The dominant color is black, but the mood is bright … Heavy metal heats Helsinki Ice Hall in hot August …Two days; hard music to attending ears: King Diamond, Kiuas, Fear Factory, Decapitated, Napalm Death, Hatebreed, Venom, Luna Kills, Marduk, Me and That Man … Musical moments invited to linger, but time is the enemy, or friend, depends who you ask …
A woman walzes in the moshpit.
A barechested man, who seems to have lived in the gym, observes, but as it appears, he’s on moshpit retirement.
The abundance of women in the pit at the Hellsinki Metal Festival in early August is impressive. Some jump around hand-in-hand, while others skip lightly like little mermaids, as men run by hairy, hair swinging. The air is alive with the spirit of that famous summer made famous by Bryan Adams. But the music is nothing like that song, and it has nothing to do with the Kama Sutra (unless, maybe later).
“Shock!” screams Milo Silvestro, the vocalist of American industrial metal group Fear Factory, from one of the outdoor stages. “Shock” from the 1998 album Obsolete goes on:
“I will be the power surge / Shock to the system / Electrified amplified / Shock to the system.”
Fear Factory is an hour into their set. “Edgecrusher,” with its legendary opening, “Due to the graphic nature of this program, listener discretion is advised” evokes shy smiles on faces of metallers who’ve been around the sun a few times. Lights illuminate tattoeed arms and necks, scars and painted faces.
Helsinki Ice Hall was built to serve the ice hockey world championships in 1965 but over the years the space has been visited by legendary acts ranging from The Who to Kiss, from James Brown to Guns N’ Roses.
The venue, which holds a capacity of 8,200, offers a simple setting for concerts of the day: enter through the doors, have food and beer on the first floor, then move to the tiered seating or ground level where the stage rises.
But the way Hellsinki Metal Festival is organized borders on pure genius.
You enter inside the ice hall, and vendors selling hats, jewels and discs welcome the headbanger into the venue. Take a left or right … both ways lead to your desired destination, as the pathway circles the building.
Along the way you can buy a leather cap or a cowboy hat or pickup that long-desired vinyl of your favourite band—and while you are at it—why not get a brew, piercing and a tattoo before the gig.
The festival features three stages: one on the ice rink floor and two on the backyard of the building. Food and drinks are served across the area.
Luna Kills, the alt-metal group from Kuopio, North Savo, opens Saturday in bright afternoon sunshine. “Hallucinate” (“hallucinate”) from their debut album Deathmatch, released in the spring, feels like forcing hot black coffee down your throat, but the crowd seems to have trouble waking up, their feet heavy and necks still sore from yesterday’s moshing.
“Helsinki!” screams the vocalist Lotta Ruutiainen after finishing another crunchy banger with chugging guitar lines, “We Were Born To Die.”
“Where’s the fucking pit?”
“Slay Ur Enemies” follows. It carries more energy than a lightning bolt in a thermos.
Luna Kills introduces “Bullet” to the sleepy crowd. It’s a song where the vocalist’s vibrato shines (Ruutiainen used to study jazz singers like Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald).
The vocalist commands the stiff-legged crowd to squat.
“Let’s go GANG jump!”
The crowd catapults into the sky with so-far unseen vigor. They are like birds flapping their wings without taking flight.
The smell of smoke and gasoline lingers in the air at the front of the stage as U.S. metalcore band Hatebreed is two songs into their set on Saturday evening, and continous flame bursts on the stage have evoked a sense of danger.
Vocalist James Jasta screams:
“Now I make the demons obey / Make them all obey, obey.”
Masses fill the lot for Hatbebreed. The crowd includes people from most age groups. Straight faces; shallow breaths. Sinister tunes and deep listening.
Now, two gigantic inflated balls rain on the audience, who try to grab them in their hands.
The balls, however, are too heavy, sweaty and slippery. The sea of people start a volleyball game of sort. “Hatebreed BALL OF DEATH,” balls as the emblazoned letters say, are passed around with such finesse that suggests most are likely sober or close to it. More proof that heavy metal festivals in Finland attract people with more music than beer on their mind.
Hatebreed digs into one of their classics from nearly two decades ago,“Destroy Everything,” which I last heard the group perform in pouring rain and flying mud in Tuska eight years ago. Rain or shine, the tune grabs you by the hair and neck. It’s heavy and impressive.
A man roams around the pit with a plastic sword. He carries it high and proudly like a knight.
The tiered seats in the darkness of the ice hall make you forget time and place as Polish singer Adam Darski, or Nergal, of his side-project Me and That Man digs into folk-bluesy tunes like “My Church Is Black.”
At large, Nergal is known as the frontman of black-metal group Behemoth, a group that dropped the veil of their satanic fascination over ten years ago with their tenth outing The Satanist.
But Me and That Man and Behemoth are far apart from their respective vibe. It’s Lucifer meets B.B. King.
Highlights included “Run With the Devil,” “Surrender,” “Losing My Blues” and “Paranoid.”
Indeed. This time around there was no need for the ancient Finnish last-song request of the late Ozzy Osborne and Black Sabbath.
Tuu-tuu-tuu-tilu-tilu-tilu-tilu … the earworm of a riff echoed in the night, and the lyrics went, “And so as you hear these words / Telling you now of my state / I tell you to enjoy life / I wish I could but it’s too late.”
Here’s where Ozzy and Nergal got it wrong. As the curtain fell for yours truly after amazing two days of heavy metal and rock’n’roll among 16,000 metalheads … the life was as good as it gets.
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