As live events have finally been restarting in the capital area, we managed to pay a visit to the mini winter edition of Helsinki Death Fest, held at Tiivistamö like the previous summer iteration of this event.
In front of an audience – filling the venue (at a glance) at least to half capacity – who came to witness some proper live shows, LANTERN, PROSCRIPTION, SOLOTHUS, and DEMILICH took turn on the task of conquering the stage on this Friday night. It was a night of entertainment mostly made in Kuopio, with the exception being, of course, SOLOTHUS from Turku.
After a good opening show by LANTERN, it was PROSCRIPTION that turned up the heat a notch with a powerful and tight show. As things slowed down with the doom riffs, courtesy of SOLOTHUS, everything was ready for the “old guys” of the bunch, namely DEMILICH, with the vocalist Antti Boman being his usual entertaining self, but also taking a serious stance on the contemporary events (there was also a possibility to donate money to the victims of the ongoing war via the Finnish Red Cross by purchasing postcards representing the Ukrainian president, made by Amelia Nyman Art).
DEMILICH was definitely a good choice of headliner for this mini-fest, as these veterans really know how to deliver during their live shows, and thus the audience responded in kind, attempting a small circle pit. Understandably, it was not the wildest crowd ever, considering that most people are still mindful of each other’s space after what’s been going on over the past couple of years, but everyone was definitely eager to have a good time.
After the gig ended, there was even room for a small “after-party” in the bar area of the venue. Being able to be out in a bar again until 2:00 seems like a luxury nowadays!
LANTERN
PROSCRIPTION
SOLOTHUS
DEMILICH
