Photo Reports
The undoubted kings of psychedelic death metal of today, Blood Incantation destroyed – quite literally since even the house PA couldn’t handle the music – Kulttuuritalo last April during their “Absolute Elsewhere Tour” making a stop there. This was originally planned for Ääniwalli but since the tickets were in such high demand, it was moved to the legendary Kulttuuritalo and the place was packed! Great night of astral blast beats to make you levitate to outer space, check the pics down below!
Wildfest 2025: ‘End of the Road’ – A Final Celebration of Global Friendships and Rock
On May 23 and 24, 2025, Wildfest bid farewell with its eighth and final edition at JC De Spiraal in Geraardsbergen, Belgium. Known for its dedication to glam, sleaze, and melodic hard rock, the festival brought together fans from around the world.
The 2025 lineup featured many bands that had previously graced the Wildfest stage, including on the first day The Treatment (UK), Wildheart (Belgium), Blackrain (France), Kickin Valentina (US), and All I Know (Belgium):
New Zealand’s dissonant death metal giants Ulcerate made their highly anticipated return with their first headline show in Finland at On The Rocks in Helsinki. With support from Helsinki’s own tech death metal band Omnivortex this was a fantastic night of amazing death metal accompanied by a loud sold out crowd! Check out the pics down below!
On May 10, 2025, Dark Tranquillity brought their Endtime Signals European tour to a roaring crowd at Le Splendid in Lille, France, with special guests Moonspell and Hiraes. The Swedish pioneers of melodic death metal delivered a blistering set, filled with both classics and tracks from their latest release.
GRIMM had already joined this tour’s stop at the Hell’s Balls Festival in Kortrijk last year, where only Dark Tranquillity and Moonspell performed. Hiraes, though present on tour then, didn’t take the stage in Kortrijk.
In Lille, however, they made a triumphant appearance, much to the crowd’s delight. Moonspell, as usual, mesmerized with their dark, atmospheric performance.
The venue pulsed with energy from start to finish.
Two hardcore punk legends from the USA made it all the way to Finland, and we weren’t going to let that pass us by! With Descendents and Circle Jerks, true icons from the US punk history joined forces to show Europe they haven’t slowed down any bit over the decades. Still just as socially aware, still just as rebellious and riotous, which was clearly very well received by the crowd showing up in Helsinki. It was a pity that Negative Approach didn’t manage to continue the tour for this stop, it would have made it that much sweeter, but seeing just these 2 bands alone was already pretty much a milestone in my book, being quite the punk fan.
On a dusky June evening in Helsinki, the veil between realms thinned at On the Rocks. Castle Rat, the theatrical D&D inspired metal quartet from New York, brought their “Old World Realms Tour” to the Finnish capital, summoning us into their mythic universe of sword-bearing sorceresses and haunted riffs. With local cult favorites Mansion opening the night with their sermon of apocalyptic devotion, the stage was set for a ritual of sound, sweat, and spectacle. We were there and saw it was damn good! We’re already getting excited about their upcoming new album!
It’s always fun to get to experience something very different than our usual fare, and that was handsomely delivered by the people from The Rock Orchestra, a touring orchestra that brings their versions of rock and metal classics on stages all over the world. With impressive stage decor including towers of skulls, candles, colorful glass panes that look like they come straight from a church, and a huge swinging skull in the middle of it all and that stage filled with an orchestra dressed in Día de Muertos inspired outfits and masks and 2 vocalists popping up from time to time to provide some stellar singing and crowd interactions, this was really a sight to behold. Every single song was an absolute rock and metal hit, going from rock classics like AC/DC‘s ‘Thunderstruck’, Iron Maiden‘s ‘Run to the Hills’ and Motörhead‘s ‘Ace of Spades’ to more modern hits like Evanescence’s ‘Bring Me To Life’, System Of A Down‘s ‘Toxicity’, and My Chemical Romance‘s ‘Welcome to the Black Parade’. The energy got really high though in the room with their closer ‘Killing in the Name’ (from Rage Against The Machine of course), with the majority of the orchestra throwing up middle fingers at the right moments, and inviting the crowd to get up on their feet and join them in the fun. A wonderful way to end our weekend, really!
Tokio Hotel is huge youth sentiment for me, as they broke through with ‘Monsoon’ almost 2 decades ago and radio channels in Europe played the song to pieces. In the mean time, the band has gone through quite some music styles going from the alternative rock and pop rock early on to the more electronic rock and synth pop nowadays, but no matter what, they continued to grow a steady and very dedicated fan base. At Helsinki’s Culture House, we were met with a quite packed venue of excited fans, ready to experience the epic show these 4 German guys bring every time. And we were not disappointed with the theatrics, having Bill show up high in the air wearing huge red wings, a stage set with mirrors that reflected the lights but also the crowd in front of the stage, several outfit changes by Bill on top of his already pretty outgoing stage presence and so on. The air was filled with positivity and love, and while it definitely wasn’t the usual kind of music I frequent shows of, I absolutely loved it.
The Preacher in Geraardsbergen came alive the night before the festival’s official start, as fans from across the globe arrived in Belgium a day early to kick off the rock ‘n’ roll weekend with the unofficial Wildfest preparty. The bands were Sin City Rebels and Beyond The Labyrinth. The music was loud, the beer was flowing, and the spirit was unmistakably alive.
We headed out to soak up the atmosphere and take some pictures to capture the vibe for those who couldn’t be there:
Starting with Voidfallen, this gig offered a great blend of Finnish metal. Unfortunately I must say that I haven’t seen a gig this empty in a long while. For Voidfallen I counted 11 people in front of the stage, and while this got a little fuller as the evening progressed, it still stayed sadly empty throughout the whole event. I would estimate the total amount of fans to be around a 120 during Amorals performance. Such a bad turn up was definitely not deserved.
I myself enjoyed all bands rather much, sound and light were done well and somehow the bands still managed to generate a good atmosphere even in a more then half empty Tavara-Asema. My favourite of the evening was probably Shade Empire, as I really liked the mood they were setting.
