Three days of metallic delight in the heart of Finland. Should be a mosh-tastic
time! Our frozen poser of funky rocking went on the site to investigate and
report.
Thursday 7.6.
The festivities were kicked off by one of the heartiest folk metal-collectives
in Finland, Korpiklaani, who mixed up their metal and humppa
in skilled ways that were impossible to resist. A merry jig was required material
when listening to their ultimate form of dance music. The players clearly enjoyed
themselves on stage as the summer sun scorched the field with plentiful light.
The guitars blended in well with the accordion and electric violin, and no one
from the better side of puritans was left cold. The couple of slices that they
played off the new Tervaskanto-album were very convincing in their
grandiose celebratory feeling. Add to this the fact that the band has a mighty
hit like Happy Little Boozer to throw in as the final song, and I can
only urge anyone to go and see Korpiklaani live.
Pain Confessor was in tight and fine form on the heels of
their new record, Purgatory Of The Second Sun. My countrymen kept it
tight, brutal and heavy, although lightened it up appropriately in the between-song-banter.
The new material was great live and favourites from their debut album like Fiery
Thorns and Lake Of Regret sealed the moshing deal.
The cream of the seriously rising crop of Finnish metal is well represented
by Stam1na. Technical, brutal yet hook-filled material combined
with an insanely energetic and mobile live show make for a deserved success.
The band’s “Lehmipojat Lemiltä”-backdrop sheet (Cowboys
From Lemi) with pictures above the text of the four band members twisting horghable
faces was a marvellous tribute to arguably the greatest band ever to come out of
Texas. Guitarist/vocalist Hyrde Hyyrynen is seriously starting to grow on a
Lemmy/Hetfield-type handlebar’tache. What is the meaning of this?
Their set itself was full of burning riffage, bouncing and twisting with dangerously
many close-call impacts between band members. The crowd that chanted the bands
name before the show went totally bananas. Paha Arkkitehti
(Evil Architect) ripped Viisi Laukausta Päähän
(Five Shots To The Head) with force and all the hits were heard as well. Tastes
of the future were given in the form of a new song, Sokea Hullu (Blind
Madman), a riveting, fast headbanger. If triviabuffs have linked Stam1na
earlier to Strapping Young Lad, then this new song did nothing
to discourage those link-ups. The song with its screaming, frantic pacing, and
manic blast beats brought very strong vibes of Canada’s most unforgiving
band. If we get a whole record of material like this song, I smell a strong
AOTY-candidate for 2008. Due to the fact that Stam1na sings
in Finnish, it isn’t likely they’ll be touring very much outside
of Finland soon, but if you get the chance, absotively make it a priority to
witness them live.
I missed Megadeth at this very same festival two years ago
because I was serving my national duty in the armed forces. I finally got a
chance to repair this bummer, and it was definitely a good time for it. Dave
Mustaine had said in an interview earlier in the day that today’s show
would put their performance two years back in shame and I would have to seriously
believe that.
The group of Mustaine, James Lomenzo and the Drover brothers has seriously gelled
on tour. The riffs were furiously crisp and even the ridiculously challenging
thrash anthems with their solo battles, like Hangar 18 and Tornado
Of Souls, were plowed through with precision and strength.
Dave’s voice has worn off the sharpest edges of rage, but the sarcastic
assholishness of his singing is still powerfully intact as the man spews forth
his propaganda on war and politics. Add to all this that ‘Deth
is touring in support of their strongest album in a decade, maybe even 15 years,
and you had a hell of a show. Songs were evenly picked from all points of the
band’s history. OK, I think Risk and The World Needs A Hero
were omitted, but I didn’t really mind.
From the new tracks, especially Gears Of War and Washington Is
Next meld in beautifully with the classics. As a history-enthusiast that
despises the mere idea of Reaganomics, I would say my favourite part in the
show was during Peace Sells, when the band made quick stops in the
song so the audience alone could shout out: ”If there’s a new
way/I’ll be the first in line/But it better work this time!”
Further affirmation to me that Peace Sells is one of the finest metal
songs in history, both musically and lyrically. Sometimes I feel like they could
put a price on peace.
Friday 8.6.
Friday was a bit slower to start up. I missed the sets of Entwine and
Thunderstone, because the delicious tacoplatter of Pancho Villa
(an excellent texmex-restaurant in Tampere, highly recommendable for tourists)
contained more interest to me.
Kotipelto – in broader terms Strato -front man Timo
Kotipelto along with a band of some of the most killer virtuosos our country
can offer, including bassmaster Lauri Porra and keyboard-Bodomite Janne Wirman
– gave a 101-type lesson in quality basic metal with rich melodies and
a fist-pumping feeling all around. Timo’s voice was in top form and the
light rain that began to drip at the end of their set didn’t slow the
band or the enthusiastic audience one bit. The new album, Serenity, was the
biggest building block of the setlist, with the fast rocker Once Upon A
Time really getting my blood flowing strong. Must shamelessly again mention
Mr. Porra, who is an absolute beast on bass!
Like I mentioned, at this point there was light rain, which very soon turned
into a torrential downpour. What caused this moment of moisture during the otherwise
very hot and sunny weekend? I make a bold guess that the next artist, Dimmu
Borgir, had something supernatural to do with it. The rain was quite
possibly the result for Jesus crying. Whether it was because of the band’s
ideology or music, no one can tell.
Despite the rain, or maybe because of the atmospherical element given by it,
Dimmu was in quite entertaining form, much more so than at
Tuska ´05, where I was a bit bored on their set. The sky was dark and
Galder maintained his hilarious reputation for making more varied yet amusing
facial expressions than Jim Carrey does in his craziest comedies. Mustis grimaced
in a stoic trvv-manner behind the keys and gave the mightiest songs like The
Serpentine Offering and the everloving Mourning Palace a fitting
background. It was of course also a treat to witness Hellhammer live. He made
his raging bass drum-flurries and tasty fills seem so easy on the outside. You
also have to love a band that keeps alive the horghable tradition of spiked
hockey goalie-shin guards.
I mainly checked on Poisonblack to catch some nifty photos
for the festival collection. The band did as little for me on stage as they
do on record. The model case of mediocrity, both in style of music and performance.
The next act gave me at least a hope of more entertainment-value in their set.
Type O Negative hit the stage with minor problems on Peter
Steele’s end of the game as his bass was malfunctioning and he had to
change it. After slight hiccups the band began to gel nicely and Profit
Of Doom from the new record was blasted with fierce grandeur. Many people
ragged on Steele’s shoddy playing style and happy-go-lucky phrasing while
singing, but that’s how I’ve always seen him perform - on DVDs as
well. The band showed great spirit in pulling a couple of hardcore fans equipped
with giant Type O-flags on the stage to wave their stuff during
the entire show.
At the end of the day, Black #1 pulled out the juices left in the vocal
crowds.
Saturday 9.6.
Saturday was also delayed because of hunger-related issues, and unfortunately
this caused me to miss Leverage’s gig. As I arrived,
the gig of the most recent winner of the Finnish edition of the Idol-format,
Ari Koivunen & band, had just started. Those of you frequenting Blabbermouth
have probably seen some videos of the guy performing in the TV-show. Yes, he
did indeed win by singing mostly melodic metal, like Iron Maiden
and Sonata Arctica, with an occasional Billy Joel thrown in.
He definitely seems to need more actual shows under his belt, because he seemed
very tense. His singing was fine and the band played tightly, although their
moods seemed to vary. The lead guitarist smiled broadly while soloing madly,
whereas the bass player was either tightly concentrating on every note or bored
out of his skull. My guess is he was playing very simple lines, seriously under
his skills.
Sonata Arctica conquered the main stage on the rise of their
new, very peculiar Unia-album. I personally like the quirky album more
than any of their other works after Silence. Of course we heard and
moshed heartily to Black Sheep and Full Moon, but new tunes
like For The Sake Of Revenge and It Won’t Fade worked
well too, despite their shady nature. Tony Kakko’s pronunciation still
makes me horgh at regular intervals, but his notes were dead on. Elias Viljanen,
who is filling in on guitar for the temporarily absent Jani Liimatainen, sweep
picked like crazy and handled the string duties very well.
On the second stage, the mood was brought very down, intentionally so, as Swallow
The Sun took the moment to spread their very infectious brand of doom
metal to the masses. I’ll be honest, I’m not a big fan of doom,
but STS spices it up with just enough speed to keep the whole
thing from turning terribly boring and repetitive.
A very different yet just as exhilarating performance was given by the mighty
melodic death squadron known as Dark Tranquillity. The new
songs from Fiction fit right into the mix and older tracks like Punish
My Heaven absolutely slayed and maimed. But all this was eclipsed by the
greatness of Black Sabbath.
Feel free to call it Heaven & Hell for promotional purposes
if you wish. To me, the entity formed by Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, Geezer
Butler and Vinny Appice is just as much Black Sabbath as the
original quartet with Osbourne and Ward. Names didn’t affect the fact
that once Iommi hit the first power chord on his SG, I was floored – rammed
next to the security wall in front of the photo pit from sheer power of volume
and aura. The man clearly enjoyed the show, as he was all smiles for most of
the crushingly heavy set. I don’t care for statistics on how many years
Dio has on his meter, he rocked! His voice was in magnificent form and his presence
was matched by his energetic prowling and horn-pointing around the big stage.
When the setlist was comprised of classics from Mob Rules to Sign
Of The Southern Cross and Neon Knights, the crowd was rabidly
mesmerized. When most of the riffs to Heaven And Hell were sung along
perfectly by the crowd as they were being played, a defining peak was met that
closed the festival with brilliant fashion.
Overall, as the three-day jaunt ended on a definite high note, the Sauna
Open Air Metal Festival ´07 was a very enjoyable experience. The Eteläpuisto
(shortly translated to South Park, harhar) is a very good place to hold a festival
of this size, which takes about a maximum of 10.000 visitors per day. Located
right in the centre of Tampere, it is very easy to get to and many hotels are
located within a walking distance. The grounds housed a fair amount of merchandise
booths and an adequate selection of different types of food stands. I would
have liked a few more baja toilets to prevent the lines that were formed at
peak hours, and an area with thousands of metalheads could have definitely used more then one spot that had faucets for drinkable water, but otherwise the organisation worked beautifully. The level
of performers has risen each year since the festival’s first year in 2004
and it is definitely beginning to match the Tuska Open Air Metal Festival
by these standards. Held annually around the 8th of June in Tampere,
depending on the specific dates, I recommend the festival to all comers inside
and outside of Finland, especially those of the metal persuasion.