Helldone Festival 2009

Oh yes, home for the holidays! Life in Southern Cali is really nice, know what I mean? But sometimes it’s good for your soul to feel the extremes - the round-the-clock darkness and the merciless cold. After all it’s a universally known fact that there is no better place to get rid of your studio tan than Hellsinki in late December! Feel that rush again, the blood racing through your veins, feeling a-live! It’s about time, too, knowing there’s an Australian tour looming on the rapidly approaching horizon. And you’ve been itching to slip in some new songs into your set, now haven’t you? No doubt about it, HIM is in. Then again they always have been, since the first Helldone Festival back in 2005 - and even beyond that. After all, there wouldn’t be a festival in the first place if the band hadn’t made a tradition out of playing New Year’s Eve gigs at their home base, the Tavastia club, starting all the way back in 1998! Since early August HIM has been working on their seventh studio album in Los Angeles with producer Matt Squire. The working title of the album is “Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice” and it is scheduled to be released on Valentine’s Day 2010. Starving for live action the band has now decided they would love to headline each and every night of the Four Headed Beast from the North that is Helldone 2009! Get some of your old friends to give us all a special treat, like go acoustic in the intimate surroundings of funky ol’ Semifinal club. Just take a sharp right after the pinball machine, there’s a short set of stairs leading down - voila, you’ve made it! The 69 Eyes have just released the most electrifying, hard rocking album of their careers in “Back In Blood”. They will arrive at Helldone Festival red hot after an extensive American tour. Perfect timing for a breather, then - a rare chance to unplug and unwind. After a three-night residency of what will without doubt consist of vampire ballads & debauchery they will hand over the reins to Anathema acoustic. Anathema is of course one of the forerunners of British doom metal. Formed in Liverpool 1990, they have outgrown all genres a long time ago in their ever continuing search for new ways to express feeling through sound. Anathema acoustic is a rare performance of the mellower moments from Anathema, featuring all three Cavanagh brothers with exquisite cello accompaniment. A rare thing to behold, as anyone who owns their recent acoustic album 'hindsight' can testify to. . Invite the cream of your new favourite bands to open for you. Finland’s Finest - the next generation. Please step forward! Flamer is the name of the new band of former Bleak frontman and songwriter Caleb. This second time around Caleb has managed to retain everything that was good in his former band, including hit single Fate off the Jade Warrior movie, add some new twists to his music and take the whole thing to the next level. Flamer’s debut album “Molotov Cocktails” is in the pipeline. The reviews of Ghost Brigade’s 2007 debut "Guided by Fire" were glowing. ‘Impressively atmospheric, dark, intelligent and passionate’, they read. ‘Katatonia's grief collides with the wrath of Neurosis’. The guys from Jyväskylä kept their cool, stayed focused and upped their game with this year’s “Isolation Songs”. Brilliant live band, too! After having released a handful of singles that received cult status Vanity Beach finally got around to releasing their debut album “A Life Of Vice” earlier this year. Their mission has been from the very beginning to bring back danger into rock & roll. When you listen to their mix of noisy post-punk, haunting synthesizer soundscapes and dark metal overtones, you know they’re on the right track. ‘They sound like Mötley Crüe’s soul looks like’, Metal Hammer famously commented. Everybody knows that’s a scary place to be. Major Label is a trio from Helsinki, just three guys making this big, big music. You could label their second album “When I Am With You, You Are Safe” alternative metal, but that means you’ve only scratched the surface. The band’s own description of their music takes you a little closer to the truth: ‘our sound is like watching a Michel Gondry movie while simultaneously listening to Sigur Rós and Rage Against The Machine’. The rest is there for you to find out. The Helldone Festival. Tons of old friends to meet, time to catch up, party to the coolest of tunes. The coolest of tunes… right! Let’s not forget our resident DJ Crew, the infamous Club TarTar DJs. Gentlemen, state your case. “DJs extraordinaire Ginger Boy, Egyptin Portti and Stereo Ramses will shower you with the best tunes known in Valhalla and beyond. Their mad beatmismatching skillz and feverish scratching will make even the toughest pharaoh dance like a werewolf in the moonlight shadow.” Yes, people, the Helldone Festival 2009. We promise you four nights of love & magic leading the faithful into 2010. And what a year that is promising to be!
Tickets will go on sale: Oct 20th at 09:00am in Helsinki, Finland (EEST) Oct 20th at 02:00am in New York (EDT) Oct 19th at 11:00pm in Los Angeles, US (PDT)

Mon 28th December Tavastia stage HIM support: Flamer + Club TarTarDJs Semifinal stage: The 69 Eyes Unplugged

Tue 29th December Tavastia stage HIM support: Ghost Brigade + Club TarTarDJs Semifinal stage: The 69 Eyes Unplugged

Wed 30th December Tavastia stage HIM support: Vanity Beach + Club TarTarDJs Semifinal stage: The 69 Eyes Unplugged

Thu 31st December Tavastia stage HIM support: Major Label + Club TarTarDJs Semifinal stage: Anathema acoustic (UK)

Tickets: 45 € / night. (PLEASE NOTE: 2 tickets per customer only per night) No multi-day passes available this year! Strict age limit for all nights 18 and over Tickets will go on sale Oct 20th at 09:00 (EET)
Opening hours: 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. (except New Year’s Eve 8 p.m. to 4 a.m.)