Cover photo by Kim Sølve.
The fifth edition of Finnish festival Blowup is shaping up to be an exciting one. Confirmations for the three day event taking place in Helsinki next October began with legendary names like Cirith Ungol, Eyehategod, Godflesh, and The Obssessed among others. The most recent batch of confirmed aritsts is comprised of Big Business, Hide, Llnn, Nukypost, White Ring, and Ved Buens Ende to their line-up. That’s right, Ved Buens Ende, whose three years of activity in the nineties were enough to make them one of the most important bands in black metal history.

The original trio of Carl-MIchael Eide, Skoll, and Vicotnik has reunited, seemingly alongside Nidingr drummer Øyvind Myrvoll, who’s also a live member in Aura Noir and Dødheimsgard. The band already have two dates set, one in July at the Metal Magic Festival in Denmark (more information here) and the aforementioned Blowup one in Helsinki. Note that their seminal masterpiece «Written In Waters» was re-issued last December by Soulseller Records, with the cd and digital versions still available at this location.

As for the remainder of the recent confirmations, note the presences of industrial duo Hide and darkwave trio White Ring, both of whom released their first full-lengths last year with «Castration Anxiety» and «Gate of Grief» respectively, which you can hear below.

«Castration Anxiety» was released on vinyl by Dais Records on March 30, 2018 and can be obtained at this location.

«Gates of Grief» was released by Rocket Girl on cd, digital, and vinyl formats on July 27, 2018, all of which are available here.

Finally, recall that Big Business will be releasing «The Beast You Are» on April 12 via Joyful Noise on cassette, cd, digital, and vinyl formats, which can be pre-ordered at this location. We wrote about the upcoming album, from which two songs have been revealed thus far, here and here. Artwork and closer «Let Them Grind» can be revisited below.

Blowup Vol. 5 will take place at the Korjaamo Culture Factory in Helsinki, between October 10 and 12, 2019. Tickets are available through the festival’s website.