Here we are again for the second half of this Jalometalli 2013, and people start gathering at the gate, ready for some thrash metal Finnish-style with National Napalm Syndicate. The weather is also better than yesterday, and honestly much warmer than last year, maybe too warm for being this close to Lapland. The band is now around from 27 years, although it features only two of the original members. Under the sun, and with most people enjoying yet another drink (the first of the day inside the festival area), their show is very convincing, personally I think better than the performance they had in Steelfest in May. Also a guest appearance around the end of the gig lights up more the atmosphere, at I almost forget that in a moment Archgoat is starting indoor.
I was disappointed when the appearance at Hammer (Open Air, near Turku) was cancelled, which is why I wouldn’t have missed for anything else Archgoat’s gig here at Jalometalli. It might even be one of the last shows of the trio, and many fans are coming from far away just to see them, even from Australia. I have seen them only a few times, so I cannot compare much, but I really enjoyed this show, it was solid and straightforward, no unneeded extra, just good old black metal! Surely another positive note in this festival.
One of the most pleasant surprises of this weekend was certainly Holy Moses. Sabina Classen was so energetic and charismatic that it was difficult to keep your eyes off the stage, jumping all over the place while people started a small pit in the front. I have never seen Holy Moses before, and they exceeded by far my expectations with a really entertaining gig. This includes the Andreas "Gerre" from Tankard joining them on stage and fooling around with the blonde singer, and the fans invited on stage for the cover of "Too Drunk To Fuck". Definitely a band I’ll look forward to see again.
Deathchain has become a constant in my summer, being the third time within five weeks that I see them perform. In my opinion the smaller atmosphere of Hammer Open Air fit to the band better, but even in the darkness of Club Teatria the guys behave well, keeping their fans satisfied. For a while I even forget that the band wasn’t supposed to play at this festival, but they do a good job filling in for D.R.I.
The moment I was probably awaiting the most today has finally arrived: I can get to see Tankard again after already three years since the last time.
It’s always a great party when Gerre and the guys play live, too bad the time flew away so quickly that it didn’t even seem like one hour had passed. From "Zombie Attack" to "The Morning After" and "Die With A Beer In Your Hand", the band places wisely some of their classics in between the newer material, playing only a couple of songs from the new record. Gerre seems in good shape, and so are Andy, Frank and Olaf, always having a great time on stage (which is part of their secret for being so great). A lucky young girl has the opportunity to share some beer on stage and sing with the guys during "A Girl Called Cerveza", while "(Empty) Tankard" sees Sabina returning the favor and join the guys on stage, together with the others from Holy Moses (and probably also some random people). A suitable conclusion for an hour of music in good spirit, with booze and lots of fun!
Now we return into darkness (also literally), as the Swedish Naglfar is ready for their gig on the indoor stage. The first thing that strikes me is the Cthulhu-like beard of the drummer, but the vocalist immediately steals the attention thanks to his poses, creepily glaring at the audience with his eyes wide open.
The Swedes just came here from Getaway Rock, and even if their show doesn’t really stands out, it is still enjoyable enough to pass the time while waiting for Blasphemy. Most of the set is taken from "Téras" and "Harvest", with "The Darkest Road", "Harvest" and "A Swarm Of Plagues" from "Pariah" being among the highlights, before the show ends with "The Brimstone Gate".
At that moment I start waiting for Blasphemy to make their appearance on stage, and it will be a while, since the band is scheduled to play for one hour and a half, but there is a little problem here… they don’t have enough material for that much time!
Anyway, half hour later, "War Command" opens the ritual of the Canadian band, which I saw in the first Black Flames of Blasphemy festival, already three years ago. As the fans go crazy in the front rows, the band goes pretty much through their complete discography, being made of songs ~2-mins-long each. Brutal, violent and intense!
On a side-note, the guys were wearing Watain’s gear when performing tonight.
And lastly we come to the last band of this year, again from Canada, ladies and gentlemen: Voivod!
The band comes back to Finland after a few months from their successful tour promoting the new "Target Earth", a damn good record, I’d say. Snake is always entertaining in his live performance, and all the band seems to have found new fuel to go on, which is good for the old-time fans. Many are the songs from the new record (among which even "Corps Étranger" in French) and they actually mix quite well with the oldies like the super-classics "Nothingface" and "Forgotten In Space". I have to hand it to the guys for making a nice ending of this Jalometalli, as the curtain closes after the final "Voivod". Still I confess last year’s awesomeness when The Devil’s Blood was playing "Voodoo Dust" for about half hour will be probably left unmatched, but I liked Voivod’s concert nonetheless.
With Voivod also Jalometalli 2013 comes to an end, in these two days there has been many interesting bands from all the corners of the world, such as Blasphemy and 3 Inches Of Blood from Canada, Hobbs’ Angel of Death from Australia… and a lot of good old thrash metal as well, with Slayer reigning on the first day of the event. I think in general people really appreciate the efforts done to bring these bands up here in northern Finland, and the festival went very smoothly once again.
Too bad next year there will be no Club Teatria anymore… let’s see where will be the new Jalometalli be arranged. What’s for sure is that there will be again some very interesting acts, the kind that makes it worth to drag your ass up here in Oulu!
See all the photos from Saturday here:
Jalometalli 2013 - Day 2 (10.08.2013)
All photos from the festival and audience:
Jalometalli 2013
Report a cura di Marco Manzi
Siamo alla ricerca di un nuovo addetto per la sezione DEMO, gli interessati possono contattare lo staff di Holy Metal, nel frattempo la sezione demo rimane temporaneamente chiusa.