Photo Reports
Rockfest, the biggest rock festival of Finland, that often brings some of the biggest names to the country was doing it again. With bands like Pantera, Def Leppard and Volbeat headlining, and a bunch of pretty cool bands on the rest of the line-up, after missing out on it last year, we just had to be at the 2023 edition!
The second day, the Black Stage brought 3 very different takes on rock music with shows from Crashdiet, Nestor and Cleopatrick.
Rockfest, the biggest rock festival of Finland, that often brings some of the biggest names to the country was doing it again. With bands like Pantera, Def Leppard and Volbeat headlining, and a bunch of pretty cool bands on the rest of the line-up, after missing out on it last year, we just had to be at the 2023 edition!
The second day, the Red Stage by Soundi was the place to be for stellar performances by Von Hertzen Brothers, Escape The Faith, Testament and Stam1na.
Rockfest, the biggest rock festival of Finland, that often brings some of the biggest names to the country was doing it again. With bands like Pantera, Def Leppard and Volbeat headlining, and a bunch of pretty cool bands on the rest of the line-up, after missing out on it last year, we just had to be at the 2023 edition!
The second day brought quite a rockin’ out to the main stage with national heroes The 69 Eyes and Stratovarius and rock legends Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard.
Rockfest, the biggest rock festival of Finland, that often brings some of the biggest names to the country was doing it again. With bands like Pantera, Def Leppard and Volbeat headlining, and a bunch of pretty cool bands on the rest of the line-up, after missing out on it last year, we just had to be at the 2023 edition!
On the first day of the 3-day weekend, we caught some proper vibes with shows of Swallow The Sun and Steve’n Seagulls in the “Black Stage” tent.
Rockfest, the biggest rock festival of Finland, that often brings some of the biggest names to the country was doing it again. With bands like Pantera, Def Leppard and Volbeat headlining, and a bunch of pretty cool bands on the rest of the line-up, after missing out on it last year, we just had to be at the 2023 edition!
On the first day of the 3-day weekend, we caught killer shows of the New York hardcore legends Sick Of It All, stoner royalty Monster Magnet, Finland’s favorite voice Ville Valo and the heavy/power metal favorites Battle Beast on the “Red Stage by Soundi”:
Rockfest, the biggest rock festival of Finland, that often brings some of the biggest names to the country was doing it again. With bands like Pantera, Def Leppard and Volbeat headlining, and a bunch of pretty cool bands on the rest of the line-up, after missing out on it last year, we just had to be at the 2023 edition!
On the first day of the 3-day weekend, we caught massive shows of the Finnish monsters of Lordi, American punk rockers Rancid and the masters of groove metal Pantera on the main stage:
Aephanemer is a French symphonic/melodic death metal band that has been living somewhat under my radar until just recently. Much to my surprise, because a lot of their pretty epic compositions is exactly the kind of music that appeals to me greatly. So I was all too happy to see them appear on the event schedule of On The Rocks in Helsinki, and didn’t want to miss out on experiencing this live! Add to that the modern extreme prog act Numento for the Finnish stop on Aephanemer‘s tour, and the night promised to be a pretty epic one!
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.
After last year’s extended anniversary edition, they decided to permanently add an extra day to what used to be a 2-day celebration of the underground. After a first day of great shows, we got back to the festival ground early to catch as many bands as we could. Sadly we missed out on Rienaus, Gaurithoth and Ritualization 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, crowned by the live comeback of the legendary Finnish black metal band Behexen.
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.
After last year’s extended anniversary edition, they decided to permanently add an extra day to what used to be a 2-day celebration of the underground. After a first day of great shows, we got back to the festival ground early to catch as many bands as we could. Sadly we missed out on Rienaus, Gaurithoth and Ritualization 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…
We were happy to attend Jinjer at their stop in Lille, France. As might be expected, most of what they performed was from their most recent album, “Wallflowers”. Great show, drive, power… as we are used to from Tatiana and the guys. Only… those who were waiting for the great classics were still left a bit hungry. Even a legendary “Pisces” was not on the set list tonight.
The show began with a brief word about ‘all the crimes being committed these days’, referring to the war in their homeland of Ukraine. The men in this band did get permission to leave the country at the time of war because they are a cultural export, the least they can do is to publicly condemn this war internationally. That the audience is in full agreement is evidenced by sold-out merchandise at the end of the concert!
French avant-garde metal band Hypno5e warmed us up properly as the direct support for this stop on the tour.
