Heavy Metal Heart 13
w/ Nuclear Omnicide, Seraphiel & Arion
An official goodbye to summer festivals also opens up the opportunity to visit some indoor festivals. For two years in a row now I was surprised by the lineup of Heavy Metal Heart Festival, so I didn’t have to think much about whether I should attend the festival this year as well or not. The great thing about a festival like Heavy Metal Heart is that the organization gives the opportunity to small bands to perform aside from bigger bands, allowing them to get a bigger fanbase.
I marched my way to On The Rocks to check out the first evening of the festival. I entered the venue while the first band NUCLEAR OMNICIDE was starting their set. The crossover act from Kirkkonummi plays heavily thrash influenced music, and an energetic set. Not everyone had found their way to the venue yet, but the guys didn’t seem to care about the slightly lower turnout. From the minute the vocalist entered the stage, he climbed down to spend his moments with the audience, and angrily walked from one side of the stage to the other, as if he were a tiger in a zoo. The bass player also sometimes came off the stage and explored the whole venue while playing his instrument enthusiastically.
The next band who were scheduled to play was SERAPHIEL, a fresh act around Nitte Vänskä (ex-BATTLE BEAST). I had never seen the vocalist sing live with BATTLE BEAST, and always have enjoyed her voice, so it was great to get acquainted with her work in SERAPHIEL. Their approach to power metal was definitely a lot of fun to watch and has a lot of great energy on stage, and clearly know how to keep an audience engaged. With killer riffs, searing guitar solos, and top-notch powerful vocals, the band played an outstanding setlist, with my personal highlights being “Scavengers”, “Heretic” and “Fire Within”. I hope to soon catch a show of these guys another time when I’m more familiar with their music, but definitely this was a highlight by itself.
After the great success of SERAPHIEL, I turned around to see a lot more people behind me. All-in-all it looked like a good turnout, considering there were a lot of other events happening on the same day. ARION was set to play their symphonic power metal next. Starting off with the powerful “No One Stands In My Way”, the band captivated the audience right from the start. The band continues with “I Am the Storm”, and just like that ARION takes us on a journey of both new songs and older ones with the next song being “Punish You”. The great thing about ARION is that these guys so far – aside from some technical difficulties here and there occurring – these guys have always impressed me with their skills and professionalism. With “Unforgivable” and “At The Break Of Dawn” the band ended a once again energetic set, but the party wasn’t over yet, as a DJ-set continued throughout the night, ensuring everyone who was present to certainly have a blast.
Setlist
- No One Stands In My Way
- I Am The Storm
- Punish You
- Seven
- Last Sacrifice
- Out Of The Ashes
- You’re My Melody
- Burn Your Ship
- Unforgivable
- At The Break Of Dawn
