Jalometalli Fest 2012 In Review
Jalometalli Metal Music Festival is a metal fest held in Oulu, Finland,
and I obviously participated this year. They had a pretty solid lineup,
here's what I thought about every performance. |
| 1 | -Day 1-
Friday. |
| 2 | Gehenna
The first band of the fest was this Norwegian (surprise) black metal group,
and as I'm not the biggest fan of the core norsecore sound, it wasn't that
interesting. It didn't help that I couldn't hear any melodies through the
muddy sounds, and it was a really boring start for the day. |
| 3 | Gorem
Next up was this local death/doom band. They played in a very small stage,
and it sounded awesome from the first row. They surprised me, their playing
sounded really good and their songs were interesting. It was much better
than Gehenna to say the least. |
| 4 | Merging Flare
I only managed to see three songs from this pretty good power metal band,
but they nailed JP's Metal Meltdown just fine, so I enjoyed it for what it was.
The vocalist had pipes and the guitarist (also in Amberian Dawn) was
ridiculously fast. |
| 5 | Toxic Holocaust
The first thrash band of many was Toxic Holocaust, and as you would think
they were fun to watch and had good energy. Can't comment on the setlist
because I don't listen to them that often, but it was a good set
nevertheless. I would have liked Havok, Warbringer or Vektor better though. |
| 6 | Axegressor
On the small stage again was in my opinion the best thrash band of Finland.
The razor sharp and fast as hell riffs with a great live sound resulted in tons
of headbanging and a very fun set overall. Loved it. |
| 7 | Vader
Vader is in my opinion a quite overrated band, as I have never been able to
get into them myself. The riffs are good but not that amazing and the
constant atonal soloing gets annoying. Their drummer was awesome, that's
for sure, but they couldn't keep my attention to the very end. At least they
played all their best songs, and many people clearly liked it. |
| 8 | Septic Flesh
Septic Flesh were awesome, as I expected. Their setlist contained all my
favorite songs like Anubis, Persepolis, Pyramid God and so on. The
atmosphere was great and Spiros is a really good frontman, they really got
the audience going. Very good even though I didn't feel like watching the
encore. |
| 9 | Coroner
The headliner of the first day was Coroner, first time ever in Finland. I never
knew there were this many Coroner fans here, but they were really popular.
Their performance started out pretty bland, but they saved all their best
ones for last. Nothing wrong with the performance itself, very good
musicians, and it was entertaining. I would have changed a few songs on
the setlist to songs from No More Color, but otherwise they delivered. |
| 10 | Year of the Goat
This year they decided to end both days with occult rock bands, and the first
one was this Swedish band who have only released one EP so far. I really
liked their set, it sounded awesome and all the new songs were very good.
Some of their speeches were a bit silly but whatever, keep an eye on these
guys. Just one awesome band. |
| 11 | -Day 2-
Saturday. |
| 12 | Altars of Destruction
This finnish thrash group was the replacement for the mighty Heathen, who
unfortunately had to cancel. They were disappointing. It was the second
time I saw them, and the first time they were really energetic and tight. This
time around they seemed lazy and uneasy. I don't know why that was but
they're still one of the best Finnish thrash bands and this performance was
not up to par to their usual level. |
| 13 | Nekromantheon
More thrash!! Nekromantheon were a very fun band to watch, even though
they aren't anything special when it comes to the music. Just good riffs and
great energy, and they were as good as they could be with the small amount
of audience they got. |
| 14 | Unholy
I enjoy listening to these guys, but this performance was very confusing.
The guitar sound was also very thin, and it detracted from the show. Good
songs, but it was a bit disappointing. |
| 15 | Achren
Watched these guys for like ten minutes, didn't really get it, and didn't
really even care. |
| 16 | Gorguts
This band was the whole reason I came to this festival. Too bad they were
not the headliners, as their playing time of one hour was just a tad too short
for me. Their performance was astounding and the setlist was crazy good,
with all the best songs from each album, like Inverted, Nostalgia and Stiff
and Cold. I also met Kevin Hufnagel after the show, he was really cool. Too
bad I couldn't find Luc, it would've been very interesting. Hopefully they are
finally able to get their new album out next year. |
| 17 | Crimson Glory
This band's discography is not that familiar to me, so I couldn't get into the
that well but there were tons of fans around, another band I never knew was
this popular. They were very tight, and played all my favorites from
Transcendence so I can't say I was disappointed by them. The audience was
totally into it. |
| 18 | Iced Earth
Never cared for these guys (or this kind of music except a few bands) and I
used their set to buy an awesome Nokturnal Mortum LP and to eat festival
chicken. Their performance sounded great and people loved it but I can't say
I really got into it. |
| 19 | Convulse
This classic Finnish old-school death metal band was absolutely sick. The
vocals were deep as fuck and the riffs were just awesome, like the
atmosphere. One of the best death metal shows I've ever seen. Despite only
having one album released in the beginning of the 90s, they also had a new
song which was pretty good. I hope they end up releasing a new record. |
| 20 | Municipal Waste
I don't know why both of the headliners were thrash metal, I would've
preferred something else. I don't like listening to Municipal Waste that much
because of their repetitive sound, but obviously they work live so much
better. They were very fun to watch and the moshpits full of drunk-as-fuck
people were hilarious. They got me to watch their whole set which I didn't
expect. They were insanely popular, I'm guessing at least 5-10% of all the
band shirts I saw there were MW shirts. Excellent, even though their music
is not that amazing. |
| 21 | The Devil's Blood
The final band of the fest. I couldn't get into the mood after the long
thrashing. I really like this band and all, but I didn't feel like watching them
and left mid-set. Nothing wrong with their performance, mind you. I will
definitely go see them if I have another chance.
All in all, a very great festival and I'm sure to return some year! |
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