Bloodred Hourglass
Amager Bio, Copenhagen - 2025
Text: Tobias Nilsson Photo: Lunah Lauridsen
With both Pain and The Halo Effect visiting Copenhagen, there was no way we’d miss out on this night. Supporting them was, for us, an unknown entity called Bloodred Hourglass (BRHG), and after a short intro, they were to spend the next 40ish minutes getting us good and ready for the other two bands.
“Greetings from Finland! This is our first time here in your beautiful country!”
- Jarkko Koukonen (vocals)
BRHG is a melodic death/core band that’s been around for 20 years now, and apparently, they’ve never visited their close neighbour to the south west before. This was made extra visible by the low number of people admitting to actually knowing the band. When Jarkko Koukonen asked for a show of hands of how many had heard the band before, there were about 10-12 hands raised, and only 3-4 hands went up when asked who had actually seen the band live before. As Koukonen commented with a smile, this was still better than Norway the day before.
Even if BRHG was new to us, there was one familiar face in the band. Lauri Silvonen had visited Copenhagen only a couple of months earlier with his other band, Wolfheart. Contrary to the bass position he had in that band however, he was one of three guitarists here, and I have to admit, going by our short encounter here, I couldn’t give you a fulfilling explanation as to why they needed three guitarists.
With the more than average number of people in the band, and the highly restricted space they had on stage due to the other band’s stuff taking up most of the room, there wasn’t all that much space for BRHG to move about, but they did what they could. The guitarists walked about a bit, but it was mostly up to Koukonen to keep the audience engaged.
To begin with, said crowd was neither all that big, nor all that engaged, but it did grow throughout the show. The response grew as well, though nothing mind blowing. It wasn’t until Koukonen demanded to see everyone jumping for the final track, Where The Sinners Crawl, and the band led the way, that we saw a good engagement rise down on the floor.
“Are you feeling it? Thank you so much, guys!”
- Koukonen (vocals)
Bloodred Hourglass may have come to us as an unknown entity, but that’s not a problem in itself. The problem was that they also left like one. The show was fine, enjoyable, but also highly forgettable, I’m afraid. I know they didn’t have all that much time to work with, but I’ve seen bands with less stage time spend more of it connecting with the crowd, and I think that was the biggest drawback here. Pretty much wall to wall with music, and not enough interaction for us to bond with them. The slight melancholy (classic Finnish trait) in The End We Start From was the highlight of the show.
Setlist:
The Sun Still In Me
In Lieu Of Flowers
Leaves
The End We Start From
Waves Of Black
Drag Me The Rain
Nightmares Are Dreams Too
Veritas
Where The Sinners Crawl
“Greetings from Finland! This is our first time here in your beautiful country!”
- Jarkko Koukonen (vocals)
BRHG is a melodic death/core band that’s been around for 20 years now, and apparently, they’ve never visited their close neighbour to the south west before. This was made extra visible by the low number of people admitting to actually knowing the band. When Jarkko Koukonen asked for a show of hands of how many had heard the band before, there were about 10-12 hands raised, and only 3-4 hands went up when asked who had actually seen the band live before. As Koukonen commented with a smile, this was still better than Norway the day before.
Even if BRHG was new to us, there was one familiar face in the band. Lauri Silvonen had visited Copenhagen only a couple of months earlier with his other band, Wolfheart. Contrary to the bass position he had in that band however, he was one of three guitarists here, and I have to admit, going by our short encounter here, I couldn’t give you a fulfilling explanation as to why they needed three guitarists.
With the more than average number of people in the band, and the highly restricted space they had on stage due to the other band’s stuff taking up most of the room, there wasn’t all that much space for BRHG to move about, but they did what they could. The guitarists walked about a bit, but it was mostly up to Koukonen to keep the audience engaged.
To begin with, said crowd was neither all that big, nor all that engaged, but it did grow throughout the show. The response grew as well, though nothing mind blowing. It wasn’t until Koukonen demanded to see everyone jumping for the final track, Where The Sinners Crawl, and the band led the way, that we saw a good engagement rise down on the floor.
“Are you feeling it? Thank you so much, guys!”
- Koukonen (vocals)
Bloodred Hourglass may have come to us as an unknown entity, but that’s not a problem in itself. The problem was that they also left like one. The show was fine, enjoyable, but also highly forgettable, I’m afraid. I know they didn’t have all that much time to work with, but I’ve seen bands with less stage time spend more of it connecting with the crowd, and I think that was the biggest drawback here. Pretty much wall to wall with music, and not enough interaction for us to bond with them. The slight melancholy (classic Finnish trait) in The End We Start From was the highlight of the show.
Setlist:
The Sun Still In Me
In Lieu Of Flowers
Leaves
The End We Start From
Waves Of Black
Drag Me The Rain
Nightmares Are Dreams Too
Veritas
Where The Sinners Crawl
Bloodred Hourglass
