Live report: Jalometalli Festival 2010 (part 3)

The fest started up again at 2pm the next day, and the first band seen by this reporter was a young local act called Forced Kill. They hit the main stage with conventional but entertaining speed metal replete with Converse high-tops and camouflage pants (camo-patterned garments are the prevalent style choice in this region, even outside of metal fashion). The quintet sawed away at numbers that sounded mostly like Destruction, and the small early-day crowd amiably received them. They also threw in an Infernal Majesty cover, which was funny to hear so far from the source. The stakes are not high for the opening bands at festivals, so having fun should be the primary goal. Forced Kill seemed to understand this, and their set was better for it.

Back indoors, Finland's own Coprolith pounded out a set of muscular death metal that recalled bands like Belephegor and Grave in equal turns. They had a thick stage sound, and while guitarist/vocalist Ben Pakarinen was all business with his roaring delivery, his bandmates were cutting loose and jamming away like they were performing for a room full of friends (which may well have been the case). This act was fine in their blasting death metal furor, though their decision to cover Mayhem's "Freezing Moon" was an odd one. With downtuned guitars and bellowing vocals, all the context and atmosphere of the song was stripped away. Coprolith didn't play it badly, but it's clear that "Freezing Moon" cannot become underground metal's "Stairway to Heaven". That aside, thumbs up to this band for a good show.

Urn is one of those bands that exist in the vacuum of their native country, so it was a rare opportunity to catch them live. They play a blistering brand of violent black metal that invokes Beherit and Blasphemy, though they employ more thrash metal hooks than their forebears. The band was on the outside stage, so they marched out wearing both corpse paint and sunglasses. Usually black metal in broad daylight looks laughable, but Urn played it straight and made it work. Guitarist/vocalist Sulphur evoked Nuclear Holocausto with a ragged scream and frantic riffing that has always defined this culture's own strain of death metal. His shiny blond hair stood out against a filthy t-shirt that might have been white when it was first purchased, and his cohorts sported leather vests and scowled their way through the set. The band demonstrated a method to the madness, as they avoiding numbing repetition of the blast beasts by changing gears and delving into thrash-tinged asides. While they weren't any kind of world-changing act, their weird regional flavor made them interesting and enjoyable. Urn was probably the nastiest and most feral band at Jalometalli, and they represented the war metal contingent with surprising credibility.

Black Crucifixion was bad. Years ago, this Helsinki-based band managed to leech some interest by featuring the drummer of Beherit. These days, they're just a dreary and tone-deaf “dark metal” outfit that specializes in sucking the air out of the room. The scant attendance at the inside stage said everything about this band's legitimacy, and even those who stuck around seemed dubious about the whole thing. These clowns would never have made the fest lineup if they weren't from the area, and they should quit while they're woefully behind.

Melechesh was a great way to forget the malaise of the previous act. They are always charismatic on stage, and this appearance was no exception. Band leader Ashmedi plays a mean guitar and fires off a barking vocal delivery similar to Proscriptor. He was definitely the star of the show as he peeled off song after song with wild-eyed intensity. The set was a blast of rhythmic European death metal cut with mid-eastern progressions that reference the band's unlikely origins in Israel. They were markedly accurate without feeling sterile, which was good since it's better for a live show to be exciting than correct. Outside of the Maryland Death Fest, Melechesh has never performed in the US, which is a shame since their infectious presentation would appeal to American crowds. In any case, the audience liked them, and the band chalked up another strong showing.

You better believe the room was full when Demilich took the stage. As one of Finland's most important death metal entries, this band gained a worldwide cult following after releasing a album called Nespithe in 1991 and then splitting up shortly after. They reactivated in 2006 and toured America (Austin hosted one of their notable appearances), only to quickly dissolve again. Their appearance at Jalometalli was actually in the name of fulfilling an old promise to the promoters, so this was a truly special engagement. Following a gut-churning intro, a mohawked Antti Boman took the stage along with second guitarist Aki Hytönen and drummer Mikko Virnes. The founding trio were joined by bassist Corpse, who is also a guiding force in the bands Deathchain and Winterwolf.

The quartet jumped right into tracks from their sole release, and Boman's unearthly voice resonated over the knotted riffs and transposed time signatures. He performed guitar and vocal duties in a hypnotic lull, as if he was dreaming the famously bizarre lyrics he recited. Despite a somnolent gaze, the spidery fretwork revealed a different story. Mind and body were clearly operating on separate planes, and he looked quite comfortable with it.

It would be almost misleading to call Demilich a technical death metal band despite their unconventional output. Like all good metal groups, they adhere to traditional song arrangements that create coherent musical narratives. Riff-stacking and atonal technique indulgences are eschewed in favor of driving hooks that are yanked away right before a groove is established. Absorbing the songs is like navigating the interior of a funhouse; all the expected parts are present, but they are somehow wrong. It is definitely not music designed to please the bar crowd.

Demilich presented this highly specialized death metal thesis with a degree of concentration that made the show feel even more cerebral. In a flurry of hair, Corpse served as the wild counterbalance to the studied detachment of his guitarists. His large mane and even larger stature were the perfect visual counterpart to his thunderous bass lines. Behind the kit, Mikko Virnes proved that extreme drumming is like riding a bicycle as he laid down a battery of flying kick beats and rifle-sharp snare strikes. It was impressive to hear such fidelity in the performance considering the band's long hiatus from the material. Between songs, frontman Boman addressed the audience with typically offhanded and funny remarks that downplayed the excitement of the event. Modest or not, the set had the spectators banging heads and waving fists throughout.

Once the show was over, the group quietly filed off the stage as if they couldn't hear the fanfare or pleas for one more song. The band is officially gone for good, but at least they left the faithful with a parting gift. Death metal is in bad need of intelligent entries, so hopefully we'll see this lineup again in a different incarnation. It also turned out that Demilich merchandise outsold every other band at the festival by a large margin. Never let it be said that the tortoise cannot beat the hare.

The sun never completely sets during Finland's summer, but the remaining twilight was all but snuffed out when Triptykon took the main stage for their headlining performance. Tom Gabriel Warrior's defunct band Celtic Frost has a giant reputation, so his new endeavor was highly anticipated in Oulu. The case was furthered by the well-regarded debut album, Eparistera Daimones, which signaled a dynamic new era for Herr Warrior and his days ahead. Smoke and a phalanx of blue lights ushered the black-clad quartet to the stage, and they began with a funerary version of "Procreation of the Wicked". Warrior stood forth from the haze, stygian and glaring with his ever-present Iceman guitar in hand. Flanked by guitarist V. Santura and bassist Vanja Slajh, he looked lean and revitalized he growled through the opening number.

The lineup presented as a unified front and remained rooted to their positions like pikemen preparing for an onslaught. Bassist Slajh proved a potent ingredient to the material with her earthshaking tone and a penchant for forearming the strings. She is a far cry from the dressed up hype that the industry packages as "women in metal"; her unpretentious and determined display made a stronger statement than an army of prom dress wearing fakers. Santura ably held down the lead guitar with artfully wrecked solos, and drummer Norman Lonhard played old and new material with fidelity and force. This young assembly of players passed muster in a live setting with no trouble, though it's no real shock considering who recruited them.

The PA volume was crushingly loud, but it this instance it worked in Triptykon's favor. The speakers practically oozed with sonic blackness as they forged through a selection of new tracks mixed with classics from the Celtic Frost discography. Some fans complain that the band's treatment of Frost material is too down-tempo, but it's ultimately a matter of taste. Most of the new songs are weighty dirges that explore the doom metal component of Warrior's early forays, so adjusting for a slower approach is at least contextually appropriate. Moreover, the new direction means that numbers like "Necromantical Screams" in particular come across like the darkest of storm clouds.

Things got even heavier when the band arrived at their massive opus, "Synagoga Satanae", and drummer Lonhard pummeled his toms as if to summon demons from the core of the earth. It was loud enough to shatter teeth, and soon his repeated strikes bordered on painful. Once the rest of the band joined in, the sheer density of the sound was overpowering. To be clear, none of this was a bad thing. This twelve-minute excursion was merely Triptykon's warm-up, because at its conclusion they went on to bury the audience alive with the even longer and aptly titled “The Prolonging”. At over half an hour between the two songs alone, the set transformed from a concert to a black mass. The capacity crowd stood transfixed as lumbering chords washed over the venue like a tidal wave, and time seemed to distort as the band went on. It felt endless and immediate all at once, and it took Warrior's closing farewell to finally break the spell. Squalls of feedback rang into the sky as the band abandoned their guitars and left the stage with no hint of an encore.

Triptykon is heavy in the way most bands like to regard themselves, but the difference is that they are the genuine article. There was plenty of doubt and conjecture as to whether or not this band could properly succeed in the wake of Celtic Frost's demise, but Tom G. and company flew their victory banner with pride at Jalometalli.

Gorgoroth was not meant to close out the festival, but lost luggage left them without their armor and equipment until the end of the night. They finally appeared on the interior stage at 2:30am, which was no problem since people here don't call it a night until around 5. There is still confusion about the band's current personnel, but this version is now the sole incarnation with founding guitarist Infernus and veteran vocalist Pest at the helm. Bathed in a host of glaring red stage lights, the duo and their backing band demonstrated the force of the real Gorgoroth as they carved through a set of black metal fury. Selections from Antichrist, Pentagram, and Under The Sign Of Hell all made the cut, with a few additions from Destroyer, Incipit Satan, along with their newest LP, Quantos Possunt Ad Satanitatem Trahunt.

Pest's voice hasn't waned at all since his last stint with the band, and he lashed around the stage with a mic stand and a powerful screech that never threatened to quit. Former vocalist Gaahl had his own memorably dark presence, but Pest taps into the unchecked aggression that was a hallmark of the early Norwegian insurgence. Bedecked in nails and spikes, he stood like a champion on the field of an ancient battle. Satan is the fuel, and in this venue Gorgoroth was the engine.

For his part, Infernus stuck to his post and slammed out the black anthems that made the band famous, and the smoke and backlighting made him and the entire affair look especially ominous. The usual collection of corpse-painted hired guns competently played along, but the appearance of Obituary's Frank Watkins was a sour note. It's unclear why this square peg of a bassist was brought into the fold, but he was not a good fit to say the least. Watkins is notably taller than his bandmates, and his slicked-back hair and rubbery mugging made him look like a Frankenstein monster wearing a Halloween costume. Under different circumstances he could have trumped the concert's threatening aura, but luckily the smoke machines kept him mostly out of sight.

Overall, Gorgoroth's showing was an impressive surprise. When a band faces so many lineup changes and legal dramas, it's easy to write them off as washed up. In this instance, Infernus and crew drove another large nail into the coffin of the band's fractured legacy. It was a powerful way to end an impressive festival.

As the show concluded, fans ranging from very drunk to extremely drunk wandered outside into the rising sun (at 3:30 am) and soon the facility was empty. Jalometalli 2010 was a unique experience in terms of execution and attitude, and it is highly recommended to any metal enthusiast who enjoys festivals but hates teeming crowds. Then again, part of the magic might come from the fact that the rest of the world stays away and lets Finland have a metal gathering to themselves. In any case, this event deserves high marks in every regard. Expect another report this time next year.

The complete Saturday lineup: