This concert was a long awaited one. I’ve been a fan of Turmion Kätilöt for about 16 years, roughly. Back then, a friend of mine sent me the first episode of an animated online series called Bunnykill. The background music struck me immediately: a heavy industrial metal song in Finnish. It was Turmion Kätilöt’s second single Verta Ja Lihaa, which then made me dig up more music of that band. I fell for Turmion Kätilöt and kept listening to them.
I missed their last headline tour with stops in Germany, so this time I was lucky to squeeze one of the shows into my concert schedule. They came in tow with another Finnish band that combines heavy music with electronic sounds: King Satan were a perfect match for that evening.
Here’s how it was in more detail.
King Satan
I hadn’t heard of King Satan before the announcement of this tour, which is surprising enough given the fact that they’ve played shows with Turmion Kätilöt before and that I’m generally interested in Finnish music. I gave them a listen before the show to know what was expecting me. In a wider sense, their music can be considered Industrial Metal. King Aleister Satan himself describes their sound as Death Metal Disco and that’s pretty much on point. Their sound is heavily influenced by Death Metal, but uses a lot of electronic sounds and samples as well. There’s a touch of EBM in their music as well. The topics revolve around satanism, the occult or old myths. All in all, it’s an interesting package.
King Satan hit the stage at 8 pm sharp and opened the set with The Faces of the Devil. They played for about 40 minutes and included songs from all four albums, with a stronger focus on their latest album The Devil’s Evangelion, which was released in November 2024.
The Faces of the Devil
Chaos Forever Now
Sex Magick
Abyss of the Souls
The Pagan Satan
The Carnivalesque of Dark and Light
Fuck Yoga
New Aeon Gospel
The Killing of God
As you’d expect from a band calling their music Death Metal Disco, their set was a nice warm-up as it was incredibly danceable. The room wasn’t super packed, the show wasn’t sold out, but the crowd picked up the vibe and seemed to enjoy the show.
For Sex Magick, keyboarder Hekate „Kate“ Boss left her spot behind the keys and joined King Aleister Satan for vocals. The high female voice was a great contrast to the male growling/shouting. And watching the stage performance was both refreshing and fascinating. The whole band has a great stage energy, but for me personally, watching Hekate was an extra level of joy when she was throwing her blond braids through the air while banging her head, mostly a big grin on her face. The high, almost shrieking vocal parts of Sex Magick made her seem slightly unhinged, which matches the chaotic vibe of the band. Also seeing her interactions with King Aleister on stage was truly delightful.
Hekate’s slightly unhinged energy was also matched by drummer Pete Hellraiser, who, while giving full power behind his drumset, kept grimacing, which was perfectly underlined by his stage make-up. Speaking of make-up, King Satan also play with certain visuals, from stage outfits (I’m a sucker for King Aleister’s jacket and hat, it looked SO COOL. Also honorable mention: their guitarist Lasse Rautiainen started the set with a crown of thorns, which he took off during the set, but damn?! The vibe!) to stage props (from animal skull to shaman drum).
So all in all, King Satan’s performance was truly impressive and actually super cool. I’d love to see them again, as I’m all in for their chaotic vibe and I think I gotta dive deeper into their music. I’ve found an interview with King Aleister Satan and wow, there’s a whole lot of philosophical background to their music. It’s all in all a very interesting project that I’d like to keep track of.
Turmion Kätilöt
The Midwives of Ruin, if you like, hit the stage at 9:15 pm, opening their set with the song Yksi Jumalista. Or actually, they opened their set with bassist Master Bates entering the stage with two bananas, which he then gave to people in the front row (you’re guessing right if you assume that I received one of them and I have to say that this is by far the weirdest item I’ve ever taken home from a concert – but it saved my night, as I was very hungry after the show. Thanks, guys).
The energy level was high right from the start. Turmion Kätilöt’s music is also incredibly danceable. There were no moshpits, just people dancing and jumping and having a good time. And their setlist didn’t really give people a break. For me personally, the biggest joy was finally hearing Verta Ja Lihaa live, which was already the second song in their setlist.
The overall set was focusing strongly on their later albums, after Saku „Shag-U“ Solin joined the band. The majority of songs was from their latest album Reset, which was released last year, and some more from Omen X from 2023. With Naitu and Viha Ja Rakkaus there were also songs included from their 2020 album Global Warning, and with Verta Ja Lihaa, Teurastaja and Hades there were only three older songs (with the first two dating back to the very very very early days of the band, as those two were their first two singles…).
Yksi Jumalista
Verta ja Lihaa
Otava
Hades
Kerran Kuollut
Isä Meidän
Sikiö
Dance Panique
Sinä 2.0
Sormenjälki
Teurastaja
Verestä Sokea
Kun Kesä Kuoli
Päästä Irti
Viha ja Rakkaus
Naitu
Kuolettavia Vammoja
Pulssi
The interesting thing about Turmion Kätilöt is that they’re one of those fairly rare bands that made it outside of Finland with almost exclusively Finnish lyrics – which kinda acts some extra flavour to their shows. I honestly admit that despite listening to their music for several years now, I’ve never really bothered reading many translations of their lyrics. I have a vague idea of what most of their songs are about, but while I sing along in Finnish, I don’t know most of the time what I am singing (my Finnish classes weren’t providing me with enough knowledge).
The band was very well aware of the fact that a majority of their audience might not have a clue what they were singing about, they even made a remark concerning that fact which gave off the impression that for them, it was somehow a little weird … or surprising … that people outside of Finland enjoyed their music so much. For some of the songs, the singers Saku „Shag-U“ Solin and Petja „MC Raaka Pee“ Turunen offered translations for the titles at least. They also spiced up the show a little by explaining for example that the word for getting married is basically the same word as the word for fucking – so Naitu means both „married“ and „fucked“.
We also learned that MC Raaka Pee is a father of four – or five? – children and that apparently his kids recorded the children’s vocals in Isä Meidän.
The entire show was amazing. I loved the light, I loved the selection of songs, the moderation was great and the overall mood in the audience was great. Everyone was dancing and just enjoying themselves. I genuinely enjoyed the show. And so did many others.
All in all, it was absolutely worth it. It was a great evening altogether with two bands who delivered both an amazing show.