24-06-2009 For The Imperium

Supports: The Enemy Pilot, Wankers of the Zoo Crew; Venue: Virgin Oil, Helsinki (Finland)
By: Sabine van Gameren

In Virgin Oil, Helsinki this evening three bands were scheduled to play on the official afterparty of the Faith No More show that took place in the Kaisaniemi park earlier this day. Faith No More was sold out, unfortunately the afterparty did not sell out, but there were quite some people anyway.

The afterparty opened with The Enemy Pilot. The band is playing a hometown gig today and since they recently released their debut album this was a nice opportunity to show the audience what kind of music they make and what people can expect from them. Their music is hardcore metal. Those who have heard their recorded songs and see the band live for the first time might be surprised to hear that the vocals sound a bit more like emo core on stage, a slight loss of the hardness and power that was there in the recorded songs is lost. The band showed an active performance where no corner of the stage stayed untouched. Guitars were pretty much the outstanding factor in the performance of tonight. They bring the music on that driving level and take you through it. The amount of bands like The Enemy Pilot seem to be growing faster than mushrooms in fall in the past years as their genre won a lot of popularity lately. This comes with a lots bands that does not seem to be relevant. The Enemy Pilot is a band that sticks out over the average, no rebels without a cause. A little fine-tuning here and there might be considered but for now they are one that must be seen and watched closely as an investment to your future musical pleasures.

The second band of the evening is Wankers of the Zoo Crew and for faithful followers of Tempelores Magazine not an unknown name as we saw them before (LINK). Since then, the band have been to studio and recorded a song with the famous Finnish rapper Paleface, who actually made acte de présence on stage as well. The song can be downloaded here and the money they earn with it will be donated to Amnesty International. Their musical has the typical System of a Down vibe in it and overall seem to be made for showing that live is not only serious. The keys in the music make this playful attribute come alive even more and makes the total sound of the band quite danceable. In Virgin Oil these keys came out quite loud and surprisingly. As expected the stage act is active and singer Tommi Salmelainen jumps of stage to get close to the audience as well as he acts like a dying swan when the music comes to the highlight of drama. Wankers of the Zoo Crew are entertaining and even though worth your time to see live even if you are not into this music.

The mysterious band called For The Imperium were closing the evening. The band surely is the most aggressive one of the evening. For those who had tried to find out more about them before seeing them live might have seen that the band is never shown anywhere with their faces visible on the web. It is their wish to be judged on the music, which Tempelores Magazine encourages big time, so therefore we kept this tradition going in our photo’s as well. For more information about this band, keep an eye on the website for the interview that we did with them.
So back to the music; aggression and passion seem to rule their hearts when playing the music. It can be seen that the music comes from deep within as the band clearly lives into their roles as communicators of their sounds. Songs from their latest EP “In/Die” were played and some of the audience was familiar with the songs already. The melodic elements that are in the music between the raging guitars make the music more divers than you would expect. A nice closer of the evening, for many of the visitors it has been a long day with the Faith No More gig and their various supports in the pocket right before the doors of Virgin Oil opened.