Europe and Finland have been pestered by a humongous heatwave, which has seen temperatures rise up to 40°C in some parts of Europe. We’re the last ones to deny global warming in action, but there might be another reason for the hotness of late: Finnish thrash metal act STAM1NA have been fairly active, with festival appearances left and right, and on top of that: a tour! Their tour bus rolled into the city of Lahti on July 22nd, 2022, and along with it, they brought the raging modern metal act IKINÄ, both set to play at Möysän Musaklubi.
The night of sweat commenced with IKINÄ‘s “Lässyä tarinaa.” The 5-piece from Kouvola convinced us a couple of years back with their excellent release “Milleniaalin itsehoito-opas epävarmaan aikusuuteen” and it looks like they’ve still got the power to sweep audiences away, since the crowd immediately held their hands up in celebration of the first song. Plenty of people were there right from the start of the show, luckily, because IKINÄ poured their vivid energy into a rather new banger, “Tietäjät tietää.” If you thought that was already reason enough to see their show, you’re wrong, as the band hinted towards a future release by playing two completely new songs and the audience was all ears. Overall, IKINÄ once again delivered a proper rock show with lots of headbanging and swinging baseball bats.
In 2021, STAM1NA released their latest studio effort, “Novus Ordo Mundi,” which was the main reason for this tour and since they were the evening’s headliner. Möysän Musaklubi was packed – metalheads in Lahti really love and support their STAM1NA. The band started off with a classic, “Ristiriita.” From the first note on, the crowd wanted to give them a warm welcome and they went into crazy-party mode. Likewise, STAM1NA doesn’t really have an off button when it comes to going full-on on stage. They get in position and start headbanging from start to finish, get really sweaty, and turn up the heat.
Naturally, the band dedicated most of the setlist to their new album and included “Betelgeuse,” “Kriittinen massa,” “Memento Mori (ateistin kiitos),” “Metropolio,” “N.P.V.E.M.,” “Narsisti,” and “Sirkkeli.” We hadn’t heard these songs one stage yet and maybe others in the crowd also hadn’t, however, they each worked really well in the live setting and the setlist was extremely dynamic because of it. For several songs, the band also featured clean backing vocals by Sonja Kangasalo, which really took the songs to the next level. Some time in the middle of the show, the band started experiencing some technical difficulties due to the heat, but other than that it was easily forgotten amidst an excellent setlist with great atmosphere.
Despite those issues, the band went through their material rather smoothly, including songs from a mixture of albums. As per usual, the audience reacted with a great circle pit. On top of that, there was a short surprise encounter with no other than Kaarle Viikate (VIIKATE) who came on stage to drink a shot; a short but powerful appearance! With no less than seventeen songs, STAM1NA really delivered a set that made up for all the postponed and canceled tours of the recent past. With the new additions to their setlist off “Novus Ordo Mundi,” the show felt very intense and heavy, orienting towards an earlier sound; hey we’re not complaining!
Written by Jenni L.
Photos by Juho Jokimies
Setlist
- Ristiriita
- Betelgeuse
- Kuudet raamit
- Tavastia palamaan!
- N.P.V.E.M.
- Kuoliaaksi ruoskitut hevoset
- Metropolio
- Gaian lapsi
- Kriittinen massa
- Likainen parketti
- Narsisti
- Muuri
- Sirkkeli
- Uudet kymmenen käskyä (encore)
- Memento Mori (ateistin kiitos) (encore)
- Kaksi reittiä, yksi suunta (encore)
- Viisi laukausta päähän (encore 2)
