Hammer Open Air 2012

The third Hammer Open Air metal festival was held on the 20th and 21st of July 2012, around the same time as the previous year but at a new location. The first two took place at Ilmaristen Metsäpirtti, Lieto, some less than twenty kilometer distance from the city of Turku. This time the event took place a little further into Lieto at Mannin Navetta, or to be more accurate, outside of it.

Once again Kold Reso Kvlt, or KRK for short, had arranged a bus tranportation from Olbifrus for the festival goers from Turku to near the locale itself. Unfortunately, possibly due to the slightly increased distance this didn't seem to work as smoothly as on the previous years. Mind you, the practically non-existent schedules were somewhat erratic then too and our little party's self-inflicted hurry may be another defining factor but it seemed like there was more waiting for the bus to arrive this time. Still, it is a very good and reasonably priced service at 5e/direction or a bracelet-thingy you could buy beforehand for 18.90e valid for the whole weekend.

We arrived in Turku pretty early by car which we then tried to park for about an hour before the driver gave up and drove into the same garage we had used before. As if there'd be free parking in the centre of a town of Turku's size! After this waste of time we had to spend some time shopping certain supplies (=alcohol), eating and other mundane tasks before we finally got to wait for the bus which seemed to never arrive and once it did, it was coming from Helsinki and pretty much packed. We managed to squeeze ourselves in, journeyed to the festival, exchanged tickets for the wristbands, I bought a ticket for Black Flames III and then we went back outside to sit on the grass, drinking, chatting and in general not going in. This is expected of every self-respecting festival-goer. We missed the first two Finnish bands Devastracktor and Damngod completely and sat outside for most of Assaulter's set (sounded okay to where we were). I finally got moving towards the end of it and managed to actually see a bit of them, looked pretty standard Aussie metalheads.

Like mentioned earlier the venue was different this time, having a bit more space allowed to have all the merchandise stalls and such inside but unfortunately both of the stages were outdoor ones and standing right next to each other. This caused annoyance throughout the festival as the sound checks would disrupt the performances on the next stage. Also the ground was somewhat uneven, making it hard to see anything on the stage from further away and as we discovered after a little bit of rain it got very muddy, should the weather been as rainy as on the previous years the festival grounds would've become a mudpit, as I've heard Wacken this year. There wasn't much cover either so it was fortunate it wasn't rainy or any sunnier.

Cannibal Accident

But back to artists, next up and fourth performer for Friday were the local boys Cannibal Accident which I found to be surprisingly amusing, no small part thanks to the performance and look. I doubt I'd spend time at home listening to these tongue-in-cheek grindcore blasts, but in live environment they're good fun. Musicians themselves are certainly proficient, coming from bands like Hellbox and Axegressor.

Cryptborn performing with a guest

Starting their show on the main stage next were Cryptborn who play old school death metal the Swedish way. Since the band members are associates of mine I feel a bit biased to be commenting or reviewing them. I had already seen the guys live twice this spring and thanks to those performances had high expectations for them. Well, playing outside and relatively early diminished the effect somewhat but they managed a decent show. Did not deliver as well as the club gigs did but still enjoyable and I'd definitely recommend their stuff. Next up were Swallowed which I was supposed to watch but got somewhat distracted chatting, shopping and drinking beer. I should probably mention beer was quite cheap, once again, as they asked for 5e for a 0,5l can and it had a fifty cent deposit. Which I didn't realize at all on the Friday, someone kindly mentioned me that on Saturday! But anyways, what little I saw of Swallowed in the end was good though the sound wasn't optimal. I hope to catch up with them in a club gig sometime soon.

Jess And The Ancient Ones

So far the bands had been performing quite short sets as the slots had been either 30 or 35 minutes, but starting with the Kuopio occult rockers Jess and the Ancient Ones the performances would get longer. So far I had completely managed to avoid JatAO, unintentionally I should mention, even though they play live often and had an interesting EP (the B-side Coven cover being my reason for the interest) and an album out. I was a little sceptical about this band as the name is bluntly put stupid and it looks so much like a trendy side project on paper. To my surprise they sounded good live and convinced me to (eventually, still haven't done that) check out their album. The songs were quite lenghty so the forty minutes slot was filled by four or five tracks quickly. Despite being better than I expected they weren't capable of mesmerizing me to the same extent The Devil's Blood or Jex Thoth do so I wandered off before the end of their slot to pick up my bag and go outside for a few drinks. The plan was to hang out there just for a bit but this got, as usual, a bit out of hand and I ended up missing Bestial Mockery and Sólstafir completely as well as most of Gehennah's show. What I saw of that was fun enough if you're into old Venom worship. Not sure if they really needed a 60 minute slot.

Unholy

After the Swedes was one of the definite highlights for me, legendary Unholy live after all these years! These doom pioneers should not need an introduction, shame on you if you haven't heard them. This was the first live performance of the "reunion" and understandably the guys were a little rusty but that didn't matter as the material totally kills. Some peasants found it more important to comment on the hats the band had chosen to wear instead of taking the opportunity to enjoy a rare performance. Their loss. The band did something from all the albums but concentrated more on the older stuff which suited me perfectly. I was medicated well enough at that point of the evening to ignore any and all minor flaws and just surrender to the experience, so much that I actually had tears in my eyes during "Covetous Glance" and realized too late I hadn't taken pictures or video of the gig. Oh well, at least I enjoyed myself. I have to admit the sound wasn't very good in the beginning but it either improved or I just ignored it.

Urfaust. Fueled by Karhu, apparently.

After this bliss I wasn't able to enjoy the always great Urfaust as much as I usually do. Neither did I manage to convince my comrade of their excellence as according to him the vocals were "horrible wailing". So I missed the later half of their show as I allowed myself to be led back to alcohol. Deströyer 666 was the final performer of the evening and they were absolutely great, awesome if strangely blurry gig. "Trialed by Fire" was the highlight for me. It was a quite long day filled with metal and alcohol abuse so unlike planned we didn't go to anywhere after finally making it to the hotel. Or if we did, I can't remember it.

Charnel Winds

I got distracted.

Saturday started with a taste of shit mixed with poison in my mouth and the discovery I had not bothered to make a bed out of the collapsing chair thingies, having instead collapsed on them myself. After the showers, much whining, a few beers, little shopping and a lunch we made our way to the bus station and waited. And waited. Went to a bar nearby and waited. And so on. After getting to the festival area we once again had to picnic outside for a bit until I finally lost my patience and rushed inside to see the last two songs from Charnel Winds. Seeing them made me wish I'd gone inside sooner but the morale was a bit low due to hangover and bands missed with the necessary and unnecessary delays (being death metal bands Vorum, Krypts, Forgotten Horror and Gorephilia) so far. However, the last two tracks were great and I'll be sure to see them again at another opportunity. Next was Portrait which didn't interest me so I was chatting away for most of their set and took a quick walk to a parking lot a few kilometers away to hang around with some people I met at Nummirock, drinking their rum and beer while at that.

I don't remember who they were.

Don't ask, it seemed like a good idea then.

I got back in time to see some of The 11th Hour's performance, their mixed bag of doom metal didn't really win me over and from comments I heard I hadn't missed much. I don't usually bother checking out bands before the festivals on Youtube or anything of the sort which is a mixed blessing, on the other hand the positive surprises are stronger but I tend to miss stuff I might enjoy. Necrophobic from Sweden were next and got a bit mixed response as others were very much into them and the rest either indifferent or just disliked them. In case you don't know, they're a long running melodic (blackened) death metal band and personally I've always thought of them as sort of poor man's Dissection. To be honest, this gig didn't change my opinion. They were okay but that was pretty much it. And I guess I have to say the same for the next act, Dutch death metal stalwarts Asphyx who were one of the more eagerly awaited bands on the festival. To some people, that is. I've never been a fan of theirs, it's certainly ok stuff but never my first pick for really anything nor am I a fan of the front man Van Drunen either. So after watching them play for a bit I decided to entertain myself and associates with a photoshoot near the Woodcut Records' stall. Involving men in their boxers.

Big Boss / Root

After the silliness was over I hurried to see the Czech legends Root perform on the smaller stage. I had little idea how this gig would turn out, but with the latest album being again slightly blacker I hoped to hear a set with some golden oldies included. As before, Root were great and Big Boss is a unique front man with his bald, face-painted head, grey beard and potbelly. Not to mention the man's voice. The gig was quite balanced, I don't recognize the new songs well, not to mention how drunk I was getting again at this point so I'm not attempting to guess a setlist but good times were had and old material was played, including Píseň pro Satana which is one of the first Root tracks I heard and got me into the band. I had great difficulty trying to get to listen to Eyehategod so I ended up pretty much ignoring the whole hour of their performance and actually quite a bit from Marduk's start. What I remember from Marduk was okay but the small stage was certainly a poor choice for them, which seemed to piss off Mortuus too.

I'm busy ignoring the bands.

Shape of Despair played officially as the last band and I don't remember anything about them to be honest. I suppose I was still there as I recall Rob Coffinshaker's surprise appearance after SoD but to be honest I might've as well just heard about it. Back in Turku I drank for a while with a comrade, spent an hour or two trying to find the hotel and then collapsed happily on the unmade extra bed chairs, pleased that once again Hammer Open Air had delivered what was expected. Overall I still have to say this was the least great of them so far, as the line-up wasn't as excellent as the previous ones were and the new venue had its issues. Yet it is clear that HOA is currently the most important Finnish extreme metal festival. I will be sure to attend again next year, no matter what!