It’s Saturday morning,

Everything is spinning, you don’t know how your head is still on your shoulders. The first effort of the day is to find a pharmacy to buy the strongest ibuprofen or paracetamol they have. You go back to cursing the dead and wondering why you drank so much last night. You swear to yourself that you will not today. It’s a lie and you know it. This is what it’s like to wake up after a day at Steelfest. Tinnitus, hangover, hunger and the desire for more concerts.

This year we will try to make the beginning of Saturday as less miserable as possible, because we have a metal marathon ahead of us. 12:30 sharp, Ruttokosmos will be on stage, a bad time for an interesting band that only released two demos in 2006 and 2007, DSBM with people who played in Neutron Hammer, and as a fan I can’t miss them. Neutron Hammer is another band that should be back on stage.

The second concert on Saturday is also not to be missed, from France: Sotherion. One of the last BST projects, nothing more to add. Just to show respect, you have to be in the first row. After the French we will continue the process of exhuming buried bands from the Finnish scene, now it will be the turn of Vornat, who came back from the land of the dead at Winterfest 2019. Then we can see Witchcraft, a strange band with a long history that has only released demos and splits, if you are a fan of Beherit you should not miss them.

Then, according to my criteria, one of the best bloc of gigs of the day starts with the French Pensees Nocturnes and their black metal in the French folk style that we’ve seen Peste Noire play, even if the comparisons are unworthy… Then a band that I’ve been wanting to see for years and I hope that live they’ll be as thunderous as on the LPs when I play them at full volume: URN. Black/trash power. One of the stalwarts of the French black metal scene finally comes to Finland, I really want to see Merrimack, I’m still looking for their split with Sargeist!

Norway’s Nordjevel will provide a killer Norwegian Black Metal show with their very direct, relentless, straightforward, straightforward, full speed Black Metal

Then we have the first of the two death metal bands of the day, Finland’s Torture Killer, followed by True Black Dawn. A group I haven’t seen since 2017, I hope they continue to give such demolishing concerts.

True Black Dawn – Netherlands Deathfest 2017

Finally, we have one of the jewels of the festival, the Australians Austere, who have just released a new album on Prophecy Productions after more than a decade of lethargy. “To lay like old ashes” is iconic for me, so it’s one of the concerts I’m most looking forward to at the festival.

Nattefrost will offer a concert of his solo material released in the mid-2000s, his dirtiest, dirtiest and most punkish version, which is usually not easy to see live. US death metal legends Nunslaughter will bring their devastating death metal to Steelfest, sure to cause chaos in the pit, we are lucky and this is one of the exclusive concerts that Steelfest has tied up, being the only appearance in Europe in 2023.

Last but not least, Norway’s Urgehal are keeping the legacy of Trondr Nefas alive with a series of exclusive shows since their surprise and partial return with Taake in Oslo.

Unfortunately, DHG have cancelled their appearance at Steelfest, so Ved Buens Ende will not be playing either, which is a shame as their latest album is a serious contender for AOTY.

And the last piece of bad news is that Nokturnal Mortum won’t be in Finland either, which is a shame because the brotherhood and alliance of the Finnish-Ukrainian scenes promised a glorious end to the festival. Some minister has forbidden them to leave the country, let’s hope they won’t be forcibly conscripted or sent to the human meat grinder that is the front of the war the Americans are fighting to the last Ukrainian against Russia. Hopefully next year we will be able to relive the glorious concert that Nokturnal Mortum gave in 2018.