Finnish Metal Expo, the already traditional two days event was again organized in the Caple Factory of Helsinki on February 19-20, 2010. The event is not only a great music festival with an interesting band bill and a trade fair with various exhibitors but also a great meeting place for bands, industry people, and fans. This year some 5000 visitors gathered inside the roomy space, surrounded by the weather of almost 20 minus degrees multiplied by brisk wind. Hopefully not too many frozen body parts were left on the icy snow-blocked streets of Helsinki.
FME is also an event that shares the annual Finnish Metal Awards, voted by fans among the unlisted assortment of domestic metal bands and artists. This year was a jackpot for Insomnium, the melodic death metallers of Joensuu. Insomnium took the first place on the two most important categories: best band and best album. Moreover, the impressive cover art of their recent “Across the Dark” album, designed by Wille Naukkarinen (also playing himself in Ghost Brigade), was rated second in the album cover art category. All this success came as a big surprise to the band, as told by their singer & bass player Niilo Sevänen with whom I managed to chat soon after the prize release. But hey, it is all well deserved! A funny coincidence in the event was that the prizes were handed out right after the Insomnium gig, their stage sheet still in its place to highlight the prize giving.
Summary of the winners:
Best band: Insomnium ... Best album: Across the Dark, Insomnium ... Best singer: Tomi Joutsen, Amorphis ... Best player: Alexi Laiho, Children of Bodom ... Album cover art: Skyforger, Amorphis (Travis Smith) ... Best newcomer: FM2000 ... Best demo band: Ghoul Patrol
Of the talks I had with various people during the event, one of the most interesting one was with Marko Annala of the successful Finnish thrash group Mokoma. There are great anticipations for the upcoming Mokoma album “Sydänjuuret” (released on March 24). Expectations are high also for the visual side of the new release, as usually in the Mokoma case. The album will be released in the format of a jewel case CD, book CD, vinyl, and a downloadable mp3 with a pdf-booklet, all full of visual works of the “Mokoma artist” Ville Pirinen. Trying more appealing ways to package the album may also been as a countermove for the worrying development of music consumption and fan culture addressed by Marko.
But of course, the core of FME is the live performances. On Friday, the start of the expo was from my behalf spent in expectation for the later acts of the evening. I had a brief glimpse of Korpiklaani, Kiana, [Amatory] and Doom Unit, but the first band arousing my interest was the V For Violence with their quite an interesting song selection and stage presence. Anyhow, the evening was lifted onto a totally different level when Hypocrisy engulfed the stage with their energetic performance. The Swedes were followed by the western neighbours Satyricon that really blew the place apart. Along with the charisma that the band has onstage, especially Satyr himself, their really tight playing, great songs, and super sounds (which is not self-evident in that specific hall) it is easy to rate their gig as the most convincing one in FME 2010. Friday was then closed by Amorphis who played a rather standard show, however including some rarities in the set list. Their starting time at 1 am did not make much sense, especially as the start was delayed by over 20 minutes due to technical reasons.
The second day was purely Finnish. I arrived to the venue to see Insomnium and their powerful set. In addition to the auditory delight, the gig was candy for the eyes with the nicely timed lights dressing up the songs with specific moods. The set should have been longer, but it certainly created expectations for Insomnium headlining shows that hopefully are more to come in the future. Survivors Zero followed with their more old school thrash shredded through with high-quality craftsmanship. For Swallow the Sun, the big and gloomy hall is not a perfect place to catch their magical mood, but the band succeeded well in creating a great atmosphere among the audience. Keyboardist Aleksi Munter mentioned later in the evening that the band itself had really good time on stage, something which you don’t explicitly notice from their cool and restricted appearance, but feel inherently in your guts. Following STS, Apocalyptica appeared, as usually, professional and flawless. The band had a guest singer on “I’m not Jesus”, “Life Burns” and “I Don’t Care”, who remained unrecognized for me (someone knows more?) but was probably the best guest that I have seen doing these songs with the band live. They also offered a beautiful glimpse from their upcoming seventh album. Finally, Sonata Arctica, despite the late slot, managed to pack the hall full, and performed a lively set with the standard good humour of SA. For me, the highlight of the set was the beautiful triplet of the recent album: “As if the World Wasn’t Ending”, “the last Amazing Grace” and “Juliet”.
These were good two days in general. Finnish metal is still going strong, and increasingly versatile.
Toni-Matti Karjalainen
Another FME report (in Finnish):
http://www.festarit.org/raportit/209
