(Our Slovenia-based contributor Didrik Mešiček plans to go to a festival near Milan in September and decided to make everyone else jealous about it — unless you go too, which he hopes you will, and he’ll be easy to find there. If he survives, we expect a report.)
Are you sad summer is almost over and with it festival season? Yeah, me too, mate. But while most, if not all, week-long festivals have concluded there are still smaller hidden gems waiting for us in September and in the autumnal months. One of those that caught my eye comes from Italian colleagues at https://metalitalia.com/ who are one of the biggest Italian metal webzines and, of course, also organise their own two-day festival at the end of September right on the outskirts of Milano, which they’ve called – and I hope you’re ready for this – Metalitalia.com Festival.
Where and when exactly? Well, the festival takes place on the 27th and the 28th of September, which is a weekend so it’s a bit easier to take a trip to Lombardy and see some majestic lakes while you’re there as well. Or tell your wife (if she’s not a metalhead) you’re actually going for the fashion and whatever else is in Milano that non-metalhead women are interested in, while you sneak off to see some really cool bands in the Live Music Club (yeah, they didn’t try very hard with the name of the venue, I know).
And speaking of those bands – the festival found a pretty solid balance between the softer genres and some extreme metal, which means the headliners are one of the Swedish melodeath pioneers, Dark Tranquillity, who will be playing a special show dedicated to the albums The Gallery and Character. The other headliner comes in the form of the Finnish power metal legends, Stratovarius, a band that’s been active since the mid ’80s.
As we continue down the poster, the dichotomy continues with one of the standout new extreme metal bands of recent years – Kanonenfieber – and the local doom metal outfit Messa whom I’m very excited to finally see live. Also, please note how their logo takes way more space on the poster than that of any other band; very unapologetic. On the other side, we have Italian legends Rhapsody of Fire with a special Dawn of Victory anniversary show. If you remember that album coming out you’re not gonna like that it’s a 25 year anniversary as it means you’re even older than you thought but, you know, might as well come see them and enjoy your old age.
I’ll very objectively add that the award for the best band on this poster, however, goes to Soen and their thoroughly fantastic style of prog metal. A band that’s not afraid to tackle hard topics with exquisite lyricism and tremendous guitar work which is backed by Martin Lopez (ex-Amon Amarth) on drums, they have been a favourite of mine for close to ten years now and I genuinely encourage everyone to check them out.
Some more power metal-ish bands are sprinkled around in the lineup such as another Italian band, Elvenking, and the ridiculous but very fun Twilight Force. Lastly, I think Iotunn deserves a mention out of these bands as they’ve had two brilliant album releases in recent years, and they’re definitely not a band you want to skip, even if they might perform a bit earlier during the day.
For those of you who might be in the area anyway or feel like coming on Friday there is also a warm-up show about which you can find out more at the festival’s page, along with any other possible information you may be interested in. – https://www.metalitalia-festival.com/
Finally, tickets are available at a fairly reasonable 79€, while the daily ticket will cost you 49€, and you can get them via the following link:
https://www.metalitalia-festival.com/en/biglietti/
I hope to see you there and do come say hi if you’re around – I’ll be the bearded guy in a band shirt. Can’t possibly miss me.