Who is coming to the Helskinki Gig?

[Olethros]

Over the next few days I will be making my way to Finland to see Katatonia, as I am from Australia am trying to see as much great music as possible whilst I am in Europe this summer. Also I am really looking forward to support act Rapture, their two albums have really impressed me.

Is anyone else on here going to this gig?

 

[ether]

I whish I could but I have to work...not so many holidays this summer...maybe I'll manage it for Norway or for one of those festivals in August, I really would like to see them again, it's never enough

Noticed you were also in Milan, nice to see that there are people who can travel so much and so long and at the same time enjoy good music!

 

[Shattered sight]

Over the next few days I will be making my way to Finland to see Katatonia, as I am from Australia am trying to see as much great music as possible whilst I am in Europe this summer.

I wonder if you have noticed, that 2 days after the Helsinki gig Katatonia will play at Nummirock. Nummirock is a metal festival located approximately 300 kilometers north from Helsinki. It lasts for 2 days (25th-26th of June).

Main act is Morbid Angel. All the other bands are Finnish and you've probably never heard about them (well, possibly Stratovarius rings a bell). But they're metal anyway - except "Klamydia", which is punk-rock .

 

[Olethros]

I wonder if you have noticed, that 2 days after the Helsinki gig Katatonia will play at Nummirock. Nummirock is a metal festival located approximately 300 kilometers north from Helsinki. It lasts for 2 days (25th-26th of June).

Main act is Morbid Angel. All the other bands are Finnish and you've probably never heard about them (well, possibly Stratovarius rings a bell). But they're metal anyway - except "Klamydia", which is punk-rock .

Yes I noticed this, and was thinking of going, but in between metal gigs I'm trying to fit in some tourism, and wanted to experience the midsummer festivities that will be happening over the same weekend.

However whilst getting drunk with some finnish guys a few days back (who were amazed I could name so many Finnish bands they had never heard of!) they suggested that most younger people go to big music festivals to enjoy Midsummer. Can anyone here give me pointers on what to do over that weekend? I was planning on getting out of Helsinki and camping somewhere and doing a fair bit of Hiking.

My metal tastes lie towards the more experimental and atmospheric (a lot of studio only artists, Blut Aus Nord, Solefald etc) and I know I don't like stratovarius, what are the other bands like stylistically??

I would realy like to see Morbid Angel, but the criteria I am aiming for is:

1) the band will likely never come to Australia
2) try and see them indoors, where the sound is reasonable
3) ensure I get a good set, not a 40 minute bill at a festival

Morbid Angel will probably visit Oz at some point, however I am finding it more difficult to see bands outside of festivals, as bands playing both a festival and a solo gig in a nearby large city doesn't seem as common as it is back home.

 

[Shattered sight]

However whilst getting drunk with some finnish guys a few days back (who were amazed I could name so many Finnish bands they had never heard of!) they suggested that most younger people go to big music festivals to enjoy Midsummer. Can anyone here give me pointers on what to do over that weekend? I was planning on getting out of Helsinki and camping somewhere and doing a fair bit of Hiking.

To simplify a bit, younger people go to festivals and older to their summer cottages. And some go just camping somewhere, so prepare for camping areas to be quite full on that weekend. Be it camping, festivals or whatsoever, at Midsummer most people leave cities and go to countryside. Practically this Midsummer party ("Juhannus" in Finnish) is a national drinking party. So there's drunkards everywhere.

Information about hiking you can find here (site maintained by Ministry of Forestry). I don't know how much your "fair bit of hiking" is, but if you have time enough and want to see the most beautiful part of the country, you should go to Lapland (northern part of Finland). At this time of year sun doesn't set there at all and the nature is much wilder than in south. Although it would be 1000 km / 1 direction from Helsinki...

I know I don't like stratovarius, what are the other bands like stylistically??

Charon is virtually a clone of Sentenced. Lordi is musically some kind of WASP-ish retro-band but it's mostly about the show, as you can see if you visit their web page - they have song titles like "Would You Love a Monsterman" etc. It's pretty popular although personally I hate it. Rotten Sound is grindgore. Everyone who likes grind seems to worship them (I'm not one of those). Kotiteollisuus, Timo Rautiainen & trio Niskalaukaus and Viikate are all quite low-paced, simple riff -based Finnish-sung metal. TR & trio Niskalaukaus is extremely good live act imo, don't care that much about the others. Ensiferum is some kind folk metal I've been told, haven't heard it myself. Machine Men is NWOBHM, their vocalist sounds more Bruce Dickinson than mr. Dickinson himself. Thunderstone is in the same vein as Stratovarius. Diablo is often described to be a mixture of Machine Head and later Death. Really good and skilful band. Mokoma is arguably best Finnish thrash band at the moment. Their lyrics are in Finnish. Kilpi is totally indifferent metallish rock or whatever, if they make any difference it must be more or less about the fact that they have the worst lyrics (Finnish) ever written.

 

[samoniac]

Me. Surely I'm not going miss a chance to see two favourite bands at the same time. Rapture is very cool and actually, if you don't count BMD and the EP's around it, it's even better than Katatonia.

Oh and I'm going to go to Nummirock as well. Morbid Angel is among my favourites as well and then I'm going to see Katatonia again.

 

[Chiarascura]

A few pics from the On The Rocks gig if someone's interested. Those that I took without flash turned out sort of.. psychedelic

 

[Deliverance6]

Cool pics, thanx bro.