Dark Days of Helsinki: Extreme metal par excellence
This autumn it is not only the shorter days and longer nights that bring darkness to Helsinki but also a new festival: Dark Days of Helsinki, a sister festival to Dark Days of Stockholm, is taking place at Nosturi in Helsinki for the first time on September 22-23 with metal heavy weights such as Memoriam, Entombed AD, Vallenfyre, Cancer and many Finnish bands. With only a few days to go to the fest, it was high time to find out a bit more about this latest addition to Helsinki's live music calendar, so Christian from co-organizing agency DVI took the time to answer some questions.
TMP: First things first, who are you?
Christian: My name is Christian and I run the agency DVI here in Sweden. We have been active for nearly 15 years and have had the opportunity to work with some of the finest death/black/sludge/hardcore-acts out there. Never getting to old for this!
TMP: How did Dark Days of Helsinki come about?
C: The fest started in Stockholm under the name Dark Days Of Stockholm. We made it through two editions of the fest but decided that after this year we will hold our breath for a while and focus on a new idea.
That new idea was to bring the fest to Finland and to Nosturi. Finland has always been one of my favorite countries to play in, so we wanted to see if we could get the fest to work in Helsinki. We talked to some friends about the possible lineup and started to get things confirmed. Nosturi is one of the best venues around so it will be great to finally be able to organize something there.
TMP:It's the first time it's taking place - what can people expect?
C: They can expect to witness some of the finest and most brutal death/black/sludge music out there. A great atmosphere with tons of good people.
TMP: Why add another festival to a traditionally busy autumn concert calendar?
C: Well, there will always be a lot of shows but with this lineup we thought that we would stick out a bit more. Our goal is to deliver a solid and rare lineup and I think we have succeeded with that for the fest. A metalhead never gets tired of going to shows!
TMP: How do the Swedish and Finnish metal scene differ or do they? Are the audiences different?
C: Hard to tell. The scene in Sweden has always been good and with a very diverse kind of music. There are plenty of good quality bands coming out from both Sweden and Finland.
I've had several Finnish bands as our guests here in Sweden and they've always delivered a killer show.
Of course there will always be the latest hype concerning bands but people always stick with the roots.
And I think that when it comes down to the the metal scene up here, people are more reserved and they notice the difference between bands. Sweden is a hard country to get your name out due to the fact that people hold their old bands so close and the newer acts don't get the chance to grow and get their name recognized.
Every time I visited Finland for shows there seems to be a more open environment for the newer bands. But this can just be me who thinks so, but there has always been something extra in the Finnish metal/hardcore/alternative scene.
When it comes to the audience they are all a great bunch of dedicated headbanging freaks. I wouldn't be doing this for so long if it wasn't for the reason that I love the music and everything that comes with it.
TMP: What are you looking forward to the most at the festival?
C: The one thing that I'm really excited about is to see how the Finnish metal scene reacts to the fest. If things go as planned this year, then the plans for a second edition will start pretty soon...
And of course the bands! Its a great lineup and I'm excited to witness every single one of them live.
Hope to see a lot of metalheads at the first edition of the festival. It`s been a hectic year getting things together but now we are here!
Find all information like the running order in the Facebook event and get your tickets at Ticketmaster.fi. In addition to seeing the bands, you also have the chance to buy music and merch from The Other Records and TPL Records at Nosturi during the festival.
