Au-Thor: Nayia K.Rose
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| AVATAR live in Helsinki, February 7, 2026 / photo by Nayia K.Rose |
On the 7th of February, in a cold night in Helsinki, Finland, precious demon Nayia from www.heavymetalsatan.com was sent on a mission.
Precious demon left for the cold land and came back with photos and stories. Stories that you should or shouldn't know, but for sure, it was great show. See what I did there? It rhymes.
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| AVATAR live in Helsinki, February 7, 2026 / photo by Nayia K.Rose |
If you are still here after that, I had the pleasure, it's always a deep pleasure, to take some photos for AVATAR and their guests, Alien Weaponry and Agabas and share with you what happened during the cold night that ended up on fire.
Well the show was great. That's it, thanks for reading, no more info for you, next time be there to experience it yourselves. Bye!
No, where are you going? You cannot even take a joke. Let's get started. Let me introduce you to the bands. AVATAR, metal giants coming from Gothenburg, Sweden. The band has been following a path of great successes for the last year by opening for Iron Maiden's European tour in 2025, by self releasing their 10th studio album on Halloween, followed by their first arena -and sold out - headline show in Mexico, touring... non stop... And the big plans don't stop there as the boys will be opening for Metallica's 2026 European Tour as well. Great success.
Agabas from Norway. I didn't find much info about them to copy paste from Google so I here I am doing the job myself, I'll describe you what I saw in person. Agabas describe themselves as Death Jazz and I wouldn't be able to explain them to you in any better words. The band is a mix of death metal and jazz. A death metal band with a saxophone! Agabas entered the stage, through the crowd. They pushed the crowd, they apologised for pushing - kind Norwegians as always, no matter how brutal the music they are always kind- and climbed on stage. Chaos on stage, chaos downstage as they kept on jumping in the crowd, playing their funky riffs. The singer getting off stage and creating a circle pit, with himself in the middle and everyone moshing on him. Very good communication with the crowd, good music. Their set ended up with the whole band getting off stage, joining the crowd and playing music among us. What an experience to discover them.
Alien Weaponry, the young ones from New Zealand, who got involved with music way too early in their lives and created a success story in a exceptionally young age, something to admire. "Alien Weaponry is a New Zealand metal band from Waipu, formed in Auckland in 2010.The band consists of drummer Henry de Jong, guitarist Lewis de Jong, and since August 2020, bass player Tūranga Morgan-Edmonds. All three members have Māori ancestry and a number of their songs are written and performed in the Māori language." Copy paste from Wikipedia - sorry - dyslexic person here, don't risk to mess up the names.
Their show in Helsinki... and in general...is a mix of Māori rituals and catchy metal riffs. High energy and songs that make you headbang for good. A unique show that keeps tradition alive through modern melodies and magic. Alien Weaponry had been in my budget list for a while now and in 2026 their time came, not only for my eyes, but also for my camera lens.
But WHAT happened on the 7th of February in Helsinki?
A lot. But I can't tell you everything. I've seen AVATAR live multiple times before. In different countries and venues, indoors, outdoors, but this time I think they overdid themselves. Theatrical as always, but! There is a "but"! This specific venue was an amphitheatre, very interesting for a metal show, a beautiful venue. The show started with rain sounds and let me tell you, oh how much I love the rain! A quick light show, above the stage there was smoke that looked like clouds in a rainy day and lights that looked like actual lightings and thunders happening indoors. Something that I've never experienced at a concert, a theatrical masterpiece you could say.
Moving on with...a lot of things moving around. The drums moving on their own using some mechanism and opening the way for a moving platform that brought the band slowly on stage. Smoke, capes and a torch lights the way for "Captain Goat". Meanwhile, hand drawn (I think, I forgot to ask, but they looked hand drawn, I'll ask and return with the Truth!) waves, also moving during the song being performed. An excellence of a show, that got us just warmed up for something way faster. Faster, older and newer songs followed. "Blod" was one of those, "The Age of Apes", "In the Airwaves" and of course the classic "Smells like a Freakshow" followed by Johannes' armpit jokes, witch after 15 times still looks funny to me, maybe I'm an innocent stupid child inside, maybe you should be one, too.
Moving on, the boys of course have new clothes for the new era, black, latex gloves and leathery kinda like, but vegan fabrics, cause everyone in AVATAR is vegan (applause from my vegetarian ass, on my way to stop eating chocolates). But! Surprise! Surprise! They brought back outfits from previous eras! The red coat from "Bloody Angel", the white coats from the Avatar Country era. They brought back the King (Johas on guitar) sitting on his throne and the stage was filled with the AVATAR country orange-red flags! The show was a great mix of new songs and great nostalgia from the past.
AVATAR's set is not only fair when it comes to duration, but also a long treat to everyone witnessing it, as it's an about two hour long set, but still not only it doesn't get tiring, but it makes you want more and more! The way they change from fast to slow songs, from brutality to slow piano accompanied songs - piano played by Johannes and his beautiful new expensive piano jacket he's very proud of, on their new song "Hawling at the waves". Johannes (vocals) says all over the media that he finally feels a part of the band, as he does not just sing but also plays an instrument in the band now. He also played for us "Tower" on piano, an incredible, sad but beautiful song. In their romantic "Howling at the waves" the rest of the band also joined, Henrik on the bass, John on the drums, Tim and Jonas on the guitar... I'm introducing you to the band now, say "Hi!".
The show kept going with dirty jokes as always, with fast riffs, with Johannes speaking some Finnish, I didn't understand and going disco with "Death and Glitz" and "The dirt I'm buried in". A photo I took of the set list can be found below in the photo album, as a sweet sweet treat.
In conclusion, AVATAR is one of the best things that could happen in modern metal, is something you must witness live yourself to understand, as they are theatrical, they are not defined by one metal genre, so everytime they make some music, it's completely different from what they've already created, but as the band says "it always sounds like AVATAR". And most importantly, they put their long time (twenty plus years) friendship always first. It's not only about the music, it's also about the people. And me, myself, as person who never and never will idolise people, no matter how much I admire someone's work, no matter someone's job or fame,etc, I love being around this band, as I also adore them as people.
Thank you for coming to my Ted talk! Take care and support local bands! Take care of each other, don't be an asshole (unless it's necessary) and see you on the next one,
Naja
Also we would like to thank the organisers of the event, Tuska live who also bring Tuska Festival in Helsinki every summer and Grey Beard
PHOTO ALBUM:
1.Band: AVATAR
Photographer: Nayia Kanavou (Nayia K.Rose)
Date & Location: 7/2/2025 Kulttuuritalo, Helsinki, Finland
2.Band: ALIEN WEAPONRY
Photographer: Nayia Kanavou (Nayia K.Rose)
Date & Location: 7/2/2025 Kulttuuritalo, Helsinki, Finland
3.Band: AGABAS
Photographer: Nayia Kanavou (Nayia K.Rose)
Date & Location: 7/2/2025 Kulttuuritalo, Helsinki, Finland
