Finnish Metal Expo & Turisas (finally)
Visited the annual Finnish Metal Expo in Kaapelitehdas yesterday. This was my first visit to the occasion that has grown to quite a size in its four years. The saturday session was sold out, so settled to a single evening’s visit.
And even then, arrived late, and just missed Municipal Waste on the stage.
The annual awards ceremony was rather much on the lame side, with Mokoma picking up the lion’s share of the categories.
In the meantime before the next band on the stage checked out the surprisingly large expo-area. Two halls were packed with various booths, hosted by record companies, promoters, magazines and a couple of bands themselves. A single circuit around the area turned up quite a bit of loot.
- Two bought cds (Electric Wizard and the newest Hanoi Rocks albums).
- Two freebie cds (promo anthologies of recent songs).
- A cheap three-issue subscription to Inferno.
- Two dvds as gifts from the above.
- An unexpected gift of a single-packed condom, also from Inferno’s stand.
- A hefty stack of flyers and other advertisements.
- Perhaps the ugliest ever t-shirt (freebie again, for a finnish brewing company).
I though I picked up an issue of Miasma, but that’s nowhere to be found in the bag.
The featured instrument clinics packed a lot of attendees, and were not too loud for comfort.
The “specially-priced” Tuska-tickets were sold out for the day, and anyway, they wouldn’t have covered the by far most coveted bit: the Nightwish gig on the eve of the festival.
The first band of the day, Mustasch was plagued atrocious sound (this time aided by clueless mixing in addition to the badness inherent in the building. Had never heard the band before, and didn’t mind their stoner/Cult-inspired take on traditionalish metal.
The main event was the headliner of the day, Turisas, whom I’d managed to miss no less than thrice last year. The band was without their official accordionist, but had rousted up a very credible (and way prettier) replacement.
Turisas played for some 100 minutes, and the set was well-rounded, from old material to the newest single. Yes, they dared to play their cover of Boney M’s Rasputin to a full hall. The band got a positive reaction from the audience, and the action included the first ever Wall of Death I’ve ever witnessed during Rex Regi Rebellis. The sound was far from perfect during the last band either, but that didn’t detract too much.
Definitely a great continuation to a well-begun year of live music.
Jani:
Hi!
If you lost your copy of Miasma, contact me and we’ll send you new!
Regards,
February 18, 2008, 21:47Jani / Miasma Magazine chief editor
lavonardo:
That’s a generous offer indeed, and will contact you in e-mail.
February 18, 2008, 22:51