Tombstoned in Baltimor

Last Friday I went to Lepakkomies for the (on my behalf) highly anticipated Baltimor show. I was pretty thrilled to see them again on stage after their great gig at Pub Sir Oliver a bit more than a month ago. Back then I had never heard of them and I was in for a surprise! They stood out like a sore thumb AND stole the show that night with their punk fused metal attack. Absolutely great stuff and I wanted more of that. Friday the time had finally come, so off I went to pay Batman (that´s what Lepakkomies means) an overdue visit.

As appetizer and counter point to the upcoming metal madness J. Kiesi broke the first ground. Quite stylishly sitting on a chair he and his acoustic guitar lured the audience into a world of Finnish sung folk and country, which I bet was unknown territory for some of the spectators.

By the way: he should not remain the only musician sitting on stage that night.

But back to Kiersi: despite the total contrast to everything that was yet to come he managed to draw a good crowd that was obviously digging his songs. And I did, too. Nice to see some open-mindedness in action, a virtue the metal scene is often claimed not to have. But with his well-crafted songs he had them eating out of the palm of his hand. Way to go, J.

Next up was United Seafood, what a name. A little birdy told me right before their set that the band is a side project of friends who all play in other combos. Birdy also told me this was going to be their first show ever and that they´re shaking like a leaf with stage fright.

Although you could tell that the Seafood boys were a bit nervous, there was actually no reason for it. Their performance was real solid and old school metal was the name of the game. The set was short but sweet and I guess we´ll be hearing from United Seafood soon again. Gladly so.

Then it was time for dooooooooooooom! The event was sold out when Tombstoned hit the stage. And with them came a wall of sound, the sound of Sabbath meets Vitus meets Cheer and they fucking delivered the goods!

I give you a blurry one cause my flash killed their projection on the wall.

How can you play doom metal without sounding just a bit like the aforementioned bands? You can´t. But you can be just a lame copy or you can have something unique and the latter is definitely the category Tombstoned belong to. Hypnotic, heavy and unstoppable like a slow locomotive. The projections emphasized the hypnotic element even more! I can only say that Tombstoned was truly mind-blowing that night. Had a little chat with the drummer and the bass player who confirmed that soon two 7" are being released. Plus there is an obscure tape coming out- in France of all places!

Then the mighty Baltimor took the crowd by storm. Double bass thunder, distorted bass, twin lead guitar lines and singer Iro´s gnarly growl. A marriage made in heaven! (Or was it the other direction?) I dig them so much because they mix the right amounts of old school metal with a snotty punk attitude and shake it up to an explosive molotov cocktail. Obviously I wasn´t the only one with that notion as the crowd went absolutely bananas!

Baltimor´s bass man fought through the show with a broken leg, a result of a skateboarding stunt gone bad. Talk about street credibility! Although he had a chair to rest on in-between songs, he just couldn´t sit during their assault - and believe me, nobody could! The set felt like a big party, fists in the air, beer squirting across the room, sing-along! Later the guys told me that there would be enough material for a full-length but no label yet to put it out. Somebody give them a deal already! I want that on vinyl!!

Make sure to check out:

J. Kiesi
United Seafood
Tombstoned
Baltimor