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Heart of Steel: Concert
Reviews
“A METALLIC ONSLAUGHT OVER
PROVINSSIROCK FESTIVAL IN 2004”
Featuring live reviews for Mokoma, Exodus,
Hypocrisy and Testament
Review by Luxi “Metal” Lahtinen
Pictures by Luxi “Thrashing” Lahtinen & Niko “Mad”
Karppinen
First off, it needs to be mentioned that this was my 1st
appearance at Provinssirock festival for many years. I remember
being there only once or twice before when I was at least 12-15
years younger than I am nowadays (hell... I´m still young – at
least mentally, ha-ha!!). So a lot of water has been flowing
under a metal bridge since those days... huh!
As some of you may know already, Provinssirock festival is
one of the longest running and most established summer rock
festivals here in Finland that has been either sold-out or
nearly sold out for the last 3-5 years or so. I think that
popularity of this festival is mostly based on diversity of
different kind of bands and of course quality acts that the
organizers of the festival always have always managed to book
for the festival from one year to another. Some of the biggest
names at Provinssirock this year were David Bowie, of course –
who obviously was the most named and expensive artist for the
organizers without doubts; then The Hives from Sweden, The Roots
and Black Eyed Peads from the States, H.I.M. from Finland and
last, but not least, both Exodus and Testament from a very much
respected and adored US Thrash Metal scene.
The main reason, or actually reasons for my decision to
travel to Provinssirock, Seinäjoki, this year, were the true
pioneers of Thrash Metal, Exodus and Testament on the bill of
Provinssirock 2004. I have seen both bands playing live once
before, but now when this great opportunity was there to see
both of them at one festival, it was very easy for me to set a
destination toward Provinssirock 18th of June 2004.
I had originally planned to cover at least 6 or 7 Metal bands
from Provinssirock 2004 for this festival report, but as ´The
King Alcohol´ has this strange yet relatively mysterious
tendency to lead my comings and goings during some certain
festivals, I only managed to see the shows of four bands only at
Provinssirock 2004, which is not that result after all, I guess.
Without prolonging this nonsense intro any further, just keep on
reading to find out which of the following bands made the hugest
and most powerful impression on me on the stage: Mokoma, Exodus,
Hypocrisy or Testament.
Friday, 18th of June
Mokoma (Venue: Rhythm–tent)
.jpg) A
fact: The Finnish thrashers Mokoma were one of the hardest and
most actively gigging bands last year when they were touring for
their rather sensational KURIMUS album, and this year has
possibly been even more active for them gigging-wise. Mokoma´s
new album, TÄMÄN MAAILMAN RUHTINAAN HOVI, which was released
this spring here in Finland, put the band on the road for many
months and it needs to be admitted that their live experience
really shines through a great way when the guys perform for
their audience. Their gig at Provinssirock in 2004 didn´t make
an exception either. The band arrived on the stage with all
their guns blazing, obviously wanting to offer the best possible
live performance they could possibly be able to thrash out from
their asses. And dear God, it seemed like there was simply no
way that someone could be disappointed after seeing this
furiously thrashing act onstage. Stage is, metaphorically
speaking at least, Mokoma´s home; home sweet home, their
madhouse, their slaughterhouse, their battle field, etc. if you
allow me to use such cliché–infested descriptions overall about
the band´s live appearance and strength. There was lots of crazy
metalheads raging out in a huge moshpit during the entire show
of the band, some more - some less drunk, but everyone seemed to
have at least a bit of fun while the guys of Mokoma tried their
best to slaughter everyone sonically in the audience, squeezing
and sucking every drop of blood out from everyone. A relentless
chaos was obviously meant to get spred and reign like a disease
amongst the crazy crowd during Mokoma´s performance – and yes,
these goals were reached relatively easily - and in no time,
he-he!
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.jpg)
.jpg) I
guess it was only natural and ´normal´ that these Finnish
Thrash-men had chosen many songs off their latest album for
their set at Provinssirock 2004; like they almost wanted to make
sure everyone would become convinced what a hell of a bunch of
killer and mind-pulverizing songs they have succeed to record
for latest Thrash Metal opus, TÄMÄN MAAILMAN RUHTINAAN HOVI. For
example, such songs off T.M.H.J. as far as I´m still able to
remember - as “Hiljaisuuden Julistaja”, “Minä Elän!”, “Vade
Retro, Satana!”, “Poltetun Maan Taktiikka”, “Hyinen Syli” and
“Kiellän Itseni!” were aired furiously by this relentlessly
thrashin´ and respectably well-moving 5-some. All of the
aforementioned songs representing some of the finest and most
aggressive tunes Mokoma have ever penned down during their whole
existence. Also, some important yet very vital songs off
Mokoma´s previous, amazingly well-received KURIMUS album (well,
I guess mostly here in Finland, though) were heard during their
aggressive and violent set. They played at least such songs off
the KURIMUS album as “Mene ja Tiedä”, “Kasvot Kohti Itää”,
“Punainen Kukko”, “Väsynyt Atlas” and “Takatalvi”. The whole
band seemed to be in a great live shape, pulling through their
50-minutes set pretty damn effortlessly without even looking
tired or bored onstage at all. The band´s strength is definitely
based on their energetic, very high-octane and powerful stage
presence. Mokoma´s entertainment level in a live situation is
one of the most convincing I have ever been able to witness in
my life and I can only recommend you to check them out if this
bunch ever comes to your home town to disturb your lovely and
close neighbors. Ya know, Mokoma RULES!!
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Exodus (Venue: Island Stage)
 For
me, to see Exodus was one of the most important reasons in my
final decision to travel to Provinssirock, Seinäjoki, this year.
I had seen Exodus' performance at Wacken festival in 2002 for
the very 1st time in my life and the band´s comeback back in
2002 succeeded in leaving me with a relatively good memory about
their vintage, classic thrashing metal onslaught at Wacken
festival even if I also have to say to see them with Paul Baloff
would surely have been even a bit more “special” experience for
me personally without doubts. But as Steve “Zetro” Souza said
back then, the spirit of Paul was there with them onstage if
that was meant to work out as sort of consolation for some
people in the massive crowd at that moment back then? If I can
be this honest, his words didn´t reach me or move one way or
another – just don´t know why?
Back to Provinssirock next, though. Concerning the fact this
also was the very first time both for Exodus to play in this
isolated country called Finland - and for the Finnish Exodus
fans to finally witness, after many years of waiting, these
highly appreciated Bay Area Thrash pioneers in flesh and blood
right here at Provinssirock festival, Seinäjoki. It was really
nice to notice that so many both ´old´ - and ´new´ metal fans
had dragged their asses to this festival this year – and as my
assumption was, primarily just because of the mighty Exodus
according to a vast army of people wearing Exodus shirts in the
audience.
Just 15-20 minutes before the actual show time, sort of a
“strange, but very special” feeling filled the air and it was
clearly sensed out from the audience as many fans started
shouting Exodus´ name anxiously, full of an unbridled
excitement, and when the band finally came to the stage, the
most devoted, die-hard Exodus fans seemed to go absolutely nuts
in the front of their worshipped ´heroes´. The set was kicked
off with “Scar Spangled Banner” which caused immensely reactions
of a sheer chaos amongst the audience, soon being followed by
“Deliver Us to Evil”, “Blacklist”, “Piranha”, “Til Death Do Us
Part”, etc. that really raised the spirit of a memorable night
of a fine Thrash Metal toward new, unexplored heights amongst
the fanatical Exodus crowd. The band seemed to become one with
the audience and that´s always a positive sign of a well-done
show.
 In
my opinion the Exodus set list was a good, well-chosen measure
of both new songs off their latest yet damn brilliant comeback
album TEMPO OF THE DAMNED - and of course old classic Exodus
´hits´ off some of their previous albums. Hearing especially
such songs as “Deliver Us to Evil”, “And Then There Were None”,
“Bonded by Blood” and “Strike of the Beast” were definitely the
true highlights of their set for an ol´ fart like I am. I was so
damn happy to hear them playing those particular songs at that
night – and a bunch of my friends around me didn´t hesitate to
agree with me. Of course you could have also asked for more from
Exodus, let´s say, just to get something “extra” as encores in
order reach some sort of an ultimate satisfaction or whatever! I
personally wanted them badly to play such songs as “Exodus” off
BONDED BY BLOOD and “Seeds of Hate” off the band´s excellent
PLEASURES OF THE FLESH album, but we weren´t meant to be that
lucky this time around, I guess. But who knows, maybe next time
they will do those songs, when they come back to play in Finland
again. At least we will never give up hope – that´s already
certain... ;)
The stage (being named as “Island Stage”) where Exodus
played, was practically speaking, located in the middle of
forest, providing an absolutely special atmosphere for their
gig. I pretty much thought that it also was something special
for the guys of Exodus to find themselves from the middle of
forest and see all these Exodus fans there who had been
anxiously yet patiently waiting for Exodus to arrive on the
stage and to play as classic of an Exodus set as possible. I
think all their prayers were answered because Exodus seemed to
be in a much better and more powerful strike than two years ago
at Wacken festival. So thank you Exodus for your ´disastrously´
fabulous gig – not only for me, but also on behalf of other
Exodus fans who attended to see these legendary Frisco–thrashers
playing live for the first time in Finland. Exodus indeed ruled,
but so did their loud and definitely enthusiastic crowd as
well... awesome!
 Exodus
set list
Scar Spangled Banner
Deliver Us to Evil
Blacklist
Piranha
Til Death Do Us Part
Shroud of Urine
Fabulous Disaster
And Then There Were None
Forward March
War is My Shepherd
Bonded By Blood
Tempo of the Damned
Toxic Waltz
Strike of the Beast
Dirty Deeds Done Dirty Cheap (AC/DC)
Saturday, 19th of June
Hypocrisy (Venue: Island Stage)
.jpg) Peter
Tägtgren and his hellish werewolves deep down from the abyss...
Hypocrisy. Without any doubts, Hypocrisy was a really cool
addition to the bill of 25th Provinssirock festival, bringing a
bit more status to the festival as a noteworthy Metal
festival... surely more than in any previous year in the entire
history of the festival. 10 Metal bands (NOTE! Finland´s H.I.M.
has NOT been counted to this particular pile; they are far from
being a serious Metal band!), from Swallow the Sun´s melancholic
Doom/Death Metal to Dillinger Escape Plan´s strange creation of
new-school Hardcore, Progressive Metal and even jazz to
Hypocrisy´s melodic Death Metal to some more traditionally
thrashing acts like Exodus and Testament, made quite a soup of
´something-for-everyone´ as far as a wide range of different
genres of Metal´s sub-genres are concerned.
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As for Hypocrisy, this was actually the 3rd time for me to
see them playing live. I saw them 3 years ago playing at Wacken
festival in Germany for the very 1st time – and then last year
here in Helsinki, Finland, when they were touring with the
Norwegian Black Metal giants Dimmu Borgir and Finland´s Norther.
So it was cool to have Hypocrisy back to Finland once again and
to see them conquering the stage in front of 400-500 hundreds,
madly drunk (not a bloody doubt, Finnish Metalheads do know how
to booze and overall have fun, ha-ha!!) and moshing Metal
maniacs.
And they indeed sounded and looked fucking good on the stage,
offering a carefully chosen set of Hypocrisy songs from some of
their most received and successful albums. The guys´ playing was
tight as it has always been, the live sound did justice to their
songs. It seemed like the band has truly tightened their grip to
play live, they have become more experienced during the years.
At least to me it seemed like Hypocrisy´s playing was simply
flawless and pretty damn effortless even if while the guys were
playing professionally, they still managed to headbang their
heads off from their shoulders at the same time more
determinedly than any other guys from some other Metal bands
were capable of doing the same thing this year at Provinssirock
festival.
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What else is there actually to be said about them? Well, they
mangled, killed and totally ruled live. My honest eyes and ears
witnessed all that for your wide use of imagination. But
seriously... Hypocrisy is absolutely one of those Metal bands
that have hardly failed to do a proper live gig. They indeed are
an amazing live band from every possible aspect and they show no
mercy for themselves either when they want to pull off a show
which their audience should always both remember and appreciate
in their minds when overall thinking of these relentless Swedish
Death metal patrol´s ability to offer memorable and simply great
live experiences. At least I enjoyed watching them a lot,
especially when they also played some older material from a few
of their past albums like “Necronomicon” off the OSCULUM
OBSCENUM album, “Adjusting the Sun” and “Reborn” off THE FINAL
CHAPTER album and “God Is a Lie” off their quite underrated
PENETRALIA album. Also, I must admit that it was kind of a
flattering move from Peter Tägtgren when he renamed one
Hypocrisy song from “Roswell 47” to “Finland 47” for their
Finnish Hypocrisy fans...I guess on purpose, getting a storm of
shout of an undivided joy in return from a thankful and very
responsive crowd. I was really happy to see them playing live at
Provinssirock in 2004 simply because of the fact the Hypocrisy
guys surely know how to entertain fans not only through their
albums, but in a live situation as well. Some bands know how to
rock, but Hypocrisy does know how to kill and destroy. That´s
exactly what they did at Provinssirock 2004 indeed, so it goes
without saying that Hypocrisy has rightfully earned its
reputation as a damn fine live band. If you disagree, I take it
as you have never seen them live before then... ;)
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.jpg) Hypocrisy
set list:
Born Dead, Buried Alive
Fusion Programmed Minds
Adjusting the Sun
Eraser
Turn the Page
Fire in the Sky
The Final Chapter
War within
Necronomicon
Slaves to the Parasites
Reborn
“Finland 47”
Fractured Millenium
God Is a Lie
Deathrow (No Regrets)
Sunday, 20th of June
Testament (Venue: Nyt –tent)
.jpg) One
of the highlights for me personally as far as the bill for
Provinssirock 2004 was concerned, was definitely to see
Testament live on Sunday, 20th of June. Testament played in
Finland in 2002 for the very first time and the band was simply
amazingly tight and On the other hand, one of the biggest
letdowns for me was to read through the official homepage of
Provinssirock that Eric Petterson had broken his leg in 3 places
in Slovakia as he somehow manage to lose his footing on the
stairs at the venue in Martin, at the Kozel Pub Club – resulting
in an unfortunate falling. It felt a bit skeptical and
terrifying knowing that he is “Mr. Testament” himself; the
essential general motor of Testament´s main sound. But facts
were facts and he couldn´t perform with Testament this time here
in Finland, so we had better to swallow this bitter news and
accept this unfortunate fact as it was offered to us.
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When Testament finally arrived on the stage at 7:35PM, we –
the fans of Testament – knew right away that “Metal Mike”
Chlasciak (ex-Halford band) was a perfect choice from the band
to fill up Eric´s boots for the rest of the European dates. He
managed to play the whole Testament set through rather
effortlessly and inexpressively indeed – like he would have been
a part of the Testament line-up forever. His performance was
somewhat flawless and convincing enough according to this tiny
fact he was alone there with his 6-stringer and responsible for
all guitar parts. The only thing that I found a bit disturbing
was a lack of some certain guitar solos and rhythms. I mean,
most of the Testament songs require two guitars in a song; they
have been built up for two guitars, so I guess it´s not hard to
imagine how for example songs such as “The Haunting” or “Burnt
Offerings” or “Over the Wall” sounded like indeed, having only
one guitar either doing alternatively the shredding – or solo
parts in them. Of course Steve DiGiorgio tried his very best to
help, cover, fill up and support Metal Mike with his tricky and
sometimes even very twisted bass parts. And partly he even
succeeded in doing his job in a splendid way to give an extra
push for the lacking 2nd guitar, although in all honesty I must
confess that I missed Eric´s input in the band´s live
performance from time to time. I bet a few other guys did, too –
and not only me.
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However, I was satisfied to hear them playing such songs as “D.N.R”,
“Practice What You Preach”, “The Haunting”, “Three Days in
Darkness”, “Over the wall”, “Into the Pit”, “Disciples of the
Watch” and “Dogfaced Gods”. It would have been a nice addition
to Testament´s set list (considering I´ve always been such a
damn picky bastard, HA!) if they just had played such
Testament´s immortal classic tunes as “Raging Waters”, “Curse of
the Legions of Death”, “First Strike Is Deadly” and “Apocalyptic
City” from the band´s brilliant debut album THE LEGACY. I cannot
help it, but in my opinion no other Testament album can compete
with the sparkling brilliance of THE LEGACY in my books. I guess
I´m at least righteous to spit out what kind of set I personally
would have loved to see them performing for their Finnish
Testament fans at that night. Oh well, there´s always ´next
time´, so let it wait ´til the ´next time´ then...
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One of the funniest episodes in any of the concerts that I
have ever witnessed in my life, happened during the late half of
Testament´s set when Chuck Billy introduced “Over the Wall” off
the band´s classic debut album THE LEGACY to the kinda fanatic
audience by a few, but well-selected words. In his introduction
he also, let´s just say, ´by accident´, asked from the audience
carefully if someone wanted to climb on to the stage while they
were playing this song, they were very welcomed to do so, but at
their own risk. As everyone can surely imagine, the security
guys weren´t too thrilled about the idea. I think it´s even very
fair to say, for an obvious reason. Apparently they were quite
scared and thought Chuck´s request for the already relatively
wildly acting and moving audience had a serious risk to turn the
rest of the event to a plain, uncontrolled chaos. For their
luck, anything like that didn´t happen at all, though. There was
this one skinny, brave by mind, probably even quite drunken
bastard in the crowd who eventually crawled and found his way to
the stage after at first dropping off straight between the
security barricades and the stage, luckily not hurting himself a
bit, I guess. But nevertheless, he got finally his ultimate
opportunity to jam on the stage together with his “heroes”,
causing lots of hilarious reactions amongst the crowd. Well, at
least he had guts to go there unlike none other from us.
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Too bad Testament´s set was ended to “Disciples of the Watch”
as I hoped and believed they could have had a couple of ´extra
numbers´ in their sleeves to give to their fanatical and really
supportive Finnish audience, but unfortunately they did not.
However, Testament played a decent show, leaving many fans
hungry for more for sure.
David Bowie was the headlining act of Sunday and we decided
to watch a couple of songs from his set just to tell our friends
afterwards that we have at least seen him performing live. His
(older) songs don´t suck, but since there´s nothing in him that
is related to Metal itself – except his expensive teeth maybe,
there´s no more stories to be told from Provinssirock 2004. So
adios amigos and ´til next year: “Keep it loud, heavy and first
and foremost... (eh!) Metal!! \,,/ \,,/
Testament set list:
D.N.R.
Low
Practice What You Preach
Sins of Omission
The Haunting
Electric Crown
True Believer
Three Days in Darkness
Burnt Offerings
Alone in the Dark
Into the Pit
Over the Wall
Dogfaced Gods
Disciples of the Watch
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(*An additional comment/confession from Luxi: I missed
or ´half-missed´ the gigs of Diablo, Meshuggah, Dillinger Escape
Plan and Swallow the Sun due to some strange ´alcohol-related´
reasons...* ;)
Luxi with Exodus:
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