A powerhouse of metal talent struck Logomo in Turku the other night as ELUVEITIE, AD INFINITUM, and INFECTED RAIN joined forces for a night of mayhem and camaraderie on their Ànv Rising European tour. As the tour name refers to, this is ELUVEITIE’s venture to really ramp up the hype for their new album “Ànv,” coming April 25th, 2025. The legendary folk metal group was joined by two great acts, AD INFINITUM is a Swiss/German symphonic metal band with operatic vocals and INFECTED RAIN is a genre-bending Moldovan band that could be described as somewhere between nu-metal, groove metal, or alternative metal. All three bands brought great energy that set them apart from each other while still feeling cohesive and maintaining the flow of the show. It was also great to see so many powerful women musicians in one night showcasing their masterful talent and skill.
The first band to take the stage was AD INFINITUM, who are fresh off an album release late last year. Titled “Abyss,” this is AD INFINITUM’s fourth full-length studio album, it was released on October 11th via Napalm Records. They started off their set with one of the new tracks, “Follow Me Down.” This song starts with some very impressive guitarwork, and thus really worked as a way to pull the audience in immediately. Guitarist Adrian Thessenvitz made his chops clear right off the bat, it definitely feels like he takes inspiration from more progressive or virtuoso genres; and his rockstar kicks and spins made the presentation even better.
AD INFINITUM continued to play new tracks including “Aftermath,” “Outer Space,” “Anthem for the Broken,” and “Surrender.” With each song it seemed that frontwoman Melissa Bonny’s vocals became increasingly more epic. The climax of which was when they played their 2022 song “Into The Night”, where Melissa switched between harsh growls and soaring cleans like she was born to do both. They finished off their set with “Unstoppable,” which describes exactly how the band came across.
Next up came INFECTED RAIN and their frenetic display of absolute shred. They started the set with “Realm of Chaos,” a song from their 2022 album “Ecdysis” which features Butcher Babies’ Heidi Shepherd on the album recording. Afterward they switched to playing more recent tracks from their latest album, “TIME,” which is soon to have its first anniversary on February 9th. Leading fans to wonder when they will see the release of “TIME II”- oops, sorry, wrong band. In all seriousness, INFECTED RAIN did a great job bringing these songs to the stage, every time they played a song from “TIME” it was an absolute banger. Especially “DYING LIGHT,” the catchy chorus of which has been stuck in my head ever since the show.
INFECTED RAIN’s Lena Scissorhands also undoubtedly had the best crowd interaction of the night. She got us to form circle pits, sit down for the build-up of a song, and even had us form a wall of death. Their set had the biggest mosh pits of the night, hands down. The crowd definitely reciprocated the high energy that the band brought, which is always great to see.
When ELUVEITIE took the stage, we were reminded just how talented this band is. This is the first time ELUVEITIE has toured Finland since 2019, and boy were they missed. Their first song was “Helvetios,” the title track from one of their best albums to date. But the album we were really there to hear was “Ànv,” and ELUVEITIE did not disappoint. Both “Ànv” tracks that have been released on music streaming services ahead of the imminent album release, “Premonition” and “The Prodigal Ones,” made an appearance at this show. We also got what seemed to be a sneak peek of the album’s title track “Ànv” in the form of a beautiful solo vocal performance by Fabienne Erni. Her performance killed, the crowd got very quiet for this track and it really grounded what was otherwise a very energetic show. It will be exciting to hear how this song changes for the album release.
As always with ELUVEITIE, one cannot overstate how multi-faceted these musicians are. They’re a large performing group, with six members on stage at any given time, and many more instruments than that. It’s extremely impressive watching them swap around instruments with each other and pull out bagpipes, hurdy-gurdy, various flutes and penny whistles, fiddle, Celtic harp, and more. In the latter half of their set, they played “The Call of the Mountains,” which was one of the songs that really used a full range of different sounds. We were folk-dancing in the pit to the sounds of bagpipes and fiddle and it was glorious.
If it wasn’t obvious already, this was a very musically diverse evening. Between the captivating and dynamic music of AD INFINITUM, the ripping riffage of INFECTED RAIN, and the heavy yet jaunty folk metal tunes of ELUVEITIE, there was something there for everyone. Now comes the hard wait for April 25th and the subsequent release of “Ànv.”
Written by Ken Kirwin
Photos by Magdalena Niemczura
Setlist
- Helvetios
- Ategnatos
- Tarvos
- The Prodigal Ones
- Exile of the Gods
- Slania’s Song
- A Rose for Epona
- Epona
- Ànv
- Aidus
- Deathwalker
- The Call of the Mountains
- Ambiramus
- Havoc
- King
Encore:
16. Premonition
17. Inis Mona
