2020 is a crazy year and sad year at the same time for those people who live for live shows and metal festivals. At the moment of writing this, it seems like Finland will be one of the lucky countries to still be able to do some events during this pandemic. After the main event Steelfest got cancelled in May, the first and upmost reason for you to attend SteelChaos 2020 if possible is of course to support the group of dedicated black metal fans behind these events. If you can’t attend and still want to support these amazing guys, go check out the merch corner right here: https://www.steelfest.fi/merchandise

But if supporting a great organization that brings stellar underground music to the stages in Finland year after year without compromises isn’t enough for you, just look at the line-up that gathered… Since the rather unpredictable situation, they opted to go for a completely Finnish line-up. Baptized this year’s SteelChaos as “Finnish Black Metal Storm”, they inadvertently managed to create one of the most impressive line-ups ever.

If you’ve read The Devil’s Cradle (read our review about the book here) or are any bit knowledgeable about the Finnish black metal scene, you know that with heavy hitters like the following, you’ll get quite the schooling in the past, present and future of Finnish black metal:

1. The originators

The organization managed to gather quite the collection of legendary mainstays of the Finnish black metal scene. Going from some of the early originators like the brutal black/death war metal veterans of Archgoat, the unforgiving rebels of Impaled Nazarene and the doom/black misfits of Barathrum, to some of those responsible in taking it further and cause a black metal explosion within the country with the persistent underdog Azazel, devil worshipers and wolves Horna, Hyvinkää locals Azaghal, black thrashers Urn and the ever original and extreme True Black Dawn.

2. The new cult

But besides the old and legendary bands that are the foundations of Finnish black metal, you can catch a whole slab of those who have links with its illustrious history and bring forth filth and obscurity that keeps a form of “Trve Kvlt”, underground rawness and dangerous mystery alive. You can catch the mastermind behind Satanic Warmaster with his black metal/dark ambient project The True Werwolf (read our review of the most recent album here), solo project Sargeist from Horna‘s main force Shatraug, the epic symphonic black metal project Vargrav from local Hyvinkää legend V-Khaoz and with Werwolf on vocals (that was supposed to never perform live again, but is making an exception for SteelChaos 2020, read album reviews here and here), the resurfaced 90’s cult outfit Lord Of Pagathorn, industrial black metallers Thyrane and the mysterious one man project Warmoon Lord.

3. The future

And as if that’s not enough yet, about a third of the line-up is filled up with bands that show that the Finnish black metal scene still is very much alive and will continue to have a prominent spot in the world of the underground and obscure. You can feast on the rekindled black flames of raw black metal with outfits such as Morgal and Black Beast, venture into the cold cosmic atmospheres of Antimateria, the desolate bleakness that is White Death, misanthropic Sacrilegious Impalement, the reformed Satanic cult of Korgonthurus (read our review of their latest album here), the depressive and atmospheric Hyvinkää locals of Kalmankantaja and the occult Bythos, formed by members of prominent bands like Horna, Behexen and Ajattara, quite recently surprising everyone with a showcase in modern Finnish black metal on their debut release ‘The Womb of Zero’ (read our album review here).

As you can see for yourself, this is an event that simply is a must for any adept in the underground metal scene and will take place on October 30th and 31st on the hallowed grounds where Steelfest takes place every year in Hyvinkää. Sadly, due to many restrictions most people from outside of Finland won’t be able to attend to experience this impressive line-up live. But just recently the organization has been teasing with ‘Steel TV‘, which makes us wonder (and hope for all of you who are stuck at home in their country) if there will be some live stream possibilities to still be able to experience the uniqueness of the Finnish black metal scene to some regard…

Nevertheless, the wolves will gather yet again and a black storm will wash over Hyvinkää in just a couple of weeks, unrelenting and unforgiving and we hope you can take part of this somehow. Hail.

Steelfest 2021 has already an extensive line-up confirmed, hopefully everything will have turned to as normal as possible so it can take place, check more out here: