The Finnish Nu Metal band are on their first ever UK headlining tour, tonight 14th September is their stop in Manchester. You might recognise Blind Channel from last year’s Eurovision Song Contest with their song, Dark Side.

They’re supported by Lost Society, a Finnish metal band formed of Samy Elbanna on lead vocals, Arttu Lesonen as lead and rhythm guitar, Mirko Lehtinen on Bass and Taz Fagerstrom on drums. As the band takes to the stage the lights come on illuminating all four members, Samy’s blue hair merging in with the back lights, he announces the band as Lost Society and the band kicks into full gear, and the crowd are joining in with them.

The band that formed in 2012, gave a feel of their old and new sounds, with an intense mix of Trash metal, Groove Metal and Metalcore.

The entire room is packed out from the front to the back, to the point where I knew I didn’t stand a chance getting pictures in the crowd for some parts.

The stage presence they have is something you don’t see with most bands, Samy embraces each member when he can during their set, as they all join close together during incredible guitar solos. I make my way to the front of the crowd the best I can, when the lights turn bright green and Samy announces that the next song of theirs is Riot. The crowd cheers and the song kicks in, guitar solos left and right, each member of the band screaming out the word RIOT, encouraging the crowd to do so with them. Guitarist Arttu throws his long hair all over the place, screaming out lyrics to those in the front row, he throws up his guitar for each solo captivating the crowd. Swapping places with Mirko every now and again, allowing each and every one of the band to witness the incredible energy they have created in front of them.

Samy makes a full statement about hatred and loving each other and yourself, they have the sound and energy of metalcore merged in with a mix of a classic rock vibe.

Blind Channel, electronic metalcore band from Finland, if you recognise the name you might recognise them as representing Finland in the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest. The lights go black throughout the entire room, before an electronic backing track comes on. And one by one each member takes the stage, Joel Hokka and Niko Moilanen on Vocals, Joonas Porko on Guitar, Olli Matela on Bass, Tommi Lalli on Drums and Aleksi Kaunisvesi on Samples and DJ.

The crowd is going nuts, for many in this room it’s a show they’ve been waiting to see for well over a year.

They welcome the crowd before jumping into We Are No Saints, the electronicore is very noticeable from the start, Niko and Joel merge perfectly together with their different but also similar vocals. I’ve watched bands perform on Rebellion’s stage multiple times now, and the energy that Blind Channel brought was like no other, it was none stop the jumping, the running from different sides of the stage in a full blown sprint, I’m pretty sure if they wanted to they would’ve gone in the crowd with everyone there.

Timebomb and Alive or Only Breathing come in next, showing their love for Nu-Metal as rap gets put in with the metalcore set.

Joel and Niko pause for a moment to say how the room has brought them back to life, after feeling hungover during most of the day.

“Joonas how’re you feeling? Are you still hungover?” If they were they didn’t look at it and honestly compared to some hangovers I’ve seen I envy them.

Died Enough for You and Don’t Fix Me follow afterwards, the lights are blinding, the guys are jumping at an insane pace, with Niko sporting his fedora hat on his head while doing twirls all along the stage, the life is flowing throughout Rebellion.

If you thought that they didn’t show their love for Nu-Metal enough, you would be insanely wrong. How can you have nu-metal without a dedication to Limp Bizkit? You can’t, and clearly they think so to, as they go into a beautiful cover of Rolling’. Everyone in the crowd is doing the iconic dance moves, encouraged by everyone on stage. Lyrics are getting belted out left right and center, from the front to the back! Horns are in the air, fists and opened palms all over the place.

But obviously it wouldn’t be a metalcore show without being told to get on the ground and wait for the intense drop! A packed out group drops slowly to the door, the drums amp up, the backing track gets intense, the bass is working its magic and the guitar is rolling up everyone in the room, before the beat drops the crowd jumps up as high as possible, with the band following suit with everyone there. Everyone is connected in sync.

Feel Nothing, Bad Idea and their incredible song Balboa follow up next, these are songs I expected, what I didn’t expect however was a cover from a song us 90s kids remember, Left Outside Alone by Anastacia! When I say my heart leapt when I recognised that familiar beat pick up, oh my God it jumped. I had my camera in hand belting out every ounce of nostalgia I could muster. Bring back Punk Goes Pop and put these guys on there!

They slow down and things get more emotional with Thank You for the Pain before they leave the stage. But the lights aren’t up yet, we aren’t being blinded by the reminder to go back to normal life, the crowd chants “ONE MORE SONG! ONE MORE SONG” the lights remain off, six figures emerge back onto the stage, and the intro to the slow but steady intro to their famous track Dark Side begins!

“Everyone put your middle fingers up in the air for this one!” middle fingers rise, the lights are back on for the encore! “Put your middle fingers up, take a shot. Throw it up and don’t stop!” Arms are waving up and down with each beat for the matching lyrics! I’ve been to high energy shows, but normally you have a mosh pit to create some form of intensity, not for this one, you didn’t need a pit to start to create an atmosphere, and as someone who loves going into the pits and going nuts, it was satisfyingly perfect.

Blind Channel are incredible, and will go insanely far with their combination of Electronicore, Metalcore and Nu-metal. Creating something glorious and downright awesome!

Words & images: Lauren Allard

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