Helloween, Accept, Amorphis
Eteläpuisto, Tampere, Finland
8th-9th June 2018
Tampere’s prime metal festival South Park was back on this year after a brief hiatus in 2017. It’s a two day event but I only attended the Saturday. This year marked the return of the band that I discovered at the same festival three years ago – the one and only German power metal legend Helloween.
I arrived a little later so I missed the first two bands but just in time to see some of Amorphis. They’re one of the most recognizable bands within the Finnish metal scene and they seem to feature in most of the country’s festivals. I’ve seen them live a bunch of times before so I pretty much knew what to expect. I like their old albums though I lost track of them after ‘Silent Waters’. This was another solid performance, well executed melodic death metal. It’s always good to hear ‘House of Sleep’ and other favourites. So a good start to the night. 4/5
Next up was the Finnish thrash metal quartet Lost Society. They played some fairly decent-sounding thrash metal; sadly I’m not too familiar with their music so I could not appreciate it fully. 3/5
I did enjoy watching the Swedish heavy metal outfit Mustasch though. Their music is a mixture of Motörhead-style heavy metal with some elements of stoner metal. It’s probably not the kind of thing that I would listen to at home but it was fun to watch at a summer festival. 3.5/5
This was the second time that I’ve seen S-Tool live. For those who haven’t heard of them before, it’s a new band from Ville Laihiala (ex-Sentenced, Poisonblack). As a big a fan Mr. Laihiala’s other bands, particularly Sentenced, I was looking forward to seeing S-Tool. Music-wise, it’s essentially picking up from where Poisonblack left off only without the Gothic elements. Good show! I enjoyed it a bit more than the last time. 4/5
German heavy metal legends Accept were one of the day’s headliners and one of the main bands that I wanted to see. They put on one hell of a show. I’m not familiar with their recent material but it was great to hear some of the old classics such as ‘Balls to The Wall’, ‘Fast as a Shark’ and my personal favourite ‘Metal Heart’. 5/5
There’s not an awful lot I can say about Mokoma. They have a sizeable following here in their home country. Their performance was good but I’m not familiar with their music. 3.5/5
Then it was time for the night’s main headlining act Helloween. This show was special because it featured all three of the band’s vocalists from past to present together on stage. That’s right, all of them – Kai Hansen (the original founder of the band), Michael Kiske and their current vocalist Andi Deris performed together as part of the Pumpkins United tour. It was really good to hear some of the old classics such as ‘Heavy Metal (Is the Law) and ‘Halloween’ along with some of the more recent hits such as ‘Are You Metal?’ They also played one of my personal favorites ‘If I Could Fly’ from ‘The Dark Ride’ album. Fantastic show! 5/5
In summary I had a great time at South Park even if it was just for one day. It was worth it especially for Accept and Helloween. Amorphis and S-Tool were pretty good too. If the line-up is this good next year I will definitely come back again.
Iza Raittila
The 3rd edition of Laurus Nobilis Music Famalicão experienced a few changes but having its metal day on Friday wasn’t one of them. And with the addition of a second stage, the number of heavy acts doubled. First one on the “breakthrough stage” was Stucker. It was around 5 p.m., the crowd wasn’t exactly massive, but when you’re in a thrash metal band playing in a metal fest, chances are that you’ll get a good feedback, no matter how scarce the number of people giving it. And Stucker have improved their posture quite a lot since I’ve last seen them, more committed. Musically they sound stronger too. They’re currently in studio, recording an EP which I was told it’s a “back to the thrash roots” ride; promising.
The action moved to the bigger stage, with Final Mercy literally storming it. It had been about seven years since I’d last seen them and probably as many line-up changes since the first, a decade ago; and while some bands may look unstable after so many adjustments, this was probably the best that could have happened to Final Mercy. Guitarist Ricardo Ribeiro and bassist Arcélio’s technical skills made the music more mature, and singer Dan’s posture filled their live performance with much more vitality. A couple of days before the fest they released a video for the title-track of their latest album, “Revival” (June 2017), which I strongly recommend.
I dare saying that Heavenwood were awaited just as eagerly as the headliners – and that eagerness was rewarded. In the 25 years they’ve been around, there’s close to nothing in their songwriting that one can finger-point; their live performances, however, have always been their weakness… until a couple of years ago. Don’t know if it was something about the conceptual latest album “The Tarot Of The Bohemians”, if it was the new line-up or simply the natural process of growing up… but who cares? They now kick ass on stage and that’s all that matters. I was just a bit disappointed that Equaleft-Miguel didn’t join them on stage. Due to his day job, there were a few shows that singer Ernesto was forced to miss and it was Miguel who replaced him. Given the difference in styles, I was really curious to see how that worked out. My curiosity wasn’t fulfilled, but still my satisfaction reached the top.
When Amorphis last played in Portugal, it had been in celebration of “Tales From A Thousand Lakes” 20th anniversary and about a month before “Under The Red Cloud” was out, so despite such release has occurred two years ago, the title-track, “Sacrifice” and “Death Of A King” were performed live for the first time in our country – and they were welcomed accordingly. But then again, all songs caused similar thrill. Always addressing us as “my friends”, Tomi Joutsen asked for our help in “House Of Sleep” and our opinion about playing “Into Hiding”, now that original bass player Olli-Pekka Laine was back. Without surprise – but obviously with loads of emotional feedback – the gig ended with “Black Winter Day”.
Death-grind isn’t for everybody’s ears, so having Holocausto Canibal closing the bill was the right decision – the ones who couldn’t endure such extreme sound could leave (and a lot did…) and those who enjoyed it had the chance of seeing a great band of the genre on a big stage. As singer Ricardo said himself, it doesn’t look like but they’ve been around for 20 years. They’ve released a vinyl re-recording of both their debut demo and album under the inkling title “Catalépsia Necrótica: Gonorreia Visceral Reanimada”, which is Portuguese for something like “necrotic catalepsy: reanimated visceral gonorrhea”. Musically and lyrically, the brutality prevails, but they’ve toned down the theatrics a bit – less blood and entrails, that is – focusing more on sound than image. Whether you like it or not, one must acknowledge the big act they are.
Valkyrian Music 