Volbeat was highly awaited since they had to cancel their last two concerts in Finland due to two different reasons. The audience’s anticipation appeared as a sold-out night. Back in 2019 they had to cancel due to Posti’s strike and in 2020 the concert was cancelled due to the pandemic. Last time Volbeat got to perform in Finland was back in 2018 at Provinssi.
The night at Nokia Arena was started by a Californian band Bad Wolves. This was their first time playing in Finland, and they showed it with their high energy onstage. Their set was only 30 minutes, but they played well and interacted with the crowd though it did take time to warm them up. The band played their well-known cover song of Zombie by The Cranberries at the end of their set, and the crowd had their flashlights out for the song.
Second opener of the night was Skindred from Wales. The band came on stage while a remixed version of the Imperial March was playing before they started their set. Skindred started strong and kept up the energy their whole set. Their set was 45 minutes, and it went fast since the band had fun with their set while onstage. Interactions with the band and crowd warmed up them quickly and with a mix of humor in their set made it fun to watch and it was easy to enjoy.
When it was turn for Volbeat, they started their set with crowd cheering and the lights for the arena showing their logo while an instrumental track was playing. The lights for the stage shifted from blue to red and the band started playing The Devil’s Bleeding Crown. The whole arena was full, and it was clear that the crowd was really excited for the band. The set was almost two hours and they kept up their energy the whole time and interacted with the crowd.
For the songs The Devil Rages On and For Evigt they had cannons that shot red and white serpent into the crowd and for the song Wait a Minute My Girl they released big balloons into the crowd. Volbeat played a mix of their most popular songs and few newer songs, but most of the setlist was their known popular songs, like Lola Montez and Still Counting. For the newer songs they played songs from their latest album, such as Shotgun Blues. Volbeat really has charisma in their performance, and the concert at Nokia Arena worked well.
For the night the stage had an added build in a shape of a V where in the middle of the V were those who had paid extra for the pit experience. All three bands used the added stage, and the light technicians moved the spotlights accordingly with the performers on the stage. The pit was empty for the openers comparing how many people there were for Volbeat, but Bad Wolves took it as a chance and went to play there for a while.
Nokia Arena works as a venue for large productions since they get to have around 15 000 people inside on a sold-out night. There were some problems with the sound mixing that happened during the openers but were then fixed for Volbeat. It made it seem like Bad Wolves or Skindred didn’t have the time to do their soundcheck thoroughly.
Being highly anticipated show that got rescheduled from 2021 to 2022, The European Siege Tour was worth the wait. The night at Helsinki Ice Hall Black Box was the only sold-out night of the tour. There were two special guests with Behemoth and Arch Enemy that musically worked well with the theme of the nigh: Unto Others, from Portland and Carcass, from Liverpool.
Unto Others started their set with a 5-minute soundtrack before coming onto the stage, which was surprising but interesting way to start their set before the actual showtime. The band for me was new but that didn’t stop enjoying their set. It was a solid and strong set. They reminded look- and sound wise of an 80’s goth rock band and they interacted lots with the crowd during their 30-minute set. The crowd warmed up for them slowly; there were people behind me on their phones for the whole set.
The people beside me had hyped-up Carcass since they had seen them perform at Tuska Festival in 2022. Seeing them for the first time I’d say that they are worth the hype. They were in contact with the crowd actively and with the photographers during the first three songs. Carcass being a death metal band that started back in 1985, they showed their experience as charisma onstage.
Before Behemoth started their set, they had Post-God Nirvana playing as a soundtrack while showing a video to the music to a white cloth that was in front of the stage. When the video ended, the cloth dropped, and Behemoth started Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer. It was the first time for me seeing them live, so the usage of pyro during the first song was a huge surprise. The whole band has hypnotizing charisma and the show was theatrical. The singer, Nergal, had several outfit changes between songs which made it more interesting to watch. It was like their whole set was a story itself and the band members were telling it to the crowd.
Visually they used lots of pyro and smoke in several different ways. All that mixed with the lights and the atmosphere for a Behemoth concert was there. During the last part of the set their bassist, Orion, came in front of the crowd to the barricade.
Arch Enemy was the last act of the night and after 45-minutes of exchanging the set from Behemoth’s set behind a “Pure Fucking Metal”-fabric they started playing Deceiver, Deceiver. The whole set was high-energy and with the number of pyros used, no one was left cold. With a different structure to the stage than Behemoth had, it worked for the band well. Everything was laid out spaciously but in a way that there wasn’t any emptiness. The singer, Alissa White-Gluz, had an amazing charisma onstage and kept contact with the crowd the whole set. Visually the whole set worked well together and people surely had been waiting for this night.
This being the first time for me at Helsinki Ice Hall it being a Black Box-night, and a sold-out on top of that, it had a different feel than other concerts there I’ve been to. This was also the first time I’ve seen pyros being used there. The thing that stood out was the change between Carcass and Behemoth. While other in-between times they play rock music or what suits the night, they played this time orchestra tuning sounds. It added a lot for Behemoth’s set atmosphere-wise.
The two concerts were produced in different venues, but genre-wise they all somewhat fall under the same category. The venues are both big and it was impressive to see them both be sold-out. It was my first time at Nokia Arena and it surprised me by being really easy venue to navigate. Helsinki Ice Hall as a venue is more familiar to me, but this was the first time for me that it was as a Black Box; meaning that there were no seat tickets, only floor tickets.
At Nokia Arena our seats were high up and we had the view for the whole arena. Though we had a view behind the stage and was the bands getting ready there, it was a refreshing switch from being in the pit and it was fun to see venues from different aspect. Staff at the arena were professional and helpful and for the production being really big with their add-on stage they seemed to need a lot of crew to put that together.
The Black Box at Helsinki Ice Hall still has the big concert venue-feel though its capacity is more limited than normally. If you’re going to see a band there for the first time, it’s easy to get lost when finding your way to the floor. Everything else works well there, I’d say from the audience perspective.
Only issues I took notice happened at Nokia Arena. At big venues like this one, I feel like it’s important to have checked that sound works for every band beforehand and that lights work as they should. It is awkward for the audience and probably for the artist not to get to perform with their full potential the whole set. Even though it’s not the main artist of the night, it’s not fair for the bands to start adjusting sound and lights like they hadn’t had time to do it beforehand.
The audience shouldn’t shy away from the opening artists. Though they might not be your cup of tea, it’s not fair for them to perform to a crowd that’s on their phones and that is stiff as a stick the whole time. You should try something new every now and then because you might miss something that you’d like.