LORDI & RABBIT CULT
Logomon Terassikesä, Turku 21st August 2026

20 years ago, Lordi did the unthinkable and won the Eurovision Song Contest. They became national heroes for a while, and their third album "The Arockalypse" sold double platinum in Finland. This year the band has celebrated that album's anniversary by playing it its' entirety at their gigs. The Turku gig was the last anniversary show.

There is only one member left of the Arockalypse line-up in the band, the main man Mr. Lordi. The other monsters have been replaced one by one during the years. Some of them have chosen to leave, others have been asked to do so and unfortunately there has been one death in the monster family, when drummer Otus passed away in 2012.

Before the monsters, a duo of bunnies took the stage. RABBIT CULT is definitely a quite unique band. They have their own universe "Terra Feminarum", where bunny goddesses rule, which is the foundation of their visual and musical identity. Their "Bunny Metal" combines elements of metal, electro-pop and traditional Finnish instruments, most notably Kantele.

For an old-school geezer their music was a bit odd. Some of the songs were just monotonous chants, some of them did have decent pop hooks while others were just plain strange. There were just two performers on stage, vocalist/kantele player Salla and drummer Marianne, who played guitar on one song, so obviously a lot of what we heard were echoes from Terra Feminarum or something. Salla's effortless vocal transitions from the cutesy vocals to growling were quite impressive.

The band had to play among Lordi's stage props, which added a strange visual contrast to their show - pink instruments and bunnies in front of a dark castle... In a way it kind of suited their music. And how many bands have their own hand sign? No "horns up", for Rabbit Cult you show the "bunny ears"!

It started raining after the support band's show, and people moved to the bar area indoors. Things didn't look good because 15 minutes before the showtime it was really pouring, but thankfully the rain pretty much stopped when the main event started.

The last time we saw LORDI was at Rockfest 2023, when guitarist Kone was a fairly new recruit. Now this line-up has been together a few years, and it seems that everyone has found their place. Especially both Kone and bassist Hiisi are very lively performers. Well, naturally drummer Mana and keyboard player Hella can't really jump around, but they did add to the show in their own way. Hella was very convincing "broken doll" and Mana was a "manimal" behind the kit. As for Mr. Lordi, long gone are the days when he stuck to his character and didn't speak much - nowadays he could pass for a stand-up comedian. A strange-looking one, but a comedian nevertheless. I don't know whether he's as funny when playing abroad, but when speaking his native language, the man is a riot!

I hadn't listened to "The Arockalypse" in years, but had to refresh my memories before the gig. It has stood the test of time and is still a fine album. There were songs that I barely remembered, like "Chainsaw Buffet" and "Good To Be Bad" - damn good material, and worked really well live too. Of course the bigger hits from it, "It Snows In Hell", "Who's Your Daddy" and the unofficial national rock anthem of Finland, "Hard Rock Hallelujah" got a very enthusiastic reaction, but practically every song was well recieved, even the rare bonus tracks "Mr. Killjoy" and "EviLove".

Once the "Arockalypse" songs (apart from the obvious final number) were played, we were treated to a selection of other Lordi hits, "Devil Is A Loser", "Blood Red Sandman", "The Riff" and the song that started it all, "Would You Love A Monsterman". A fine selection of songs, even though the latest 14 (!) albums were ignored... but it was a special gig, so I understand.

Setlist:
Bringing Back the Balls to Rock
The Deadite Girls Gone Wild
The Kids Who Wanna Play with the Dead
They Only Come Out at Night
It Snows in Hell
The Chainsaw Buffet
Beast Loose in Paradise
Mr. Killjoy
Evilove
Good to Be Bad
The Night of the Loving Dead
Who's Your Daddy?
Supermonstars (The Anthem of the Phantoms)
The Riff
Blood Red Sandman
Devil Is a Loser
Would You Love a Monsterman?
Hard Rock Hallelujah

Photos by Mira Suutari-Toivonen

More photos: RockUnited.Com @ Facebook