Hellsinki Metal Festival 2025 - Beer, bands and bonkers wrestling

In this special detour from our usual Beat Motel rambling, Andrew and Dr. Sam swap the studio for the chaos of Hellsinki Metal Festival (yes, with two Ls, because one L just isn’t metal enough). We navigate Finnish beer, dodge suspicious wrestling moves, and try to work out why 8% lager is even legal in a place with mosh pits.

Expect unfiltered commentary on bands like Kanonenfieber, Decapitated, and Fear Factory, plus on-the-ground insights into earplug economics, dungaree etiquette at metal gigs, and whether wrestling at a metal fest is meant to be taken seriously (spoiler: no). We also wonder why no other Brits seem to have worked out that Finnish festivals are cleaner, better run, and infinitely less likely to smell like a port-a-loo graveyard.

It’s loud, it’s wet, it’s metal, and it’s gloriously daft — just the way we like it.