An official goodbye to summer festivals also opens up the opportunity to visit some indoor festivals. Last year I was surprised by the lineup of Heavy Metal Heart Festival, so when I was asked this year around if I wanted to write a report on Heavy Metal Heart 12, I didn’t have to think about it.
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 Re-Armed was already on stage. Re-Armed is a melodic death metal band from Kerava. The band has been around since 2001, and have recently released some new material.
My first impression was that these guys play some bad-ass death metal, influenced by thrash metal. While the venue wasn’t super packed yet from the beginning, already a lot of metal fans were gathered around and were enjoying the energetic performance of Re-Armed. I hadn’t heard of the band before, but with its screaming solos and pounding basslines, Re-Armed managed to win the crowd. They made use of every inch of the stage and warmed up the audience for the rest of the night. A great opening band for the festival.
Next up for the evening was the death metal act Enthring. Founded in 2006, the band from Helsinki, plays symphonic death metal.
Together with some excellent melodic riffs, the band packed up the venue with a solid show filled with an awful lot of energy. More and more people showed up at On The Rocks and they all seemed to engage very much with the performance of Enthring. The band made sure that the audience was having fun, a lot of people were headbanging to the music, and moshing along.
As the night progressed with a lot of death metal, it finally was time for Whispered to play their last show, before they dive into the studio for their new album. A lot of people gathered for the show. I had seen Whispered once before, during one of Tuska’s afterparties. Having a fever, it didn’t allow me to enjoy the show to its full potential, even though I was amazed by the music of Whispered, which up until then was unfamiliar to me. Ever since I have listened to the band’s music quite some time.
With a captivating intro, the band hit the stage and started playing an energetic “Strike!”. It was clear that this was the moment most of the audience had been waiting for when I looked behind me, whole On The Rocks seemed to be packed.
Moshpits, headbanging, singing along, there was a generally great atmosphere amongst the crowd. With their samurai inspired melodic death metal, the band really dominates the whole stage. I’m already looking forward to some new material and to see more of this band in the future.
The first night of Heavy Metal Heart festival offered three bands that fit together like a glove, not only musically but also have a great live energy. The organization managed to pick three relevant death metal acts in the Finnish scene. All-in-all the first night was a great success.
