Il portale della musica Heavy Metal

Hammer Open Air 2013 - Day 2 - 7/20/2013 - Mannin Navetta - Lieto

After a sleepless night (any King Diamond reference is purely done by chance), it’s time to slowly head from the camping to the festival area. The camping itself has seen some animated discussions early in the morning, but apart from a few people with small "pub brawl"-like injuries, nothing more. This can be summed up in two words: Finns and alcohol.
The first impression I have from this day is that the whole organization is working really hard on a very tight schedule to get things ready when it’s time to open to the public. And in fact there is still some soundcheck going on when it’s about time to let the people flow in. Anyhow, Archgoat for undisclosed reasons had to cancel their appearance to the event, in their stead, another of the pioneers of Finnish black metal makes its appearance here at HOA, namely Azazel.
The band has released their first full-length, "Jesus Perversions" last year, after 20 years of activity. They turn out to be a good opening act for the day, some old-school black metal still, but worth checking out. Also, it’s a very nice background music while I am finally eating some burger. On a side note: the omnipresent Karhu beer sure wasn’t missing on stage.



It is time then for a much younger band, Blood Red Fog. I was curious to see this one, as I heard positive things about them. It turned out to be quite ok, and I would like to see them again in a club gig at some point. Interesting fact, the drummer is the singer of yesterday’s Funerary Bell, and the singer is one of the two guitar players. Small world, small scene. They don’t really have time to play many songs, given their length within their short set.



This was just the starter, and the day was about to get increasingly hot - figuratively speaking, because in reality it was windy and also rained again at some point. The second German band of the festival, Venenum is something I honestly hadn’t heard much of before, although some people seemed to actually be looking forward to it. And no wonder I didn’t, as their only release is actually an EP dated 2011. Despite that I must say there was a reason for people to be waiting for them. Turned out to be pretty good death metal, poisonous as their name. They had to live up to that!



As the sun starts to shine again, Abhorrence makes yet another appearance in this summer, the third in a bit less than two months for me. I cannot complain though, because the band is actually pretty good. The guys recently reunited (we are talking about last year), and they are again one of those "cult" bands from the late eighties otherwise unknown outside the national borders. Which is a shame actually. I did enjoy both the shows in Tuska and here very much. And if you are wondering, yes, one of the guitar players is Tomi Koivusaari from Amorphis. Again, Finland is small, the metal scene is smaller, and there is an awful lot of interesting bands in this country.



I didn’t have any expectation whatsoever when Ram came out to play. I had to quickly change my mind on that when I saw how much the band actually put on stage, that was fun! Also they were the only band playing classic Heavy Metal at this festival, and I think there is a fairly good reason for them to have a label like Metal Blade backing them.



But the best part of the day is from now on. I have this own little tradition to see Skyforger at least once a year. I really like this Latvian band, I fell in love with their music after the "Latvian Riflemen" album. And this I can say is one of the best shows I have seen of them in a while, at least since they don’t have any more in the band the bagpiper/piper/other traditional folk instruments player.
That is actually the only downside of the gig, because the more folk-ish parts are now missing, and the band has to focus mostly on heavier material. Luckily for them - and for us - that material is also pretty damn good, and especially when they perform live. The singer Peter was actually explaining the meaning of each song to the crowd, and some fans were even singing along. Personal highlights of the show "Kauja Pie Plakaniem, Kauja Pie Veisiem" and the conclusive "Migla, Migla, Rasa, Rasa". Double thumbs up for Skyforger!



Now as an Italian I can just say I am proud of how Bulldozer literally kicked ass at this festival. Between jokes (I wonder how much the Finns actually get of the meaning behind these songs), laughter, and a generally fun atmosphere, the people both on and off stage are really enjoying themselves. And how can you not do that when the songs are something like "Ilona the very Best", "Misogynists", "Impotence" e "Minkions"? Without missing a dedication to our nice Italian politicians with the song "Bastards"!
Some guy during the gig told me "An Italian vampire? that’s new!", as to comment the appearance of the singer A.C. Wild (sarcasm alert: these guys are not at all A.C. Milan fans!).
The show ends as of tradition with "Willful Death", dedicated to the founding member Dario Carria, who committed suicide in 1988, and the mood here gets a bit more serious. So to tone it down again, I will tell you another trivial fact: "Ilona" in Finnish means joy, pleasure. It also happen to be the name of the porn star to whom one song I mentioned above is dedicated.



I think after Venom, Repulsion was one of the main reasons for many people to be here today, and you could see it clearly from the warm welcome they gave to the trio as soon as they got on stage. One of the forefathers of Grindcore, the guys gave it their all here in this little yard in the Finnish countryside with some high-quality music. Scott Carlson seemed quite amused actually by the strong reaction of the audience, but it was well-deserved. Surely one of the highlights of the festival, nailing the fans to their gig from the first notes of "The Stench of Burning Death", to the last of "Horrified".



The weirdest things usually comes from Japan. Once again, this is the case, as Sigh has a whole bunch of stuff going on during their concert, from pyros, burning bibles, burning chalices full of fake blood, the female singer/saxophonist Dr. Mikannibal left in her underwear with dark wings… as a general rule from this band, if you can’t burn it, don’t use it! Also translatable in normal language into "Kids, don’t try this at home!".
Most of their set comes from "Hangman’s Hymn", although I would have preferred a couple songs more from "Imaginary Sonicscape" and "Scorn Defeat". The gig was pretty interesting though, and everyone seemed to be enjoying their performance a lot (I am not talking to you guys drinking beer outside).
The core of the show were undoubtedly the two vocalists, although most of the eyes were probably focused on Dr. Mikannibal, who got so covered in blood that I wonder how she could still see at some point. In any case, well done guys!





Despite the good Sigh show, I must say that Hell are true masters when it comes to the live aspect, and they even keep improving at it! There is just so much theatricality going on, and you cannot love it even if you might not be interested in the band. Which I am, so it makes it all the better!
There is no words to define how involving is David Bower in his performance, even jumping down to reach the audience in a couple occasions, despite temporary losing his crown of thorns. And it really "shall be on Earth as it is in Hell", for at least about an hour, because you cannot keep your eyes off the stage, it’s just too magnetic. Lots of stuff happening then, changes of costume of the vocalist, and another great display of talent from the band as a whole. One of those act you don’t really wanna miss if you have the chance to see them!



Secrets of the Moon didn’t quite have the same effect, if anything it relaxed down the atmosphere a bit. The German guys, who know count in their ranks a female bass player for their live rituals, have definitely a slower, yet darker approach, being this black metal we are now talking about. The band is way more gloomy, and plays mostly its newest material. With Hell’s show still echoing in my ears, my stomach calling for food, and the excitement for Venom, I couldn’t focus properly on their music, which is not bad at all, but the timing just was a bit off.



The last act of the festival, finally Venom! And it’s so much different to see them headlining a festival rather than playing in early afternoon like I did last year. "Black Metaaaaaaaaaaaallll" is the scream that you hear immediately when the guys start with one of their trademark songs, and hell (not the band this time) breaks loose among the fans. I never saw this much people at Hammer I think. There is even some attempts of crowd-surfing, but the security guys did a great job I must say.
The pyros and firework animate the stage and ignite the atmosphere, while Cronos name is invoked by the fans. I have to say, despite not being allowed into the pit to shoot the band (for obvious safety reasons), that I really did enjoy this gig, if nothing else, it’s Venom, goddammit! So many other people did, judging from the extremely high amount of Venom t-shirts.
"Hammerhead", "Bloodlust", "Possessed" follow one after another as beer flows and people are completely into the gig. It doesn’t really even bother that it has been raining a bit again anymore, and who cares when you are singing "Warhead" or "In League With Satan" along with some thousand of people?





Venom was a proper ending to a great weekend. As I said, personally one of the best days of HOA up to date. And I can just hope that the KRK guys will keep up with the goodies for next year!



So it’s time to draw some conclusions. It’s not easy to find a best act of the festival, but I’d say my top five (not necessarily in this order) for HOA 2013 is made by Hell, Venom, Skyforger, Repulsion and Bulldozer. The festival is shaping out really nicely now that this has been the 4th year, and despite there is some small arrangements that could be improved, you really have to congratulate the organizers for pulling it off with an event like this, especially given the effort and the resources that it takes to gather these quality bands here. And when you see that people is doing things with passion for the music and not for money, you really feel the difference. The atmosphere is also very laid-back and friendly, which makes Hammer one of the fixed summer appointments in my agenda. Are you going to be there in 2014?

See all the photos from Saturday here:
Hammer Open Air 2013 - Day 2 (20.07.2013)

And all the other photos from the festival here:
Hammer Open Air 2013

Report a cura di Marco Manzi