Hellsinki Metal Festival 2026 – Day One Report: Wormwood, Omnium Gatherum, Carcass, Ikinä, Bloodbath, Black Label Society and Accept

Hellsinki Metal Festival 2026 opened its gates in Helsinki on August 7 with a Day One line-up that read like a crash course in Nordic extremity: Scandinavian melancholy, Finnish melodic death metal, British grindcore-turned-death-metal royalty, homegrown newcomers and a Swedish death metal supergroup to close it out. Metal Madness Weekly was on site from the first soundcheck to the final encore.

Day One at a Glance

Two stages, tight changeovers and a crowd that arrived early and stayed loud. The weather held for most of the afternoon, the sound crews kept the mix clean across both stages, and the festival area moved efficiently even during the peak evening slots. For a first day, Hellsinki 2026 ran with the discipline of a festival that knows exactly what its audience came for.

Wormwood — Scandinavian Melancholy Indoors

Wormwood set the tone in the most Nordic way possible: a wall of blue and red light, that enormous 'Scandinavian Melancholy' backdrop, and black metal that leans as much on atmosphere as on aggression. The Swedes played to a room that filled up fast, trading tremolo-driven bleakness with folk-tinged melody and letting the slower passages breathe. It was a smart opener — a mood-setter rather than a sprint — and the crowd rewarded it with the kind of focused silence between songs that only genuinely good black metal earns.

Omnium Gatherum — Finnish Melodic Death Metal at Full Strength

Then the main stage belonged to Omnium Gatherum. Finland's melodic death metal institution delivered exactly the set the daytime crowd wanted: huge melodic leads, crushing low-end, and Jukka Pelkonen commanding the front of the stage with that unmistakable growl. The band's material translates unusually well to an open-air stage — the melodies carry across the field, the harmonies stay legible even at volume, and the newer songs sat comfortably next to the older favourites. One of Day One's clear highlights, and a reminder of how consistently strong this band has been for two decades.

Exclusive Interview — Jukka Pelkonen (Omnium Gatherum)

Straight after the show, Metal Madness Weekly sat down with Omnium Gatherum vocalist Jukka Pelkonen for an exclusive interview recorded backstage at Hellsinki Metal Festival 2026. We talked about the set, the state of Finnish melodic death metal, life on the festival circuit and what comes next for the band. The full interview is available on YouTube and as a podcast episode on Spotify — both players are embedded above, and you can watch the video interview here: https://youtu.be/ZaskmpmPojA

Carcass — Precision Brutality Under a Helsinki Sky

Carcass brought the afternoon's masterclass. Decades in and the band still plays with a surgical tightness that most younger acts can only aim at — that instantly recognisable guitar tone, the groove buried inside the brutality, and a setlist that moved between the grind-era material and the melodic death metal that made them legends. Green light, smoke, horns in the air across the whole field: one of the most unified crowd reactions of the day.

Ikinä — Finland's Own on the Big Stage

Ikinä turned their slot into a full production — multiple performers on stage, red lighting, theatrical staging and a crowd that clearly knew every word. Watching a domestic act hold a festival main stage this confidently is one of the more encouraging things you can see at a Finnish festival, and the reaction from the field suggested this was many people's discovery of the day.

Bloodbath — The Heaviest Set of the Evening

Bloodbath delivered the day's heaviest, filthiest set: that blood-red logo backdrop cutting through the smoke, old-school Stockholm death metal guitar tone at maximum, and a field of raised hands and phone screens from the barrier to the back. No atmosphere-building, no subtlety — just death metal played by people who have been perfecting it for a very long time.

The Night Continued — Black Label Society and Accept

Bloodbath was far from the end of the night. Black Label Society took the stage from 20:00 to 21:15, Zakk Wylde bringing his southern-tinged, blues-soaked heavy metal to a crowd that had already been on its feet for hours. Then, from 22:30 to midnight, Accept closed the Hellsinki-01 stage with a ninety-minute masterclass in German heavy metal — the twin-guitar attack, the anthems, and a late-night crowd singing every chorus back at the stage.

Everything Else on the Friday Bill

Day One ran across three stages — Hellsinki-01 and Hellsinki-02 outdoors, Hellsinki-03 indoors — and there was far more music than any one pair of ears could cover. On the outdoor Hellsinki-01 stage the day opened with Unleashed at 14:15, followed by Carcass (16:00), Bloodbath (18:00), Black Label Society (20:00) and Accept from 22:30 to midnight. The other outdoor stage, Hellsinki-02, started earliest of all with Horizon Ignited at 13:30, then Omnium Gatherum (15:00), Ikinä (17:00), Blackbraid from 19:00 to 20:00 and Cryptopsy closing it out 21:15–22:30. Indoors, Hellsinki-03 was the deep-cut stage: Wormwood at 15:00, Brymir (16:30), Vreid (18:00), Sanguisugabogg (19:30), Mawiza (22:00) and finally Carpenter Brut running from midnight to 01:00 to send the survivors home.

Day One Verdict

Hellsinki Metal Festival 2026 Day One delivered range without losing focus: Wormwood's melancholy, Omnium Gatherum's melodic firepower, Carcass's veteran precision, Ikinä's homegrown ambition, Bloodbath's brutality, and a headline stretch of Black Label Society and Accept — with Unleashed, Horizon Ignited, Brymir, Vreid, Blackbraid, Sanguisugabogg, Cryptopsy, Mawiza and Carpenter Brut filling three stages until 01:00. Add an exclusive backstage interview with Jukka Pelkonen and the first day already justifies the trip.

Coverage continues — Day Two reports, more photos and further backstage interviews land on Metal Madness Weekly as the weekend unfolds.

— Report and photos by Tomi Perrakoski / Metal Madness Weekly