HUMAVOID ┃The Rising Stars of Finnish Metal #1

Finland is THE metal music country. Finland is known for its many successful metal bands as well as having the largest number of metal bands in the world relative to its population. Whether it’s the old school bands like Tarot, heavyweight giants such as Nightwish and Children of Bodom or the rising crusaders Battle Beast and Beast In Black, Finland boasts an impressive amount of unique groups that will get your head banging in no time.

But who are the most interesting young metal bands coming from the country of thousand lakes right now? In this article series we will present to you some of the most exciting, unique, heavy and promising bands that work hard to keep the legacy of amazing Finnish metal bands alive. Whether they have been around for 10 years or just 2 months, they will be featured if they are criminally underrated.

HUMAVOID: The band that can give Meshuggah a run for its money

Espoo-based Humavoid is a clear oddity in the Finnish metal scene. Their music is very strongly influenced by djent, but instead of going in the direction of progressive metalcore, like Periphery and Monuments, intsead Humavoid stays true to the father of the style, Meshuggah.

Low-tuned riffs, jerky grooves, head-spinning polymeters and polyrhythms as well as technical runs played on a keytar. The band’s music kicks ass and manages to intimidate with both its technicality and dissonance. The musicians playing in the band are already experts known from other great Finnish bands such as Amoral and Diablo, but Humavoid is still a young band that deserves to be more popular.

The band released their debut album “Lidless” in 2020, and it became one of my absolute favorites. Just listen to the catchy riff on the title track or the insane middle section of “Aluminum Rain” – completed with an fantastic piano solo performed by Iiro Rantala, a true legend of Finnish jazz.

Having seen the band live once, I can only say that it was one of the most mind-blowing gigs I have seen. I felt like I just got smashed – and I am not talking about the Jägermeister that I had. Humavoid comes off very intense and powerful on stage with such finesse and destructive virtuosity that a lot of the other local prog acts go home crying to whatever cheesy noodling Dream Theater put out most recently.

If you want to be baffled by sheer virtuosity as well as feel like Muhammad Ali just re-arranged your jaw, go put on some Humavoid.