NUMMIROCK 2006
@ Nummijärvi, Finland - June 23rd-24th, 2006
by Juliane John
Nummijärvi, Finland. A small village (and I really mean small, the size of Wacken is nothing compared to it) in the middle of nowhere in Central Finland. There was a main road, a few houses, a whole lot of trees and a lake… and somewhere in between the Nummirock Festival. The setting couldn’t have been more idyllic. The camping grounds were nicely surrounded by trees and if you were lucky to pick the right one you even had the shore of the lake right by your side. The showers were even for free but unfortunately freezing cold so that most people preferred to take a swim in the lake.
The festival area consisted of three stages, the “vihreä lava” (green stage), which was the main stage, the medium sized and rather cosy Inferno Stage, which had a wooden “floor”, was surrounded by trees and was right near the lake, and the small Räminä stage that was between these two stages. There was a beer tent with some possibilities to sit down inside and outside from where you had a pretty good view to the main stage. Of course some heavy karaoke couldn’t miss on a true Finnish festival so if you were looking for some entertainment aside from the bands you could be sure to find it there. The usual food and merchandise stands weren’t missing either but the selection of both could have been wider and especially the merchandise offer was rather mainstream orientated, something you wouldn’t really expect from a Finnish festival with lots of local bands. Overall, it was acceptable though.
Friday:
After a rather short night and not enough sleep the first festival day started with Charon, one of the bands that had attracted my attention for this festival. I was in high spirits when I made my way to the festival area as this was the first open air festival for me this year. I didn’t quite understand why Charon had the dubious honour to open the festival because they would have deserved to play later in the afternoon after having released five great album by now. But sometimes it’s just not easy to see what’s going on in festival organizers’ minds. Anyway, I was happy to see them again no matter what time it was. Their show was a lot better compared to the little club gig in Hannover (GER) earlier this year. The guys seemed a lot fresher and we’re obviously having a lot of fun on stage. Even Pasi, who seemed pretty shy and introvert to me in Hannover, finally showed us his extroverted side. He acted a lot more on stage and even lost his guitar strap after a spirited movement so that he had to kneel down during the rest of the song. Believe me it was a quite funny sight. As usual front man J.P. was the centre of attraction but since the stage was quite high and the crowd far away, he couldn’t flirt with the girls in the audience. What a pity! Surprisingly, I could spot a lot more guys in the audience than at the German show in February so I suppose J.P. would have antagonized some guys anyway. Overall, Charon rocked and showed a lot more stage presence than on the spring tour.
Setlist:
Colder – Christina Bleeds – If – In Trust of No One – Four Seasons Rush – Ride on Tears – Deep Water – Bitter Joy – Guilt on Skin – Craving – Sister Misery – Death Can Dance – Little Angel – Come Tonight
Still in high spirits, I went to check out To the Darker Grounds who were playing on the small Rämina Stage. It seemed like only demo bands or very young bands with just one album out were playing on that stage and To the Darker Grounds actually made the impression of a school band on me. Their music wasn’t bad but they definitely have to work on their stage performance as they seemed rather lost even on that small stage.
In contrast to that, Tarot were absolutely professional. The band of the Hietala brothers (singer and bassist Marco is more well-known for his appearance in Nightwish) has been around for some 20 years and has therefore gained a quite good reputation in Finland. That’s why it’s no wonder that they were enthusiastically welcomed with “Marco” shouts. The keyboard was decorated with two skulls, Zachary seemed to have brought his whole guitar collection (among them a rather “unique” looking rainbow coloured specimen) and everyone seemed to be enjoying the gig a lot. During the third song, Tommi Salmela who has been taking care of the back up vocals took over the front man’s duties, which was as far as I know one of the first times so far. All in all a solid performance.
The first band to really rock the crowd was Verjnuarmu -the band no one can pronounce properly. Even some Finnish native speakers seem to have trouble with it since the name is derived from the Savo dialect that the band also uses in their lyrics. But not only that is special about them, they are also dressed up as different characters and use corpse paint (not in the black metal way though). One guitarist for example represents a priest, while the singer wears a tuxedo and a stovepipe hat (surprisingly, he didn’t lose that hat during the show even when he was headbanging). Yes, Kiss and co. have been doing this stuff already ages ago but I’d say that Verjnuarmu are not the average let’s-dress-up-so-we-get-more-publicity type of band. Their music really has something to offer. It’s quite difficult to label it but if you want to make your life easy you could call the baby heavy metal spiced up with typical Gothenburg dual harmonies here, some death growls there and wonderful chorales. All these things together created an atmospheric vibe during their gig that was even more emphasized due to the fact the Inferno Stage was surrounded by trees and therefore a little darker than the other two stages. Out of all the performances at Nummirock this was definitely one of the most memorable ones. After they left the stage, Marco Hietala came on stage to cheer to crowd to demand for an encore. Very nice gesture I must say!
At exactly 6.30 p.m. the total war began. Marduk, a band that was formed to create the most blasphemous and brutal music ever, can definitely live up to their reputation. They ran into battle with hateful growling from their new singer Mortuus and took no hostages at all. Some people could flee in time but overall dead or alive was the motto! Well, seriously now. If you weren’t anyhow into black metal, this was surely the band to take a break. The crowd was fairly big though, probably because Marduk was the only black metal band on the whole festival. I’m usually not that much into black metal except for a few exceptions but live shows are always a different thing so go figure, I absolutely enjoyed Marduk. So did the crowd as the first real moshpit was to be seen on that day. There was at least as much action going on on stage as in the crowd: the guitar front was banging like there was no tomorrow, drum machine Emil gave absolutely everything (dead beat was my first association) while Mortuus screeched all his hate out. Marduk rocked, end of the story!
Next on my list were Ruoska. If someone had told me before that they were just a cheap Rammstein cover I would have skipped them. I was already a little suspicious when I saw their weird white outfits that reminded me rather of a techno fan than of a metal band. Well, with techno I didn’t even miss the target by far because their music actually sounds almost like techno. The line between industrial and techno wasn’t clear during some songs even though the Rammstein inspired sound couldn’t be ignored, but overall they sounded a bit heavier than the German original. What was even worse than their music was their performance. Their singer moved so stiffly that you could think he had spent too much time in the gym and couldn’t relax his muscles anymore! Maybe it was even a contagious disease as the whole band seemed to move like robots. After 10 minutes or so I had enough and decided to sit down at the beach and seize the wonderful weather.
I was actually on my way to the camping ground when I passed the small Räminä Stage where Naildown were playing next. Since I had heard only good things about them I decided to check them out. Thank God I did because these guys rocked. The first notes of their opener reminded me of Norther somehow (I guess it was the title track of their first album “World Domination” which is constantly spinning in my CD player now) but they turned out to have their own approach to melodeath. Norther and Children of Bodom may well serve as an orientation but overall they sound less melodic. As the band is still pretty young, their stage presence wasn’t at its best yet but towards the end of their set they loosened up a bit and their bassist even started to jump around, which was a quite funny sight. Unfortunately, the sound wasn’t that well and only about 40-50 people actually watched their show, which seemed to be a general problem with the Räminä Stage. The fact that it was the smallest stage and that mainly young bands were playing there didn’t attract many people as I never really saw a “crowd” in front of that stage.
Next up were Gorefest, who had replaced the actual headliner Deicide. As I’ve never really gotten into either one of those bands, I cannot say whether Gorefest were a worthy replacement or not but I didn’t like them that much. While Ruoska still had a certain amusement factor, this band was just boring. Their music wasn’t really my cup of tea and their show had no appeal to me at all. Singer and bassist Jan Chris de Koyer was just acting weird and was anything than charismatic. This way, I at least had some time to get something to eat finally and get some warmer clothes because it was actually getting pretty chilly in the evening.
After a little snack I got back just in time to see The Duskfall hit the stage. The death/thrash quintet from Sweden gave a 100 % from the first minute on stage and could absolutely convince with their show and material. Vocalist Kai Jaakkola belongs to super agile type of front men and never stood still for more than a second (or maybe two). As I usually couldn’t understand the announcements made by bands between their songs I had anticipated to finally understand them again but no. Kai is supposedly Finnish and therefore he spoke to the crowd in Finnish of course. The only thing I understood was that he dedicated two songs to “a crazy motherfucker” (I wonder who that person was because he actually said that in English). Besides, “Jumalauta” among some other swear words could be heard after pretty much every song. I’ll never understand the Finnish affinity for swearing but at least it sounds decent compared to some other languages.
Setlist:
Trust is Overrated - The Shallow End - The Light - Source - Case Closed - Hours Are Wasted- Destroyer -Shoot It In - Brake the Pact - Age of Errors – Guidance
Diablo proved to be a worthy Friday night headliner and if you took the crowd’s excitement into consideration they were even one of the most acclaimed acts of the festival (even though they didn’t belong to the “real” headliners). They’ve obviously gained a big fan base recently for they could even outdo bands like Edguy and Hypocrisy who had to face a less excited crowd on the following day. Vocalist Rainer Nygard, whose hair has grown to a respectable length now, had the audience on his side and proved to have real front man qualities. His resemblance with Metallica front man James Hetfield is amazing and even his gestures sometimes reminded of his famous “twin”. Of course there’s no good performance of a Finnish band IN Finland without some swearing so towards the end of their gig he had the crowd scream “Perkele” as loud as they could.
Setlist:
Shadow World - The Icon of Flesh - Read My Scars – Damien - Rebellion of One -In Sorrow We Trust - Condition red - Queen of Entity - The Preacher - Mimic47 - encore
The last performance of the day was marked by Korpiklaani. Actually, I couldn’t think of a better band to play on festival in the country side at Midsummer. Just consider their name which translates into forest clan. Despite the late hour, the band was super agile. Cane and Jonne were running around the stage that it would almost make you believe they had a little contest going on. Ironically, they opened with “Journey Man”. Of course “Spirit of the Forest” and the band anthem “Korpiklaani” couldn’t miss in their set but despite my hopes they didn’t play “Midsummer Night”. Where else than on this festival and at this time of the year would this song have fitted better? This is my only complain though. The band’s show and music was so energetic that it could wake you up no matter how tired you were. So it’s no wonder that the entire crowd was having a great party. Everyone was dancing and jumping around and during “Juokse Sinä Humma” some people even started a polonaise. Now someone say that metal heads don’t dance! You just have to play the right music! After “Beer Beer” the set was already over but no one was going to let them go just like that. Since Korpiklaani were the last band to play they of course came back for an encore, not only for one but for four! After “Li Lea Voibmi” and a very traditionally Finnish sounding song called “Sukset” from the band Popeda the first festival day was over.
Setlist:
Journey Man – Väkirauta – Happy Little Boozer – Korpiklaani – Pellonpekko – Spirit of The Forest – Cottages and Saunas – Spring Dance – Wooden Pints – Tulikokko – Juokse Sinä Humma – Hunting Song – Beer Beer
encore: Before The Morning Sun – Pine Woods – Li Lea Voibmi – Sukset
When I walked to my tent, I realized how bright it was again. It seemed like daytime even though it was 3 o’clock at night. For someone from the more southern regions of Europe this is certainly weird as it was a whole new experience that it never became dark at all, only a little dim for two hours maybe.
Saturday:
The next day I was actually planning to check out Suburban Tribe but I just couldn’t get up so I just listened to them from the camping ground. Therefore Stam1na were to be first band that day. As they are one of these Finnish bands that you don’t get to see outside the country I was more than looking forward to seeing them. Their gig exceeded all my expectations. The four Finns put on such a crazy show that you just had to like them. They opened with the homonymous first track from the current album “Uudet Kymmenen Käskyä” (the new 10 commandments) and had the crowd on their side from the first minute. The hair was just flying everywhere on stage and the guys were spinning around themselves and even managed to headbang while doing so. I really wonder how they did that without bumping into each other or the gear on stage! Songwise, “Ristiriita” from the first album was a little highlight for me as well as the crazy “Kaksi Reittiä Yksi Suunta”. Vocalist Hyrde obviously made some jokes between the songs (wished I could have understood them) so that guitarist Pexi was demonstratively looking on his watch to signal that they were running out of time. Finally a band showed their humorous side (maybe one of the previous bands had done so without me noticing it due to the language barrier) When they came back for the encore, the guys seemed to have lost their shirts – or maybe they didn’t have time to put them back on, who knows. The girls in the audience surely didn’t mind it.
Setlist:
Uudet Kymmenen Käskyä – Viisi Laukasta Pöähän – Ristiriita – Edessäni – Merestä Maa – Vapaa Maa – Paha Arkkitehti – Suhdeluku – Kadoneet Kolme Sanaa – Kaksi Reittiä Yksi Suunta
Encore: Väkivaltakunta – Likainen Parketti
The most anticipated band of this whole festival was probably Amorphis for me. I had unfortunately missed them on the Neckbreaker’s Ballroom Tour earlier this year so I was more than excited about seeing them with their new singer Tomi Joutsen. His voice has a lot more warmth compared to former vocalist Pasi Koskinen and fits a lot better to Amorphis’ music in my opinion. Besides that, Tomi is simply an exceptionally gifted front man for he displays so much charisma which is underlined very well by his old style microphone. From singing, to head banging to cheering the crowd, this guy gave everything so that you could see him take a deep breath after one song or the other. The rest of the band seemed a bit reserved though which might be due to the fact that this was their third show in three days. Nevertheless, the audience was in a visibly good mood which once again proved the importance of Finnish bands for the whole metal scene.
Setlist:
Leaves Scar – House of Sleep – Against Widows – In The Beginning – Divinity – Under a Soil and Black Stone – Perkele – Smoke – Karelian Intro – Sign From The North – My Kantele – Alone – Castaway
“Are you ready to kill?” Believe me Nummirock was ready to kill when Kreator hit the stage with “Enemy of God”. The mosh pit was as big as never before despite the prejudice that Finnish crowds never get really wild. In fact, they got so wild that the security finally started to hand out water. But not enough, vocalist Mille demanded for “a fucking huge mosh pit Finland style”. He got what he asked for even if you’d thought that there was no increase possible. “Violent Revolution” marked the highlight of their show as usual but only until the final two songs “Flag of Hate” and “Tormentor”. Beforehand, Mille animated the crowd’s reserves one more time by having him the scream the refrain of the aforementioned song. Great show, a wild crowd: what else can you wish for?
Setlist:
Enemy of God – Impossible Brutality – Extreme Aggression – People of the Lie – Voiced of the Dead – Violent Revolution – Suicide Terrorist – Pleasure to Kill – Phobia – Terrible Certainty – Betrayer – Flag of Hate/Tormentor
Next up was Samael. I wasn’t very familiar with their material and maybe because of that it couldn’t really hook me up. Their music surely wasn’t bad at all but I just wasn’t in the right mood so once more I decided in favour of the beach to enjoy the beautiful surrounding.
Now it was time for the headliner, Edguy. What can I say? No, no, no!!! Taking yourselves not serious is one thing but what they and especially front man Tobi were doing just wasn’t funny anymore. They welcomed the crowd “Hello Sweden”, only to let everyone know that Germany just beat Sweden in the Soccer World Cup. Damn, who cares? This was a Finnish festival. But not enough, after that they interrupted the next song with a “Do you want a good finish/Finnish?” Pardon me, this was the lamest joke I heard in a long time. Song titles like “Lavatory Lover” did the rest but even when you thought it couldn’t get worse, it did. “Do you like fucking?” served as an introduction for “Fucking with Fire” and it went on and on like that. Well, if you could actually ignore all the talking the band was quite entertaining to watch. They made fun of all the old school clichés like lining up together and imitating guns with their guitars (or maybe they weren’t making fun of it, wouldn’t surprise me) and front man Tobi seemed to have ants in his pants as he was constantly jumping around the stage. Well, I guess you either liked or hated the band but overall I’d say that some of the other bands would have made a better headliner.
Hypocrisy had bad luck with their performance. They did everything right: great performance, great sound (as with almost every band, the sound technicians did a great job), great music. But somehow, the band could not get the audience on their side. This might partly be due to the still fairly bright light as Hypocrisy’s dark sound requires some dark atmosphere to fully develop its strength. Nevertheless, the band presented a tight set that covered almost the whole band history from the first album “Penetralia” to their current work “Virus”. Apart from that, we had the honour to celebrate guitarist Andreas Holma’s birthday. The crowd sang Happy Birthday for him and band mastermind Peter Tägtgren showed his wishes with a birthday cake – which he slammed on his band mate’s head! Heavy Birthday!
Setlist:
Fractured Millenium – Killing Art – The Fourth Dimension – Osculum – Obscenum – Elastic Inverted Visions – Fire in the Sky – Impotent God – Eraser – Warpath – Roswell 47 – Final Chapter – Let the Knife Do the Talking
The last band to play on the Inferno Stage was Mokoma. I couldn’t believe my eyes what was going on there. The quintet was enthusiastically celebrated like big stars and had the biggest crowd ever on that stage. Their music is somewhere between death and thrash metal with very rhythmic drums and Finnish lyrics and the Finns delivered a crazy and energetic live show. Since they are label mates with Stam1na, they had “sexy Pexi” as singer Marko Annala announced him join them on stage for one song. Not real sure what the third guitar was supposed to contribute but it was a nice gimmick indeed. After their regular set, the audience frantically demanded for more and even after the encore they still weren’t satisfied. Thumbs up for such an awesome crowd!
With Timo Rautiainen’s gig the festival ended. The music wasn’t really my cup of tea and since my ability to concentrate was simply gone after so many great bands I didn’t really follow their show anymore.
To sum it up, the Nummirock festival is definitely one of its own kind. The atmosphere is great with the lake nearby, the size of the festival isn’t too big and you can see the bands on stage from almost every place on the festival grounds. The camping grounds are within a 5 minute walk depending on where you set up your tent so you never really have to hurry or fear to miss a band. The only minus is the rather bad selection of food and merchandise stands but that’s something you can ignore. Overall, Nummirock has become my favourite festival and I can only recommend this to everyone even though it’s not the easiest to get there if you’re not going by car. But if you’re looking for a unique festival experience, be sure to find it at the Nummirock Festival!
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