Spinefeast 2005 - 18./19.11.2005 Helsinki / Nosturi
FRIDAY, 18.11.2005
Doors open at 8 p.m.
Moonsorrow at 24:00
Rotten Sound at 23:00
Sólstafir (Iceland) at 22:15
Amoral at 21:30
Mygrain at 20:45
SATURDAY, 19.11.2005
doors open at 8 p.m.
Turmion Kätilöt at 24:00
Lullacry at 23:00
Hevein at 22:15
Enf Of You at 21:30
Soulrelic at 20:45
The indoor festival Spinefeast, which was brought into being by the record company Spinefarm, takes place on a - for a festival - untypical time of year, namely at the beginning of winter. Located in Nosturi, Helsinki, this event was a welcome occasion for us (Daniela, Nadine, Julia) to enjoy the live action of bands that you normally don’t get to see, as well as to drink one or two cider, which you unfortunately normally can’t buy outside of Finland, while being in good company..
FRIDAY, 18.11.2005
Arriving at Nosturi approximately 9 p.m. on Friday evening, we observed with some horror that the queue in front of the venue was pretty long, so our destiny was to freeze to ice-sculptures. Even the warmest sweaters, longest scarves and warmest socks couldn’t keep the wind, which was blowing at a windchill factor of –20°C, away. However – when we finally arrived at the bar and ordered our first Cider, the whole ordeal was forgotten.
To be honest, we didn’t get too much of MY GRAIN, the first band of the evening, since they were already playing when we arrived at the Nosturi. Plus we were concerned with bringing all our body parts to life again....
Anyway, the festival continued with AMORAL, a band, which has, despite its youth, an excellent reputation. And that’s no wonder since their shows are again and again a surety for fast, heavy and top quality metal. They didn’t make an exception that night and played songs from their first record, which was released last year, as well as from their brand-new longplayer “Decrowning”. The crowd visibly enjoyed the hard freshness of the guys and thanked with mosphit and applause.
Around 10.30 p.m. the time for SOLSTAFIR from Iceland had come. Since this island is well-known for its extraordinary music, I was very curious about this band. And when the singer entered the stage with black diver eyeglasses, which he didn’t take off during the whole gig, I was sure that I’m going to witness an exceptional concert.
Their music, which is really hard to describe, is something like a mixture between atmospheric Epic Metal, Rock and Indie. However you want to call this strange mix, it inspired me from the first moment on. The band played more new than old songs, and I recognized that they had more English songs on their current release than they used to have in the past. The charismatic musicians played an energetic and soulful gig and surely approved that Icelandic bands are something special.
While they were playing, the venue filled up, and so a totally crowded Nosturi awaited
the performance of ROTTEN SOUND, ready to get its ass kicked. And the audience of course didn’t get disappointed......the band totally got for broke and I’m still wondering how somebody can possess so much energy. Live wire Keiju Niinimaa made clear, what the word aggressiveness truly means, and the rest of the band didn’t pale in comparison to him. Since the four grindcorers are not only aggressive but also productive, they gave birth to a new album this year with the help of which they let the crowd’s ears bleed on the Spinefeast fest. Brutality at its best!
At about half past twelve p.m. the pathfinders of Pagan Metal, MOONSORROW, entered, covered in blood, as the headliners of the first evening the stage to tell - in the form of their epic folk-metal - the tales of their forefathers.
The only thing which slightly irritated me, was the fact that at the beginning and the end of the show, funny white confetti was blown into the crowd, probably to underline the atmosphere. But that should be seen only as a side note, because the concert itself was - like one is used from the band - sweeping, taking – simply ingenious.
Despite the fact that non-Finnish talking people might have difficulties with understanding the lyrics, everybody followed the concert under a charm, since the music alone fascinated almost the whole audience. After at least 1,5 hours of playing Moonsorrow left the stage at quarter to two and left a tired, but happy audience. The venue now emptied relatively fast and we also started our search for a bar to enjoy a good-night-drink.
SATURDAY, 19.11.05
Like yesterday we today entered the venue at about 9 p.m., right in time to witness the Gothic Rockers of SOULRELIC. One hasn’t heard much of the guys yet, since their first longplayer “Love is a lie we both believed” hasn’t been released until this year. Critics say that this band is nothing more than another HIM/NEGATIVE- stereotype, the gig was nonetheless pretty okay and I didn’t miss the needed innovation. The five guys definitely not only outwardly fulfil the cliché of a finish Gothic Rocker, but they’re talented nevertheless, and so it was by all means a pleasure to witness the concert.
Unfortunately we neither got to see nor to hear the following band END OF YOU, since we went away for an hour or so to have a good conversation with friends we haven’t seen for a long time. But I’m pretty sure that the fans of the five melancholic guy didn’t get disappointed and I hope that the band will be successful with their debut album which will be in stores soon.
HEVEIN are known as a band with an extraordinary sound and one often hears that they set a high musical standard, last but not least due to the well-known musician Max Lilja (former Apocalyptica). The concert they played that day convinced me of the correctness of these facts. The sextet recently released their debut album “Sound Over Matter” and imposingly demonstrated the result on stage. On the one hand the sound is very heavy on the guitars and contains the needed heaviness, on the other hand the strings (Cello and violin) complete the sound with their atmospheric melodies. Since the music can’t be attached to a special direction but in contrast knows no bounds and is Thrash Metal as well as Gothic Rock, the concert was very refreshing and sweeping.
The festival continued with a more Gothic-orientated style, namely the men and woman from LULLACRY. They just released their fourth album, which bears the fitting title “Vol.4”. Front-woman Tanja’s outfit alone made the gig worth seeing, which all in all didn’t come up with any specials. In my opinion the songs were a bit too cheesy and unspectacular, so that the gig more bored than enthused me.
Everybody whom we were telling that our personal highlight on the Spinefeast festival would be the performance of the „Finnish Rammstein“ TURMION KÄTILÖT, told us that they had recently shocked the country by integrating a blow job into their show on an age-free festival, wherefore they contained themselves on that evening, meaning singer Spellgoth didn’t get rid of all his clothes like he normally does. We, in any case, started for the moshpit to experience the show as intensive as possible. Already the first beats made the crowd go nuts, and at the moment the singers “Mc Raaka Pee” in his butcher-outfit and “Spellgoth” in his short nurse belly top, his obligatory varnished skirt and Corpse-paint came on stage, everybody went overboard. Of course the rest of the band didn’t pale in comparison to the singers, and so they could be described as a mixture between true Death Metal guys, Satanists, sickos, Clowns and aliens. The audience sang along at the top of their voices at every song and the moshpit was at least as big as it was when Rotten Sound were performing. The stamping techno beats, the rocking guitars and the haunting „dialogues“ of the two singers were intoxicating enough even without a show. But Turmion Kätilöt (“midwives of decay”) wouldn’t be Turmion Kätilöt if they didn’t come up with a breathtaking performance. And so also the Spinefeast Festival wasn’t an exception to the rule. Mc Raaka Pee’s job as an all-dominant ruler was to burn out cigarettes on Spellgoth’s body and tongue, to beat him with a studded belt as well as with a leather whip and to sprinkle the sparks of a welding apparatus on Spellgoth’s naked upper part of the body. He definitely was in the more comfortable position, but Spellgoth, whose body was covered all over with scars, didn’t seem to care about the pain, at least he tolerated all the little plays straight-faced.
It surely is clear to everybody that such a show is very exhausting, and so the perturbed midwives left the stage after already one hour of playing. They demonstrated nearly all songs of their hitherto only longplayer and left a totally breathless audience. The concert fulfilled all my expectations and so we recovered exhausted, but happy at the bar.
Slowly but surely the venue emptied, and since we were engrossed in chatting, we didn’t recognise at all how time went by. At about 3 a.m. we were friendly asked to go on talking somewhere else, and since our flights back home would already leave on Sunday morning, we went to sleep.
To sum it up, the Spinefeast festival affords an opportunity to especially witness unknown bands as well as to meet nice people and to enjoy the music while having a few beers. So if you plan to visit Helsinki end of next year, don’t miss the Spinefeast festival – it is definitely worth it !!!
- Julia / V.U. weitere Live-Reviews »»
