August means it’s time for Saarihelvetti, Tampere’s legendary metal festival based on the beautiful island of Viikinsaari. This year’s Saarihelvetti was held on August 15th and 16th, 2026.
The first day of SaariHelvetti was full of surprises and amazing bands to enjoy: KALMAH, ENSIFERUM, ABBATH, RYTMIHÄIRIÖ, HAVUKRUUNU, and many more. The festival weekend promised warm weather and a bit of showers, but nothing that could stop metalheads on an island enjoying music and friends’ company for two days!
KALMAH started playing on the main stage with some of their all-time classics like “Seventh Swamphony,” “Heroes to Us,” and “Hades.” It was a nostalgic journey full of amazing guitar solos and riffs; the energy on stage was incredible.
We followed the crowd to the next show on the Inferno Stage; RYTMIHÄIRIÖ opened with a lot of energy. The band didn’t disappoint despite a little bit of rain starting; fans of all ages enjoyed this show, as this is a very popular band, with an incredible stage presence by the vocalist, Unto “Une” Helo.
Next was one of the highlights of the first day of SaariHelvetti: Ensiferum. The band started with a very refreshing intro with clean vocals by keyboard player and singer, Pekka Montin, giving the show the load of energy needed to keep going with their performance. The band played through some of their greatest hits like “In My Sword I Trust,” “Token of Time,” and ended their set with the legendary “Lai Lai Hei” which the audience enjoyed quite a lot, as most of them sang along with the chorus.
Lots of festivalgoers were looking forward to HAVUKRUUNU, who are known for their very dark ambiance, incredible bass lines, and very enjoyable and groovy black metal. The guitar player and singer were entertaining to watch and they delivered a solid show on the first night.
The first day should have been concluded with ABBATH, however, Abbath himself was having an unfortunate day with his health. The band, led by the iconic former vocalist and guitarist of IMMORTAL; Olve Eikemo, started their show as normal with one of their hits, “To War!” The vocalist surprised everyone by appearing on stage without his traditional corpse paint or armor, threw his guitar to the stage floor, and left after around 2 minutes of playing.
ABBATH‘s drummer Ukri Suvilehto took the microphone in front of the audience to apologize and speak on behalf of the band: “Let’s just say it probably won’t surprise anyone that our vocalist is struggling with health issues, so we are very sorry that this concert had to be cut short. As experienced professionals, we are prepared for anything, but thank you very much, and we are sorry. We did everything we could.”
Minutes later, the SaariHelvetti festival production team issued a brief statement confirming the set’s cancellation due to the vocalist’s physical inability to continue performing. Check our photo gallery of the festival’s first day here…
Kalmah
RYTMIHÄIRIÖ
Ensiferum
Havukruunu
Abbath
Text and photos by Lola Valkyrie
