25-06-2016 Nummirock Metal Festival

[schema type=”event” evtype=”Festival” name=”Nummirock Metal Festival” sdate=”2016-06-22″ street=”Nummijärvi” city=”Kauhajoki” country=”FI” ]
Review by: Reija Myllynen & Juho Karila
Photos by: Juho Karila

Saturday

The final day of Nummirock started as pleasantly as the previous ones. After a night well rested, we were glad we still had a full day ahead of us so we proceeded with a plan well organized: food and music.
The line-up in the festival has always been consistent and stable, so it was hard to tell which day was the best due great bands having been scattered throughout all the days.

Inferno Stage: 1345: Rotten Sound
The grindcore masters are always something our photographer keeps anticipating but they haven’t yet given us a set to keep both statisfied. Their stage-presence is strong and almost aggressive but the movement and energy up on the stage can’t keep up with the music. The singing is very intense and maybe a little too much as it seems to be blending to the wall of sound, but it’s forgivable in this genre. Technically we don’t have anything to complain.

Main Stage 1445: Martti Servo & Napander
The first act on main stage has always been an oddball, an echo from the past when Nummirock was nothing like a metal festival and this year wasn’t an exception. To fulfill this duty and keeping the tradition alive, the organizers had booked a classic pop-humppa(humppa= Finnish polka) band.

The singer’s voice was heard loud and clear, his charisma worked on the hot afternoon just like any other act. The whole metalhead audience was dancing Letkajenkka, a Finnish traditional dance where you hop and skip to the music, swirling across the venue. Despite the band being a deviate from the metal line, there was a mutual understanding between the band and audience.

And it also worked for us too, even if we weren’t great fans of the genre, the speeches between the songs were really humorous, this was really fun to watch and their professionalism wasn’t anything not to like. They totally dominated the stage with an intensity ycounger ones can only look up to and admire.

Inferno Stage 1630: Alfahanne
This Swedish band is a strange one. Their visual side is very well thought and they sure had their fans but to us, they didn’t quite serve their purpose. The singer’s voice was somehow really thin and interaction was really rare with the audience. Their playing was really skilled but the music seemed quite lazy and monotonous. Would also had been nice to see more movement up on the stage.

Main Stage 1730: Stam1na
The show kicks in massively and confidentially, the whole band is really intensely into the gig. The huge stage seems to be small for this Finnish trash patrol. The setlist is composed with latest “Elokuutio” -album in mind but they haven’t forgotten their older ones too.

We can’t help but to wonder how they can jump, leap, spin and run amok while playing, and their songs are really complex as the guitar riffs and vocals rarely follows the same rhythm. Surely being experienced helps but we were left with something mind-blowing as they rocked and thrashed through songs like “Uudet kymmenen käskyä,” “Ristiriita,” “Panzerfaust,” “Elokuutio,” and “Kaksi reittiä yksi suunta” to name a few. At some points Antti “Hyrde” Hyyrynen left parts unsung but he told his voice got left back to Lappeenranta, thanks to a summer cold. That didn’t bother us and those small moments were only ones when we could notice that he was sick.

Inferno Stage 1945: Thy Art is Murder
The only metalcore band we saw in the whole festival is also the one who had to travel furthest from their home to get to the venue. Hailing from Australia, the metal group had prepared a balanced set through their albums on their very first show in Finland, which got a warm welcome from the audience.

Their performance was intense and strong but they were quite stationary and still, when they clearly were capable of being more active on the stage. They conveyed a positive energy but they didn’t give us a statisfied feeling.

Inferno Stage 2300: Mokoma
The second to last band during the festival was Mokoma, the other Finnish thrash metal giants who are also considered as the Nummirock house band. No wonder, they never fail to deliver a good show and neither did they this time.

They took the stage professionally and kept the audience tightly under their grip by being interactive and knowing what the festival people wanted to hear. As we were given hits like “Valapatto,” “Hei hei heinäkuu” and “Kuu saa valtansa auringolta” we also heard some rarities which was a nice change. What also was nice, was that they had seemingly fun and they let it show as wide smile on their face and it was contagious to the audience as well. These are always nice to see.

Main Stage 0000: Children of Bodom
These guys don’t need an introduction. The metal masters knew their place and they had made more than a one change since the last time. They didn’t only have a new guitarist Daniel Freyberg (Naildown, ex-Norther) but they seemed to be more focused in playing than drinking, resulting a more accurate and musical show.

The stage-presence was confident and strong, their years of experience could be heard through the amplifiers. At this point they seemed as a perfect choice to ending the whole festival. But as the songs kept on rolling, we couldn’t help but to notice that something was missing; the band was stationary and motionless. We didn’t even see Alexi’s trademark guitar tossing more than once or twice.Their setlist was made very friendly for the audience with all the necessary hits like “Downfall,” “Angels Don’t Kill,” “Lake Bodom” and so on.

It’s forgivable though, when the amount of notable mistakes was drastically reduced by staying sober rather than being drunk on the stage. However, the music is fast and aggressive, which demands a band this size to move and convey the energy of the music to the audience. The overall feeling was kinda routine-like and clearly not COB’s finest.