Kalmah / Shade Empire / Mors Subita @ Nosturi
28. April 2018, Helsinki, FIN
The legendary Finnish act Kalmah has always taken time for producing a new output, but this time it took five years to complete their 8th CD “Palo”. They celebrated with a 4-gig mini-tour that was wrapped up in Helsinki, and it was pretty clear that this means a full house…
Simply because of high class warm up Mors Subita – and obviously many did not want to miss those guys from Oulu, arrived in time and immediately began their mission “buy all the merch they have” … Well, not such a surprise because the brand new album Into The Pitch Black received brilliant reviews – including ours. Naturally those guys made – once again – a good impression on a live stage. The new material works even better than the older one thanks to all this variety where singer Eemeli can shine. And naturally the first mosh pits popped up…
Setlist: As Humanity Weeps, Dead Sun, Defeat, Alas, Vultures, The Sermon, Degenerate, I God, Into the Pitch Black
Kuopio’s Shade Empire are quite well-known too, and I have seen those guys live several times. Yet WOW – that show kicked ass big time. This Extreme Metal crossover of several styles, dominated by Symphonic Black Metal, simply left a brilliant impression – which was confirmed by other metalheads later. My problem, I cannot put my finger on it what was different that night – the Nosturi sound quality? The set list as they have a back catalogue of great songs? The new front man Henry Hämäläinen? The overall self-confident performance?
Nevermind, the band simply did everything right on this evening, which is a good start into their upcoming central EU tour, taking off May 3 in Viper Room Vienna – simply go and check them out yourselves! (INFO HERE).
Setlist: Lecter, Wanderer, Chemical God, Traveller of Unlight, Anti-Life Saviour, Dawnless Days, Serpent-Angel, Ruins, Thy Scent
After the good work of those two bands Kalmah faced a nicely warmed up crowd when entering the stage – and then the party really got into high gear … This band can refer to almost 30 years of history but no sign of retirement issues – the swamp Metal of those slightly more mature guys kicks ass, the new songs are simply great – a mix of tough riffs, sick guitar soli, evil growling but still catchy choruses to shout along, groove – and lots of humour. There’s a bit of stand-up comedy in front man Pekka’s announcements, and then the antics of drummer Janne .. well, I can simply encourage everybody not to miss those guys, either via their new CD or live on stage!
PS: Nope, I don’t think their song The Stalker is about us…
