When Talvihelvetti was first announced, I knew I had to be there. With a lineup featuring King Satan, Turmion Kätilöt and Fear Of Domination, who are three of my favourite industrial-type bands, I could hardly let this show pass me by so I duly booked tickets and flights, and the waiting game began!
With a sold-out six band lineup spanning two stages and with no gaps between bands, it was always going to be a full on night and indeed, this proved to be a little problematic at times – but more on that later.
The first band on the agenda was the always-amazing King Satan at the Klubi stage. As I’ve said in the past, this is a band that really is best appreciated in a live environment. Their recorded music is excellent, there’s no mistaking that, but witnessing it in the flesh is a whole other experience. Although their set lacked Dance With The Devil (one of the most perfect live songs ever, with an electronic line so funky you can’t help but dance to it), as a whole it was a good mix of songs. Psygnosis worked well as an opener, and the crowd soon got involved in yelling “fuck the rest, Satan is best!” back to the band, which is exactly what’s needed at a King Satan show!
The set as a whole was just great. You can really feel every note that King Satan plays, which is definitely in part down to the power of the live drumline, and you can’t help but want to dance along to the funky electro lines. Additionally, the back and forth approach between the two vocalists Kate Boss and Aleister Satan is masterfully done from start to finish, especially with tracks like Spiritual Anarchy. The long and short of it is that with King Satan is that they have every aspect of the live performance! The band also played a brand new song, entitled Killing Of God, and it sounded seriously killer. We’re all in for a treat with album number two if that track is anything to go by.
Desperate for a drink after dancing and partying so hard to King Satan, I immediately made a beeline for the bar, but much to my dismay I almost-immediately began to hear the tones of II, my personal favourite song of Fear Of Domination, coming from Pakkahuone so naturally had to hurry over to watch it. “No worry,” I said to my friend, “After I enjoy this song, I’ll grab my drink then.” However, next up was Paperdoll, another firm favourite, and I almost wanted to tell them to stop playing such bangers so I could get a break! However, after I’d sung myself hoarse, thankfully (?) the third song wasn’t quite so strong so I was able to take a quick breather before getting back into the action. Although it would have been awesome to party to The Bad Touch, the setlist was pretty decent for the most part with plenty of great songs and many opportunities to dance.
New single Sick And Beautiful was one of the later highlights of the show (check out the new video here), along with We Dominate which is a song that feels like it’s been tailor-made to be perfomed live. Although the performance didn’t quite linger with me like King Satan’s and Turmion Kätilöt’s did after the night was over, Fear Of Domination still put on a great show – there was a lot energy and fun onstage, which filtered into the crowd, and we were dancing pretty hard by the time the set came to a close – which can never be a bad thing!
We skipped Bloodred Hourglass‘s set purely because we couldn’t fit into Klubi without feeling like a sardine, so next up for us at least was the mighty Turmion Kätilöt in Pakkahuone. This was the first time I’d seen them since the release of their Universal Satan album so I was expecting to hear mainly songs from that – and it was roughly half and half, so the balance was pretty good. Verta ja lihaa was the first major highlight; the slightly refreshed and updated version kicks so much ass, and Pirun nyrkki was another highlight. There is something about that song that kicks so much ass when performed live – I challenge you not to pump your fist in the air as you scream the title in the chorus back to them, as live it has a lot of extra bite than it does recorded.
Additionally, as an English speaker it was great to hear them play Faster Than God as I knew I was definitely yelling the right lyrics back aside to some sort of garbled and mangled attempt at Finnish, and it was pretty amusing to see RunQ come out to the front of stage to play a otamatone for the solo! However, it was after this track where the set hit a slight bump. Helvetin torvet didn’t feel like a good choice of track to include in the set, as it slowed the pace down and made the set feel a little jerky as a result. The song is not one of the stronger from Universal Satan, and didn’t fill the room like some of the other tracks. However, it was followed by Sikio, which was one of the strongest tracks from the aforementioned album so if anything it packed more of a punch as a result!
Final two tracks Pyhä maa and Lataa ja varmista rounded it all up nicely with a great deal of energy, and I actually found myself diving into the mosh pit before I could stop myself! Pyhä maa is always a pleasure to see live and Lataa ja varmista just felt like a triumphant end to the performance. Dripping with sweat and feeling a little battered, bruised and tired, there was no way we were going to make it through Medeia’s set so we called it a night at that point (at least I can take comfort in the fact I saw them at Nummirock last year and they were awesome there).
Talvihelvetti was an all-round great concert. Although it would have been nice to have had a little gap between bands (only five or so minutes!) and the differences between the sizes of Klubi and Pakkahuone meant there was a bit of a gridlock in Klubi whilst bands were onstage in there, as a whole it was an excellent night with a well-put-together lineup. And if the festival comes back for another round next year, you can sure I’ll be back for another helping!
