Festivals that go for something different, for the weird, dark and unique, those are the events that we enjoy immensely. You can be rest assured that you will discover something new and intriguing as good as every time you attend to such a more underground gathering of artists. And it’s always a great opportunity to catch bands that rarely come to your country. For the people in Finland who wanted to make it to Roadburn Festival but couldn’t, they might want to turn their attention towards Sonic Rites, as many of the artists on their bill have just recently taken up stages at the legendary Dutch festival’s 2022 edition.
| Name : | Sonic Rites |
| Country : | Finland |
| Amount of Days : | 2 |
| Outdoors / Indoors : | Outdoors & Indoors |
| Amount of Stages : | 3 |
| Genres : | Hardcore, Black Metal, Doom Metal, Sludge Metal, Stoner Metal, Post-Hardcore, Post-metal, Folk, Pagan Folk, Electronic Music, Punk, Hardcore Punk |
The Bands
Sonic Rites has collected an impressive gathering of interesting acts, both international and national. Covering genres in a wide range like hardcore punk, post-metal, pagan folk, sludge metal, doom metal, stoner metal and so on, there will be something great for all who likes to experiment and discover.
On the Friday you can catch the Swedish doomsters of Monolord, the man rooting his music into his ancestral past with Forndom, the impressive and intriguing Italian artist Lili Refrain and the Estonian stoners/sludgers of Kannabinóid. On a more local front, you’ll find several shades of hardcore/hardcore punk with Kohti Tuhoa, Vainoa and Radien, besides the indie/punk folk outfit Slack Bird and the gloomy rocker T. Jarva & The Dark Place, one of the more recent projects from Taneli Jarva known from Sentenced, The Black League, Impaled Nazarene and Chaosbreed.
On the Saturday in turn, there are visitors from overseas all the way from the US with the psychedelic doom duo Insect Ark and from the UK with the post-metal outfit Svalbard, that blends black metal and hardcore with some interesting atmospherics. The national names bring a couple of hardcore outfits again with Terveet Kädet, Kovaa Rasvaa and Raamattu, D-beat with Kürøishi but also black metal with Mørket besides the rock project of Ville Pirinen (Ville Pirinen Combat School) and the so-called “Ghetto elektro” from Elektrus Erektus.
The Timing
Every day starts at 18:30 with a performance on the “Garden Stage” outside the Ääniwalli venue and wraps up with the last act starting by half past midnight on the main stage inside. They’re doing something right at the smaller, underground fests, because yet again this is one of those festivals where you don’t have to worry about overlapping shows. You’ll be able to switch between the stages for the next act starting and move back and forth the whole evening.
The Grounds
Ääniwalli is a venue that by day opens up as a skating park, in the middle of office buildings and basically away from most living beings in the evening, so things can get pretty loud and heavy. In the main hall there’s a bigger stage, which will be “Stage 1” for this event and in the bar space on the side there is a smaller stage, “Stage 2” for Sonic Rites. When arriving at the venue, there’s a smallish yard where they’ll have the “Garden Stage” for 2 acts every day to perform a show outside.
This is the way
Ääniwalli is about a 15 min walk (or 7 min bike/electric scooter ride) away from Pasila station, which is only 1 stop away from Helsinki Central Station. You’ll find yourself a bit in the middle of nowhere without any shops or restaurants around, so if you expect to be needing something you better get it while you’re still in more civilized areas. Otherwise you’ll be in for a bit of a walk in the middle of the event happening.
Grub and Booze
Usually when there’s a bigger and longer event at Ääniwalli, there is a food truck that shows up for those who need a little bite to eat along with the festivities, though we don’t want to promise anything on that. The drinks you can get at the venue are your quite regular fare, with a couple of more commercial beers, ciders and long drinks and usually some craft beer option, besides hard liquor and mixers. Don’t expect anything crazy special, or there would have to be something the organization comes up with as a bit of a surprise.
Going through the line-up and checking out some bands, we’ve gotten really excited about this event! We hope to see you there, so get your tickets while you can!
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