West Coast Holocaust 8 - Back to the roots
TVO & S-Osis, 19.-20.10-2007
(Arvio: Simona Drevensek)

Many think Nordic countries are the right place to be if you are into heavy metal. Guess what? You are right. There's hardly a day without a concert. What's even more surprising is the fact, that there's always enough audience - be it known or unknown band. But never the less it seems that people are really "into the past". WCH's "Back to roots" with bands from Turku was one of those events - those who came, enjoyed a lot. Hall was already full when Autere entered the stage, starting off with a song with catchy riffs. The place to be for those enjoying thrash/death metal that reminds a bit of The Haunted. While listening to the music you could easily float away, though growling voice was the thing that pulled you back…

Another quite "fresh" band was next - Hateform, who have released their first promo EP in 2005. Finns, whose main music territory is 90's death/thrash metal, show they are aware of brutality that this music needs though they also included more melodic stuff into songs. What's really remarkable is the simplicity you can spot in compositions per se and it really works out very well. Well, it did work out well, otherwise people wouldn't have been shouting and head-banging all the time.

The last band of the evening was amazing Deathlike Silence. The stage scenery of goth/metallers was the reflection of the band itself: gravestones and fog. But as they stated on their webpage: "The band's music has been called gravedigger metal. One should however not be led to believe, that Deathlike Silence is dead serious with its music, since there are some humorous elements to it as well." Maya's voice took us to the other side, to the land of "sleepy corpses", we "faced our death", we realized we can't "kill the boogeyman"… Definitely one of really impressive "melancholic/dark acts" for all who like darkness.

Though probably no one in China has ever heard of first two acts (I dare to say you have at least heard of Deathlike Silence), it's quite surprisingly that they (all) have left me with feeling they know what they want to achieve with "this music picture" and must admit, they were very convincing.