Photo Reports

After driving 3 hours, standing in front of the MVP Arena in Albany, NY, looking up and seeing the sign for the Trinity of Terror Tour lighting up across the screen, gave me goosebumps. All my nerves were catching up to me as I was getting ready to go into my first concert with a press pass and let me tell you the entire experience was better than I could have imagined! Running around trying to figure out where to go was a little crazy but the show itself was entertaining, fulfilling and memorable to say the least. Overall, I think all the bands, and the fans, fed off each other’s energy which made the experience WILD. It’s one thing to be in the audience watching the band but being in the different world of the photo pit, in between the performance and the crowd, is completely thrilling. The interaction of the bands and the audience pulsated through the air, you can hear the fans singing the words of the songs along with the artists and I was able to capture both sides of the story.

Each band brought their own special recipe to the stage. Atreyu brought comedy by joking around with the crowd, shaking their hips and bringing us a lovely tease of “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” by the lovely Whitney Houston. Ice Nine Kills brought their horror game to the stage, slicing and dicing their way through the stage actors and reenacting horror themes from some of the most iconic slasher films out there. Motionless In White brought the heavy music and some fancy footwork as their lead singer Chris Motionless busted moves while singing “Werewolf” which has multiple tributes to Michael Jackson. Finally Black Veil Brides came out and ended the night with some recent music, but they certainly didn’t forget to appease the longtime fans by playing some of their older music.

This event first caught my eye when Silver Bullet  announced that they would be there as support act, so naturally I had to be there as well. I fell in love with this band the moment I first heard them play and still think they have great potential. Why they only got to play 5 songs doesn’t make sense to me at all, especially as an 1 hour break followed their performance. I would have rather heard a bit more of them instead of just waiting for Stratovarius to start. As expected they played a few songs from their recently released album ‘Survive‘ as well as the classics like ‘Hunting High and Low‘ and ‘Eagleheart‘. Pakkahuone was finally properly filled with people again and it was a nice relaxed evening.

Every year again, Elektrik Products brings the best and most exciting bands from the industrial, goth, EBM, (dark) elektro, darkwave and cyber scene to Finland for Hellsinki Industrial Festival! After last year’s edition on the new location, we get to return to Ääniwalli for yet another exciting fest there. With major artists like suicide commando, Faderhead, Agonoize, Centhron and Gothminister besides a nice slab of more fan favorites and surprisingly different artists, this promised to be yet another massive party!

Due to a late night and traffic not working along, we ended up missing out on Matt Hart opening the 2nd day of this year’s edition, but luckily there was still plenty to enjoy!

Every year again, Elektrik Products brings the best and most exciting bands from the industrial, goth, EBM, (dark) elektro, darkwave and cyber scene to Finland for Hellsinki Industrial Festival! After last year’s edition on the new location, we get to return to Ääniwalli for yet another exciting fest there. With major artists like suicide commando, Faderhead, Agonoize, Centhron and Gothminister besides a nice slab of more fan favorites and surprisingly different artists, this promised to be yet another massive party!

Skid Row dropping by in the neighborhood with a brand new album under the arms AND a new vocalist? Yeah, that’s something we don’t want to miss out on…

After the support act of Belgian progressive metal band Max Pie, it’s time for the special guest hard rock formation from Italy: Edge of Forever, both warming us up properly for Skid Row‘s show!

It’s the first time we get to see Skid Row with their new (ex-H.E.A.T) vocalist Erik Grönwall. This man is a bomb on stage! A true abundance of energy from start to finish! Although they have a new album (‘The Gang’s All Here’), they mainly played songs from their 2 biggest albums ‘Slave to the grind’ and ‘Skid Row’. From the new album they only played the title track and in the encores ‘Time Bomb’.

Hellsinki Industrial Festival is back in town, and as usual, that means that on the Thursday night there is a club show with a couple artists of the industrial/EBM/goth music scene to warm up people for the festival the next days. This time, we didn’t get to go to the usual On The Rocks in center Helsinki, but rather the charming Kuudes Linja venue where we’ve seen Elektrik Products bring Nachtmahr earlier this year in April. With Carnal Machinery, Jessi Frey and ESA (Electronic Substance Abuse) on this year’s bill, it was promising to be a quite exciting first little taste of what this weekend was going to hold for us.

Grilling season was figuratively and quite literally opened when The European Siege tour starring Unto Others, Carcass, Behemoth and Arch Enemy hit the Ice Hall in Helsinki, Finland with their first sold out show of the tour. Packed show with moshpits running through the whole night, these metal juggernauts brought the heat to a gloomy and cold Wednesday evening. If you need warming up during these cold days, check out the photos down below when Helsinki Ice Hall was taken under siege!

The moment I walked into Trix I felt warm and fuzzy (pun intended). Garcia Peoples really layed down a warm blanket to warm up the crowd. With a full sound that filled the entire room wall to wall they really catered to the varied crowd that ultimately came for the godfathers of indie/garage rock.

It’d been 13 years since I’ve last seen Dinosaur Jr. and my ears were still buzzing. For starters J. Mascis – who might very well be one of the best guitarists in the world, but just couldn’t care less about titles – is known for linking his amps through, turning them up to eleven and using the dirtiest, grittiest fuzz around. Combined with Lou Barlow‘s deep rolling grabber bass that sounds just like Lou looks and Murph‘s technical drums in a rather small venue, this results in one hell of a wall of sound.

After nearly four decades of touring they still focus all their energy on their music. No colourful backdrops and fancy light show. No costumes or gimmicks. Just 3 men and an awesome collection of vintage guitars and fuzz pedals and the knowledge of how to play a crowd. Opening with “The Lung” sure did the trick and they had the crowd eating out of their hand from minute one. One thing that immediately stood out was how J Mascis‘ voice hasn’t changed a bit in those 38 years. In fact, he hasn’t aged at all in the last 20 years. He not only sounds, but also still looks exactly the same with his iconic long grey hair, large glasses and vintage Jazzmaster collection.

Bart Vandeportaele left Spoil Engine in 2018 and has since been working with vocalist Sven Herssens (of Fields of Troy) on some new music. Two years later, they were joined by bassist Bert Nauwynck (Diecast Unit), drummer Lothar Ryheul (Fields of Troy) and guitarist Dennis Wyffels (Lethal Injury / Bloodrocuted) to form their new band, called Mantah!

Another 2 years later they release their first album ‘Evoke’ and, after a well-received try-out the week before, give an official release party at Club de B in Torhout, Belgium.

Spoil Engine fans are sure to be spoiled tonight: Not only are they here to see Bart again, Iris (ex-Spoil Engine singer) is also back with her new band Three Times Royal! Since they don’t have a drummer yet, Siebe Hermans (Coffin Feeder, When Plagues Collide) has joined them for the live performance. And Iris even joined Mantah for a moment to guest vocal on their encore song!

Opening act was the Belgian metalcore band Secondhand Saints.

Steelchaos day two was clearly the main day for many people as it clearly drew the biggest crowd with a fantastic lineup from old school heavy metal to skull crushing death metal and to good ol’ Finnish black metal. Even though the more classic heavy metal acts all delivered, it was very clear that still this festivals target audience enjoys more of the extreme music when the biggest hordes gathered during the more extreme metal bands. The festival area concept still worked well with minimal lines to get beer or food but the toilet situation was a complete disaster when men’s inside bathrooms were out of commission, that’s really the only complaint about the arrangement of the festival, just sort your shit out, quite literally when it comes to proper toilets for drunk metalheads to do their needs in.