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Black Flames of Blasphemy III - 11/16/2012 - Kulttuuriareena Gloria - Helsinki

Change of location for the third edition of Black Flames of Blasphemy, as the old venue, let’s say, is no more really much into rock/metal music. So here we are at Gloria, still in the center of Helsinki, for two days full of interesting Finnish and international acts, headlined by Mgła and Necros Christos, respectively. Good expectations also towards the other bands, but let’s see what happened more in detail.

Friday 16th

Full of painkillers after dentist surgery I find my way to the venue, which opens a good half hour later than announced. Just the time to leave the jacket and have a quick look around, that Sargeist is already conquering the stage. Two inverted crosses and pig heads, together with the candleholders at the side, are the traditional stage props of the event, while the name of the bands will be projected on the background.
Sargeist begins with a song well suited for the event, "Satanic Black Devotion", and the crowd gathering in front of the stage immediately starts the headbanging. It’s the first time I am seeing the band live, and I admit it’s pretty good, although I heard people saying it wasn’t their best performance. Following songs like "Empire of Suffering" and "As Darkness Tears the World Apart", the show ends with "Let The Devil In". At this point I would say the audience should be well warmed-up for the rest of the evening. Lots of foreign people as well came to see the festival.
Uncreation’s Dawn is next. I did see the guys playing before, as they present mostly new material from their third full-length "Holy Empire of Rats". Straightforward black metal describes quite well the band’s offer, and I listen to it mostly while checking out the nice pictures exposed on the 2nd floor at both sides of the balconies.
I must say I wasn’t familiar with the Swedish IXXI, and what remains most of their show is the more direct attitude on stage, often teasing and inciting the crowd, especially the bass and guitar players. Half of the line-up has changed about a year ago, and the band seems in the process of working on some new material.
Second main attraction of this first evening seems to be Sarven Varjo (totally nothing to do with Goatmoon! - which was scheduled to play today), the band is strongly acclaimed by many people in the festival, and seems to be one of the biggest success of these two days. Pictures of Stalin appear here and there in the video projection behind the drum set, while the band focus on playing their music, and the fans seems to be going crazy. Quite good, I must say!
One band I was really looking forward to see today is Saturnian Mist, as I know from seeing Charnel Winds live that their singer has a very good stage presence, which makes the show already interesting in itself. Besides, I like their work quite much, and I was maybe not blown away, but surely satisfied with how the gig turned out. One of today’s highlights.
To wrap up this first night of BFOBIII, from Poland, there is Mgła. The masked guys (live members included) are not really much into small talk, and open up after a brief change-over with "Further Down The Nest I", from the homonymous EP. Half set is taken of course by the latest album, "With Hearts Toward None", which I find actually quite good. A couple of tracks from "Mdłości" and then "Groza III" complete their set, I think maybe a little shorter than expected. In the meantime it seems that many people had been leaving already, such a shame. Performance-wise nothing major to report, but over all a nice gig.

With this ended the first day (and my dose of meds for the pain). The worse regret was not being able to drink alcohol. Funniest part of the evening was probably the drunk guy shouting "Goatmoon, Goatmoon" before and during IXXI show, which might have pissed them off a bit.
But while we are only half-way through the festival, we had already the chance to see some very nice bands like Saturnian Mist, Sargeist, and even those mysterious Sarven Varjo, which suddenly came out of nowhere on the running order.

Saturday 17th

Here we are for the second half of the festival. It’s a pity that there are also many other interesting events happening during this weekend, but hopefully the people knows that this is where they should be. Actually, I have been already to another show in the afternoon, and right after that I have just the time to grab some food and run to Gloria.

Not much of an audience is there when The True Werwolf performs. As the name suggest, the band is another project of Werwolf (Satanic Warmaster), which produced so far some EPs, compilation and a split with Black Misery. It’s a very short set, still quite interesting, and I must say that the band logo is awesome. A side note on the stage "decorations" of the day: only one cross is left, and crucified on it there is a whole pig.
Sooner than you know it, is already time for Godless North, finding their way here from the not so different (climate-wise) Canada. The show is focused on their (so far) only full-length, "Summon The Age of Supremacy", and their newest EP "World In Flames". The crowd didn’t seem to be too much into the gig, as quickly is time for Ascension.
The German band must have exaggerated a bit with the flour, covering not only themselves and the whole stage, but also the people in the first rows during the show. The eyes are focused on the singer, which reminds me somehow of Valkyrja. Relatively young band, the guys perform well on stage, and more people starts gathering while the time for the next act approaches. One of the first French black metal bands, Antaeus sure has a lot more to offer to its fans, as the concert starts with "Devotee" and "De Principii Evangelikum". Many are the songs from "Blood Libels" (2006), and it seems their leader MkM knows how to capture the audience’s attention. Despite the good performance, concluded with the song "Blood Libels", everything that happened so far today, is going to be surpassed by the great show that Baptism had planned for its fans.
"As The Darkness Enters" just came out only a few days earlier, and the band announced long ago that they would have played it in its entirety during the festival. And it’s a good album. Even the various guest vocalists who accompany Lord Sargofagian in the record, show up one by one: the singer of Sargeist (and Behexen), Mynni Luukkainen (Sotajumala, Horna, ex-Ajattara), and Wrath (True Black Dawn, ex-Enochian Crescent). The atmosphere is good, the performance itself is seizing the audience, which seems to be totally into the show. I think the band here today had a really successful live show. Even so that it was somehow beyond expectation, and made the following Necros Christos show not so exciting anymore. The German band had a good show, nothing to say about that, but to me not as good as the previous. The guys came on stage with their traditional "ceremonial" clothes, and played mostly songs from "Doom of the Occult", as well as some older material. The people also was really into the music, and pushing in the front. Still I would say Baptism was by far the most interesting band who played today, and maybe in the whole festival.

Ultimately Black Flames might have been slightly reduced in size, but still provides the fans of black metal music a winning mixture of talented local bands and very interesting foreign acts. Not really much to complain about, even if it would have been surely more enjoyable if I didn’t have to take all these strong painkillers all the time. But I need to stress again how important is to have someone that is willing to arrange every year this kind of event, giving value to the local scene, and bringing to Finland bands that otherwise we might not be able to see here in Scandinavia. Sure it’s not really easy, and these guys seems to manage to organize something nice all the time. Waiting for next year, there will be of course many other gigs and also Hammer in the next July.

Photos:
Black Flames of Blasphemy III (16-17.11.2012 @ Gloria, Helsinki)

Report a cura di Marco Manzi