24-06-2016 Nummirock Metal Festival

[schema type=”event” evtype=”Festival” name=”Nummirock Metal Festiva” sdate=”2016-06-22″ street=”Nummijärvi” city=”Kauhajoki” country=”FI” ]

Review by: Reija Myllynen & Juho Karila
Photos by: Juho Karila

Friday.

The day started earlier than before as today was also the first day the main stage was in use so we basically rushed ourselves to the main site after waking up and getting breakfast. Sleeping is always a bit questionable thing when you are surrounded by beer-fueled metalheads who are having fun together but it’s also part of the deal and we didn’t have to worry about anyone crashing into our tent. So we started our journey towards the stages happily with bellies full of the aforementioned wok (can you guess our fave Nummirock food yet?).

Kaaos Stage 1300: Disclarity

The day was opened up by a semi-heavy metal with a good growly vocals. Sadly, you could hear they were a new band still in search of their thing and neither of us got a grip of their songs due being a bit too dull and lacking catchy melodic elements in every aspect. They put up a good show but problems staying on beat and adding a little more show-elements by moving bit more wouldn’t do bad for these boys.

Inferno Stage 1345: Omnium Gatherum

When we talk about modern Finnish melodeath, these guys from the city of Kotka don’t need much of an introduction. Known from their confident and interactive show with the audience, we could count this was what we were about to get, and they didn’t let us down.

The whole band was genuinely happy as they gave us a balanced set of songs from the newer albums with a smile on their face, which spread like wildfire among the crowds; possibly because of how relaxed the playing looked even if it was powerful. Excellent show, nothing to add.

Main stage 1445: Diablo
First band to play on the biggest stage was the groovy metal steamroller, Diablo, which had just made a glorious comeback with their latest album, Silver Horizon, so it was one of the most anticipated bands in the whole festival. They gathered probably most audience so far and by the looks of it, everyone got what they were expecting.

The band took the stage with confident and unarguable professionalism, while getting interactive with the crowd easily. They didn’t have a focus on a one album and we heard a balanced collection of “greatest hits” from “Savage,” “Prince of the Machine,” to “Mimic 47,” “Queen of Entity,” “The Preacher” and “Trail of Kings.” With presence this positively aggressive, intense and energetic, I don’t think anyone has a bad word for them. They are just so good.

At this point we went to have our lunch, testing out a vendor which turned out to be our second favorite: “Poppamies.”
Specializing in different sauces from hot and spicy ones to more mild and exotic ones. They served pulled-pork which satisfied our lust for meat and we got to test out their selection of different flavours over the Juhannus festival. A positive feature was that they accepted cards as well, so we didn’t have to stress about our budget when eating. Highly recommended, they also sold their sauces on site.

Inferno Stage: 1630: Equilibrium
The German folk metal patrol was visiting Finland for the first time and you could tell it was due time. The second largest stage was filled with fans who were ecstatic and the band had clearly a good time, inspiring the audience chanting by a cover sung in a language familiar to many: the Skyrim theme song.

Rest of the songs were strong and glorious to hear as well but the interaction with the audience was something we could had seen more because technically the band was great. Playing was seemingly easy and the vocalist had a fun “raspy-troll” voice.

Main stage 1730: Amorphis
The bigger names on the main stage drew the attention of majority and we kinda knew what to expect, or can you say you’ve seen a dull show from metal giants Amorphis?

The setlist was consisted of the songs of “Under the Red Cloud” -album and no wonder, Juho keeps it as one of their greatest albums in a while. Apparently the audience thought so too, or they were just happy to see the Finnish melodic metal masters up on the stage.

While it’s always nice to hear songs like “On Rich and Poor” or “House of Sleep” we were left with a feeling that the band is more like Tomi Joutsen & Co. rather than an actual band as the entire show relied on his charisma a bit too much. We could tell they’re damn great but the show in overall was a little too “mild and lazy” in comparison to what we’ve seen before.

Kaaos Stage 1845: Celesty
These power metal pros are a band that have been keeping it quiet for some time; so long that some thought they had quit. In winter 2015 the silence was broken as the band announced to be back for Nummirock and play their debut album, “Reign of Elements” throughout.

Their long break sure showed as minor uncertainty and being calm in comparison to other bands who had been more active. Towards the end, the tension faded and they seemed to warm up a little. The band’s interaction wasn’t completely relied on the lead singer, and having 2-toned singing, is always nice to behold but the other singer sounded like he had to force his voice out.

Inferno Stage 1945: Dragonforce
The British power metal supergroup were only a natural choice to continue the melodic line with their virtuosity skill level. The stage-presence was really strong since the beginning and the audience was kept completely on the hook by simply showing how the gig is supposed to be done.

The singer seemed to have some problems though, his voice kept swaying between powerful and quite weak and at some points it faded completely away. The musicians didn’t have problems and clearly showed that they were here to have fun with the crowd. If the stage wasn’t that high, they would probably had jumped down to get even closer to the enthusiastic metal fans.

Main Stage 2045: Dark Tranquillity
Swedish pioneers of so called Gothenburg metal, which was later known better as melodic death metal, are not considered as one of the most influential bands in the genre for nothing and booking them to celebrate Juhannus was a good call for the festival; judging from the audience they gathered in front of the stage on this warm summer eve.

Their set was more focused on the latest albums: “Construct” and “Fiction” but the set was balanced by old hits too. Songs like “Final Resistance,” “Wonders at Your Feet,” “Thereln,” “Terminus (Where Death is Most Alive)” hit like hot knife to butter and the audience was ecstatic, we were ecstatic as we felt like we were just given a show how the metal was supposed to be played live.

The band looked relaxed and easy up on the stage, and their positive energy rumbled down the stage as they headbanged and noticed the crowd by keeping strong contact to everyone; even to the press/VIP-area on the side of the stage. We can’t but to raise our hats to these professionals.

Main Stage 0000: Mayhem
Norwegian black metal legends were probably as influential on their own genre as the previous band, and they knew how to build up dramatic tension. During the long intro before the band stepped onto the stage, which was turned into an altar, fog slowly rolled down from the stage and consumed everything in front of the stage into gray mist.

When the first song kicked in, we could only see glimpses of dark figures through the fog and occasional light of candles on the aforementioned altar in middle of the stage, maintaining a perfect veil of mysticism band like this would want to uphold. Due to that, it’s hard to evaluate if they used something else than the power of their music to mesmerize thair audience but with a band like this, interaction isn’t the main point. Stage-presence was strong and intense, a prime example of what black metal is all about.