08-05-2015 MyGRAIN

Supports: Profane Omen, Magenta Harvest and Less Than Three ; Venue: Nosturi, Helsinki (Finland)
By: Sandra Heinzelmann & Janne Pappila

It was the dark Friday night where the Finnish melodic death metal band myGRAIN would be taken to their grave.
myGRAIN had announced their split, because they found that their creative fire had burnt down during the ten years of existence. Since many band-members are working in other projects, extending the night’s line-up with Profane Omen, Magenta Harvest and Less Than Three seemed a logical decision.

For those of you who’ve neither been to the venue Nosturi nor a bigger concert or festival in Finland: Nosturi is the concert hall with a metal construction of HIM’s heartagram forever installed in the ceiling. As a big venue and admitting people under the legal drinking age to be in the audience, the bar and designated drinking areas are a sort of gated community, guarded by a security team. Aside from that, the venue appears to be versatile, technically well-equipped and welcoming. So far so good.

Just roughly 25 minutes after the doors opened, the first band was to claim the stage. Less Than Three kick-started the evening, seemingly knowing exactly what they did. Which, in fact, is rather unsurprising, as their line-up presented us with an experienced and familiar face: Tommy Tuovinen. “To(mm)yboy” of myGRAIN is fronting this five-piece band. Then also was the drummer Samuli Mikkonen just beginning his double shift of the evening, as he would later swing the sticks with Profane Omen. Alongside these two, founder Jesse Soiletsalo on guitars, Pyry Hanski on bass and Ari-Pekka Repo hitting even more strings would fry the audience’s brains by rocking out and Less Than Three were rewarded with welcoming applause.

Less Than Three

Next, just after a quick changeover behind pulled black curtains, was Magenta Harvest conquering the stage. It was their – and myGRAIN’s – drummer Janne “DJ Locomotive” Manninen who started his double shift of the night. Vocalist Mathias Lillmåns, who trained his vocal chords with Finntroll amongst others, had a stage presence that captured the audience.
A small and fierce mosh-pit kicked off right away and kept going on. The guys of the string department, bassist Jonas Frilund as well as guitarists Timo Kontio and Timo Hanhikangas, kept the sound dark, hard and strong for the entire 45-minute gig. The venue filled up more and more during this time, the lines at the bar grew longer, the temperature was rising and the mosh-pit became larger.

Magenta Harvest

Yet again the black curtains were pulled for the next changeover. During the intermission, the background music played shifted suddenly from guitar-based to good old disco, which caught people’s attention and caused many smiles. That choice of music reflected Profane Omen’s sense of humour or maybe just kind of matched their wicked mix of alternative rock, trash and melodic death metal. The curtains were opened and the band was speeding off as if there was no tomorrow. Displaying more colours than just black in their clothing and a variety of hairstyles, it was a lively unit to watch and listen to.
Singer Jules Näveri bonded perfectly with the audience, leaving no doubt that he belongs on stage. For the fun of it, current bass-player Antti Seroff gave room for former bassist Tuomas Saarenketo. During “Sonic Wings” the venue seemed to be bursting with energy and the band just kept on delivering. An extra fun moment besides the audience’s sing-along intermezzo was a cover version of “Wild Child” by W.A.S.P.. Samuli Mikkonen kicked his drums as if he’d just had a barrel of extra strong coffee, playing with Less Than Three earlier didn’t seem to have affected his strength and tightness at all.

Profane Omen

Then the time had come for myGRAIN to be on stage one last time. And so they went on, a little later than announced and vocalist Tommy Tuovinen obviously got goose bumps seeing all these die-hard fans in the audience. Being known to be at their best at live performances, myGRAIN topped all expectations, performing with full force. It was with a sad eye, but also with great joy to watch Eve Kojo playing the synthesizer fiercely. She for sure wins an award for making the keyboards an interesting instrument on stage alongside all the many instruments with strings, rocking out and giving in to the music with all her heart. The band was joined by their old guitarist and founding member Resistor, which quadrupled the energy on stage. Especially powerful were “Waking Up The Damned”, “Into the Parallel Universe” and “Asphyxiated and Inflammable”.
Of course, myGRAIN got the ovations they deserved and had to play an encore until they were let off stage by a thankful audience. To call it quits as the unit as well and tightly knit as they are may have been surprising, but with great respect it should be acknowledged that they decided to rather discontinue than go on half-heartedly. That just shows the band’s true love of music and artistic integrity which the vast field of music business lacks all too often.

MyGrain