Sonic Rites is a 2-day festival showcasing the heavier and gloomier end of the music spectrum in Finland and sporting some interesting visitors from abroad. The festival has quickly gained name as a place to be for people interested in buzzing fuzzes, apocalyptic sound scenes, and psychedelic jamming. This year’s festival ended with ten acts on Saturday, May 20th.
Saturday’s shows opened with VULVARUTTO and their interesting mixing of beautiful, folkish singing, clean guitars, and startling stories in the lyrics. On the smaller stage inside first-up was TRYPANON’s black/doom metal kickstart to the evening. On the main stage, the first serving was more of a psychedelic and progressive sort with THE UFO CULT opening up. The second round featured even more aggression, as QWÄLEN turned up the heat on the smaller stage and then DEMONIC DEATH JUDGE put their sludgy rock machine to use on the main stage.
After these, KUOLEMA DUO’s beautiful acoustic set of folk songs and choruses about death and sadness was a welcome breather on the outside stage. Then the speed went up again as VVORSE brought their HC/Crust hate show to the small stage. On the larger stage, it was then time to spend a meditational moment with the ambient soundscapes of the foreign visitor, NADJA – the second act for Aidan Baker, who had performed solo already on Friday. The breather wasn’t very long, as HEBOSAGIL brought their speed/thrash metal show to the small stage. At the peak of the evening, again, was another visitor from Japan, as CHURCH OF MISERY hit the big stage with their doom metal, giving a well-deserved end to the 2-day festival.
Sonic Rites‘ second day again confirmed that there is a place and audience for a festival like this. Ääniwalli is a great place for this sort of underground festival and the organizers have good taste in their selection of artists. Let’s hope we will see another Sonic Rites in 2024!
Vulvarutto
Trypanon
The UFO Cult
Qwälen
Demonic Death Judge
Kuolema Duo
Vvorse
Nadja
Hebosagil
Church of Misery
