Summer is gone, festival season is over, but that means the most exciting part of the year is beginning again, the kick off of the fall season. We can expect their new album “Firesign” at the end of September, but before that the Swedish melodic power metal band Dynazty decided to do some shows in Finland, among them On The Rocks in Helsinki.
NORMANDIE? I had never heard of the band, but looking them up online briefly before the show tells me I can expect something similar to Bring Me The Horizon. Even though musically, that’s not really my cup of tea, I never skip the support bands. Because I like to discover new acts. Their 2016 release Inguz seemed to be a success and many of the ladies on the front row came specifically for the band. The band starts off with a new song “Ecstasy”. I immediately notice the guys have a great energy and attitude on stage. The singer includes the audience with his performance, high fiving, giving out first bumps, singing directly to people on the front row. It must have been an excellent show for the audience that came for them. Everyone around me seemed to have heard the band before as they were singing along with their songs loudly. The singer made one mistake by forgetting that he was in Helsinki, not Tampere. But the crowd forgave him instantly.
The band played about 11 songs of alternative rock, mixed with metal and hardcore and a lot of attitude. The singer invited everyone to start a moshpit. An awkward circle was immediately formed in the audience, it took some minutes before some people actually started moshing, but it did happen.
Even though I’m not a fan of the genre, I have to say that Normandie convinced me. They had a super energetic and fun show and time went by really fast. Before I knew it the show was over. The atmosphere of the entire show was really great. Personal highlights were: “Loop Hole”, “Fight” and “Collide”.
Setlist
- Ecstasy
- Awakening
- Believe
- Calling
- Starting New
- Ghost
- Loop Hole
- White Flag
- Fight
- Pay For This
- Collide
Then it was time for Dynazty. The band was a bit behind schedule, and I found myself impatiently waiting for their show. I had never seen the band play live before. But, as most of their singles were immense hits on Radio Rock (eg “The Human Paradox”), I really started to like their music, which was the main incentive for me going to this show.
The band kicked off with one of their new tracks “Breathe With Me”. A powerful start to what was going to be a great evening. “Breathe With Me” gave insight into how powerful these new songs are going to be live. It was the first time the band was playing the song live and I have to say it was a pretty impressive start. Standing right in front of a monitor as a photographer is not the brightest plan, as Nils Molin soon accidentally kicked my camera. After what looked like an apologetic look, he continued the show. “The Northern End” soon followed. In general, the band consists of very talented musicians, in specific I’m impressed with skills of bass player Jonathan Olso, who I have seen before during Pain at Virgin Oil but as I mentioned, the whole band, in general, is really talented and they work really well.
The band played a lot of older songs, such as “The Beast Inside”, “Free Man’s Anthem”, “Incarnation” but left some room for some live premieres. Next to “Breathe With Me”, there was also “The Grey”, another single from the upcoming album, which has been stuck in my head for some weeks now. The song worked very well live. Whoever said that men can’t multitask is proven wrong by default in this show. Both guitarists were drinking while they were playing guitar during “The Grey”. A moment I was happy to catch on video, for those who need proof. After “The Grey” the band announced that they would release a new single tomorrow of which we were blessed to hear it for the first time. “Firesign” the title track of the album was soon announced. Perhaps “Firesign” is now my favorite from the released singles so far. All I could think was wow, no wonder this is the title track. And thus, got really excited for the new album. But those were not the only firsts of the show, the band played “The Smoking Gun” live for the first time, which was definitely one of the many highlights of the show. “The Human Paradox” must have been another highlight for me, after which the band played another classic song “Titanic Mass”. The show ended with “Starlight”.
In general, we got treated to a lot of heavy metal tracks that we were able to hear for the first time in a live setting, which was a real honor! The audience was really excited about the evening, singing along, headbanging, shouting. Dynazty is clearly more than welcome in Finland and hopefully, the guys will return once their new album is out.
Setlist
- Breathe With Me
(Live premiere) - The Northern End
- Raise Your Hands
- The Beast Inside
- Free Man’s Anthem
- The Grey(Live premiere)
- Firesign(Live premiere)
- This Is My Life(Anna Bergendahl cover)
- Drum solo
- Incarnation
- The Smoking Gun(Live premiere)
- Roar of the Underdog
- The Human Paradox
- Titanic Mass
- Starlight
