On May 13th, 2026, local fans of death metal had a chance to see three emerging Finnish death metal bands in Turku’s Nirvana club. The first band of the night was Turku’s own group, BLOOD RED NAILS, founded just a few years ago in 2020, and already succeeding in the local metal scene. They have a debut album coming in collaboration with the Turku Rock Academy later this year. The band warmed up the audience nicely for the next act, which was ADMIRE THE GRIM, coming from Lappeenranta. After getting on stage, they asked jokingly if anyone in the crowd had ever been to Lappeenranta, and to their amusement, a few hands rose. The group led by the charismatic and powerful vocalist Katri Snellman plays classic melodeath with a strong influence from the legendary Gothenburg melodeath scene.
The final performance of the night was DEFILED SERENITY from Loimaa. If you know BEFORE THE DAWN, you probably also know their vocalist, Paavo Laapotti. He formed DEFILED SERENITY in 2021, and since then, the band has released its debut LP last year and reached over 100,000 streams on Spotify. They play a classic melodic death metal, strongly inspired by the Finnish and Swedish death metal scene, and that’s exactly what we could hear on stage in Turku. The band shook the walls of Nirvana with their powerful riffs and bombastic sound.
Blood Red Nails
Admire the Grim
Defiled Serenity
