On a Saturday night, on April 12th, 2025, we ventured into what is nowadays the maze of construction work which is the area surrounding Tampere railway station, to check out the Swedish GEHENNAH and their beer-drinking ways, courtesy of Metallihelvetti, who also arranged the show in Turku the previous night.
The event was divided into two parts: first, a solo performance by ROB COFFINSHAKER, with a separate entry ticket, and then the main event with the remaining bands: BEATRIX, RITUALHAMMER, and GEHENNAH. It’s safe to say that some people came in only for the country part of the night, as the guitarist from GEHENNAH and frontman of THE COFFINSHAKERS, Rob, sat at the center of the stage with his acoustic guitar, already in an outfit more befitting of the later headlining show. Going through his repertoire of originals and covers alike, he enchanted the audience once again until it was time to get the stage ready for the next band, and let the crowd flow in – or out, depending on whether they had a ticket valid for the rest of the evening or not.
It was tough for BEATRIX (or anyone really) to play after an artist like ROB COFFINSHAKER, although the vocalist seemed really riled up and did as much as he could to get the audience closer to the stage, even offering to give free beer. Eventually, he ventured often offstage, singing in people’s faces, trying to make the most of this warm-up gig.
The evening fully switched gears again once RITUALHAMMER took over. The band, featuring the vocalist from MÖRBID VOMIT, along with members of LICHT DES URTEILS and WÖMIT ANGEL (so much vomit) gave a really good impression with their blackened death metal – prompting to check out their debut “Grand Pestilential Flame” – and the audience really started going for it as they began approaching the stage. Definitely a positive surprise from a band that we hadn’t even heard of before tonight. Seems likely we will hear about it again in the near future!
Finally, it was GEHENNAH‘s turn. Among the cheers of the crowd here at Maanalainen they began their show with a bang, more specifically with “Beat That Poser Down”, followed by the namesake from the same record, “Decibel Rebel”. The whole front of the stage turned into a big party area full of head-banging, beer-spilling metalheads. By the time we arrived at “We Love Alcohol,” everyone was obviously singing along. GG ALLIN‘s cover “Drink, Fight and Fuck” was one of the highlights in terms of the atmosphere created during the show, which ended with “Piss Off I’m Drinking” and “Bulldozer.” The singer at this point seemed like he had spent all of his voice but otherwise the gig was as entertaining and tight as one would expect from the Swedes, who hadn’t really been very active for quite some time until last year. Good to see the guys are back! Check our photo gallery here…
ROB COFFINSHAKER
BEATRIX
RITUALHAMMER
GEHENNAH
