catharsis, Noord and Despite Us performed at Asgaard in an event hosted by Fly Productions.
Despite Us opened the evening. This is a 5 piece Hardcore/Deathcore band straight out of Belgium’s finest shithole, i.e. Menen. The idea is to create hardcore with a dark side. They recorded two singles last year, of which ‘In Cold Blood’ has been released in October. The band includes ex-members of Pisseblomme and For Less and is seen as a promising player in the Hardcore scene. From the first song forward they gave no quarter and and slammed us right to the canvas. The frustrations of the working week were quickly washed away and the energy was immediately restored. It was hard and dirty, but invigorating.
The next band was Noord. Noord is a trio, hailing out of Antwerp. This band brings something different into the world of heavy music. To put Noord in one particular musical box would be dishonoring the band so that we stick to “modern metal”. In September 2023, Noord released their first full album called ‘Cryptosis’. Noord’s sound was intense and the vocalist’s screaming vocals felt natural and helped to make the set even more hard-hitting. As the final chords faded into the night, it was evident that Noord had left a lasting impression on everyone in attendance. With their unique sound, dynamic performance, and undeniable talent, Noord is a band on the rise. The band is recording new material at this moment. On the 25th of May, their new song ‘Pilgrim’ will be released with a bang. Stay tuned…
Then it was Catharsis’ turn. Catharsis is a term from Greek narratology and means emotional purification. through the creation of art or music. Catharsis is a Belgian Death Metal band born in the chaos a global pandemic. They’re scene-veterans hailing from 90’s bands like Death’s bride, Solipsist, Body of Christ & Signs of Cain. Catharis had something to celebrate, namely the long anticpated re-release of their debut EP “I” including 6 extra tracks from the Radio Benelux Durango Session live performance. Catharsis took the stage, delivering a performance that left the audience both stunned and exhilarated. From the moment they launched into their set, it was clear that this was going to be a night to remember. One of the most impressive aspects of Catharsis’s performance was their musicianship. Each member of the band demonstrated incredible skill and precision, executing complex arrangements with ease. But perhaps the most striking element of Catharsis’s performance was their stage presence. The band exuded a commanding presence, commanding the attention of everyone in the room with their intense energy. In the end, Catharsis delivered a performance that was as powerful as it was unforgettable. For fans of Belgian death metal, seeing Catharsis live is an experience not to be missed.
Vended is a band that holds enough promise and intriguing talent that it very much feels like a fresh breath of air for the heavy music scene and one that will keep the future of said scene very strong. While some people might still get stuck on saying that they only got where they are because of nepotism and because of the names of their dads famous for the behemoth that is Slipknot, at last year’s Tuska festival they proved to us that they are definitely their own thing. Yes, Griffin Taylor sounds like a Corey clone, and yes, some of their music and hard-hitting grooves are not unfamiliar, but this is not a mere clone or watered down spin-off of Slipknot. On the contrary, the level of hunger, grittiness and sheer ferocity these 5 dudes from Des Moines, Iowa bring with them reminds us of a band that is ready to take over the world by storm all on their own and individuality, much like the very beginning of said heavy metal icons. And they confirmed this all over again with a raging show at the legendary Tavastia in Helsinki, Finland. And with them, they brought a couple of bands that are much like them building their way up with their own unique take on the heavy music they grew up with: direct support Australian The Gloom In The Corner takes metalcore to spots we haven’t seen it all too often, from time to time even reminding us of the legendary System Of A Down, and with a solid concept and image. And opener Profiler from the UK is part of the nu-metal reawakening that is in full force moving towards becoming one of the more popular genres within the metal scene! A great night that was basically a showcase of where the world of modern metal is heading towards, and we’re all the more pleased with it!
