Hellsinki Metal Festival 2025: A firework of legends
For the third time, the Helsinki Jäähalli (Ice Hall) was transformed into an indoor and outdoor Mecca for the metal community, with 35 bands attracting a total of 16,000 fans on two days. The Hellsinki Metal Festival also offered a side program different to the usual vendors: there was e.g. a Dark Art Gallery, wrestling, Children Of Bodom Sauna and the option of getting mental support on site by Mieli ry. In this aspect, HMF continues the legendary and colorful FME / HMM events.
Friday, August 8, 2025
The fact that Friday was almost sold out became evident in front of the stages, but also from the late afternoon onwards via various long queues everywhere. However, a certain amount of frustration was caused by my decision to wear something warmer following weather predictions. Thus I had already sweated enough on arrival, and then Kiuas lived up to their name (“sauna oven”): Those almost non-stop flares in the second half of the show could be felt even far into the audience rows. Naturally, the catchy classic “Warrior Soul” could not be missing from the band’s fireworks of hits.
Warmen have indeed inherited the legacy of Children of Bodom in many respects. Mastermind Janne Wirman has not only adopted a style more closely to melodic death metal, singer Petri Lindroos sounds so damn much like Alexi when they cover COB songs like “Hate Me”.
Kanonenfieber did indeed offer the full World War 1 experience – at least for the photo reporters, because you could really feel like you were in a combat trench. You constantly had to duck away from flame eruptions, faced barbed wire and sandbags; anonymous menacing figures released non-stop riff attacks, cheered on by a snarling German commando voice. I preferred to flee before the gas attacks (well, it was probably just a gun-like fog machine) were unleashed on the crowd…
The suitably gloomy weather situation that had emerged during the previous act had developed into the perfect backdrop for the doom metal pioneers Candlemass – thankfully, there was nothing more than a slight drizzle during their show. Nevertheless, the crowd in front of the stage was massive, for which the band expressed their gratitude again and again. Unfortunately, the classics were unpacked early on, but I still managed to enjoy most of “Mirror Mirror” outside the photo pit.
Forbidden unleashed their program of thrash classics for the Finnish fans and a bit of exercise in the mosh pit felt good to keep warm outside. After the rain, it had cooled down quite a bit and my clothes turned out to be the perfect choice. For me it remained a short visit, though, because I didn’t want to miss the act on stage 3.
Inside Decapitated faced a pretty full house, probably also because the new singer of the Polish death metal institution has a home advantage. Eemeli Bodde, former frontman of Mors Subita, also celebrated his (highly successful) Finnish debut with this show.
Another frontman got extra points from the audience because of his Finnish announcements – Matti Kärki from Dismember. It’s hard to say who had more fun at this gig, the Swedish death band or the audience – another highlight of the day. The long queues at the Dismember autograph session spoke volumes …
At this point, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my friends who supported me with various festival cell phone photos!
A little help was needed welcome when I had added many kilometers to my shoe soles at half-time – although I had deliberately skipped the openers of the day, Heavy Metal Perse and Rabbit Cult. But also the younger members of the photographer crowd were longing for a longer break already – which was difficult as long as sets were only 1h, then the distances between the three stages, which could not be covered quickly with so many metalheads in the area. Bottle necks quickly formed in the hall, but also outside at the stairs. So you always had to leave quite early…
However, I suddenly got a break, when Fear Factory only allowed a select few into the photo pit, which is usual for many US bands. Alternatively, I went to capture a few snapshots of Old Man’s Child.
Well, no close-up King Diamond photos because of some miscommunication on site. A stage element had probably taken longer to set, so the security didn’t allow anyone beyond the barrier and photographers received the message that NOBODY was allowed to take ANY photos. Unfortunately, when it became clear that this only applied to the first song and not to all three (which are usually the time frame for the photo pit), the memo didn’t reach everyone in time – including me.
Never mind. Nothing to complain about with the show itself, it was gigantic, bombastic, perfectly organized to perform all the classics (including Halloween, Spider Lilly, The Candle) live on stage with various theatrical effects. You might try searching the net for some video clips …
My mind was willing, my feet had already reached their limit, so I went home rather than attending the – as I heard, absolutely fantastic – Moonsorrow show, which didn’t start until after midnight.
Saturday, August 9, 2025
Day 2 was filled with so many legends that you experienced one highlight after the other. I missed only one band (Luna Kills) and caught the final part of the Lähiöbotox show which mixed metal, rap and stand-up comedy and got the crowd jumping.
The Canadians Angelmaker had already established a fan base in Finland, obviously. However, it felt a bit too much -core for me to stay longer. And unlike the previous day, the bands refrained from using pyros – which I appreciated in the Saturday sun and heat.
Grind legends Napalm Death felt like the first highlight of the day for me – one of the few acts that unapologetically express their (social) political opinions, as a “noise for little people”. Shouter Barney Greenway welcomed explicitly all genders and sexualities, exposed the travesty that many people only receive 1 dollar per day payments in this time and age when announcing „Smash a Single Digit“, that all religions utterly worthless when they limit women’s rights and tell you who you are allowed to love and that hatred destroys one’s soul.
Oh whyyy aren’t more bands like this … is all this toxic masculinity and Nazi crap a better fit for the Metal image?? NP also honoured the Finnish Punk / HC scene as their 1980s influence, before they rounded up their set with Dead Kennedys “Nazi Punks Fuck Off”. What a show, it’s a pleasure to watch every time!
Enslaved were the next highlight for me. According to Fronter/Mastermind Ivar Bjørnson, playing after Napalm Death is like ski jumping after Matti Nykänen. I assume that the Norwegians had no big trouble in convincing everybody, nailing take-off and landing in style. They offered kind of acoustic chill with their frosty Scandinavian winter impression, epic Black Metal and intense songs that give you goosebumps even in the summer heat.
French Landmvrks felt a bit too -core for my taste and it seemed the crowd was much smaller compared with the bands before – but maybe they all just went to fetch a drink. I did not stay long enough to test my theory but caught Japanese Sigh unfortunately only a bit via acoustics. As I heard later, it was a great performance and the appeal of the band was apparent during their signing session.
Outside the appeal of classic Hardrock and legendary acts continued – Michael Schenker (Feat. Robin McAuley) offered a real feelgood set with UFO classics like „Doctor Doctor“, „Rock Bottom“ or „Lights Out“. The audience celebrated every song, sang along – and I could not resist myself… For the ballad „Love to Love“, singer Erik Grönwall also took on acoustic guitar duties.
Hatebreed seemed to have some trouble on the way to the festival, but made it in time. A high energy, high octane gig including a lot of pyros inspired the enthusiastic audience. The goal of the band was to work up the crowd so that everybody feels a very sore throat and a hangover the next day. It’s quite likely that exactly this happened to many in this crowd…
Inside I managed to witness the last Cult of Luna songs and their hypnotic light show and to capture a few wrestling moves.
Another legendary act drawing a big crowd and at the same time set the mood for the headliner of the day: Marduk. Super-evil, antisocial and a bit intimidating, the heirs, the grand children of the band performing afterwards, the band defining and establishing „Black Metal“ as a genre …
And Venom started their show with this very song, followed by Bloodlust and Welcome to Hell – NOOOO it always sucks to experience favorites when busy in the photo pit! Luckily their most brilliant song, in my opinion, „Buried Alive“, came later in the set. And I understood immediately why other bands had not used much of pyros all day. This act needed every little bit of explosives, setting those off almost non-stop throughout the show! Front man / mastermind Cronos and his crew, Stuart “Rage” Dixon and Danny “Dante” Needham, offered a „something old, something borrowed“ program plus a brand new song “100 Miles to Hell“. The borrowed item turned out to be an Ozzy tribute medley (”Children Of The Grave” and ”Symptom Of The Universe”), which actually had been captured as a video clip, too …
Back then I was a huge fan of the original line-up, therefore I had mixed feelings about this upcoming gig, but the show was amazing and I know that the crowd shared my emotions, obviously. Maybe because those pioneers always offered something that seems to be missing from most of the Black Metal heirs – a good dose of tongue-in-cheek attitude. The classics fireworks (sic!) did not leave anything to wish for – well, unless counting „Manitou“ as a song I had hoped to hear live.
Unfortunately I was too tired again to join another after-midnight special with Blood Fire Death – A Tribute to Quorthon and the music of Bathory , which I heard had been amazing. My personal ultimate festival highlight had already happened before.
Again a wonderful festival experience, CU next year (7.–8.8.2026)!
By the way, Metalheady don’t need to wait that long, because there’s the Hellsinki Metal Cruise happening November 7–9, 2025 – more info HERE
