Unearth, Nicole, I Revolt in Helsinki

9.8.2019, On The Rocks, Helsinki, Finland

Are all people at Rammstein in Tampere? might have been the question for all those who arrived punctually, as the club still looked a bit empty at that point. For all those who could not get a ticket for both sold-out events, the DJ played “Sonne” … The headliner’s soundcheck had just ended by then – and it took another 30 min until I Revolt from Kerava entered the stage. And had to face the nightmare of any band – dramatic intro and then you are supposed to start, but one guitar remained silent. Luckily it took only a few minutes to get the amp problem solved and we received a good dose of Nu-Metal dozed sound. And a preview of the rest of the evening, although it was front man Ville ruling the mosh pit …

A bit of a different situation with Nicole. Do net get fooled by the harmless sounding band name – you’ll get brutal technical Death / Post Metal Sound. And there are two people in the line-up we know from Kilt. (Teemu Ruokonen and Olli Ketola). And Nicole had warmed up for Meshuggah some years ago – for a reason, sound-wise a perfect fit…. anyway, the club was pretty full at this point and people eager to let their hair down.

The delay continued with equipment change & set-up hazzle which resulted in a full 1h delay for Unearth from USA. Luckily in this case there were no ugly consequences, no band had to cut their set list short. And fans had been patient and now even more eager to party in a pretty full club. They had actually been patient for 10 years as this was the last time this band had visited Finland. This should have been a warning for me, not even to attempt being at front stage…. Well, as soon as Trevor Phipps and his guys kicked off their show, people around me totally freaked out, and I feared for my camera and for my life. When the huge mosh pit right behind me finally took a break, I escaped to safety, hence most of my photos were taken from a safe distance… relatively safe distance, as people started moshing in the bar area too. And I can understand why, this mix of Thrash, Death and Melodic Metal is quite infectious. Unearth promised not to keep people waiting 19 years for the next time – and well, I’ll show up then in full knight armory and/or a troop of body guards for photo-pit battle …

Here the interactive gallery or click on an image and enjoy via Flickr!