Barren Earth, Oceanhoarse

30.3.2018 Kuudes Linja, Helsinki, FIN

Easter weekend and a lot of other stuff going on in the city – would there be enough audience so early in the evening for this (unofficial) Barren Earth CD presentation, and would anybody care for the support act?

Well, the queue at the entrance even before the doors opened answered both questions. The opening act Oceanhoarse filled the club and the audience did not require much invitation to cheer on – although it seems the first song did not quite work out as it should. The reason, this new Helsinki based band unites a bunch of Metal veterans, namely Tommy Tuovinen, Ben Varon, Jyri Helko & Oskari Niemi. Those guys have learned during the days with their former bands (e.g. Amoral, MyGrain) how to produce great, slightly Thrash-y Metal and how to get audience go bonkers. And I really appreciated this extra amount of light (effects) they had brought along, just compare the meagre results of the last gig at Kuudes Linja Gig feat. Abhorrence …

More photos HERE or at Flickr!

Finally their mascot got on stage, too – the love child of Davy Jones & Cthulhu? Unfortunately I could not capture better pics with my cell so quickly … HERE you can find out more about Oceanhoarse and the sound of this band.

Although the club had been pretty full right from the start, it should fill even more before the headliner finally entered the stage, after some time of re-setting the stage.  Barren Earth celebrated the release of their latest CD  A Complex of Cages on this very day, from which the first song of the set was taken. Still the audience received a nice mixture of old hit songs as the set was rather focusing on previous releases, cheerfully welcomed by an enthusiastic crowd.

Something I noticed positively on this evening was the surprisingly good sound – which you might not expect in such a small club. The vocals of  Jón Aldará, both growls or clean, or the choir parts sounded really well, kudos to the tech crew! No signs of technical problems in their set, but at some point Sami changed guitars in the middle of a song (I assume because of broken strings – I was too far away to say for certain). Well, in any case Barren Earth is one of those bands where high quality is guaranteed – which was the case here as well. Both thumbs up! And a positive aspect of a concert evening that starts early – there is still plenty of time to continue partying, no need to hurry tio bus/tram home!