Gloryhammer – Ljubljana’s Unicorn Invasion, Pirate Visions of Atlantis, and Moonlight Haze’s Lunar Phases (2025)
Gloryhammer / Visions Of Atlantis / Moonlight Haze
Wednesday, 9 July 2025, 19:00–22:30
Ljubljana / CUK Kino Šiška / Slovenia
Gloryhammer confirmed the European dates of their new “Dundax Ascendant” tour back in March! At select shows they were joined by Austrian symphonic power metallers Visions Of Atlantis, as well as northern Italian hopefuls — and heralds of similar genre sensibilities — Moonlight Haze.
After three years that flew by in a flash, Gloryhammer were back at Kino Šiška. That show on 22 June 2022 was packed to the last corner and electrifying! The crowd did its part, of course. And that craziness hasn’t gone anywhere. Not even three years on. It’s remarkable that this band, with barely four studio albums to their name, has built such extraordinary popularity in a relatively short time. The Metaldays festival has played a fair role in popularising bands like this — a festival where inflatable monsters and creatures of wild imagination are practically mandatory carry-on gear as you drift along the confluence of the Tolminka and the Soča. A flying unicorn in the middle of a morning storm at that festival in 2018 remains an unforgettable experience. But Gloryhammer themselves first played that festival way back in 2013, in the sweltering heat, and they looked absolutely hilarious in their costumes back then. Costumes they diligently upgraded, and which quickly earned them massive popularity. The pomp and musical infectiousness of their hook-loaded compositions, Gloryhammer have perfected with a storyline set in a fantasy world unfolding in another galaxy entirely — good versus evil, with plenty of manoeuvres that play out as near-parody, which is always a very welcome thing. This was, in short, one of those evenings of pure release where you forget every trouble in an instant. Exactly what you come to concerts for.
This show didn’t draw quite as large a crowd as the one three years ago, but Šiška was still three-quarters full, and that was more than enough for another exceptional evening devoted to the new era of power metal. A generational crowd. The older metalheads who were in their mid-to-late twenties twenty-plus years ago, listening to the hottest new bands of that moment — HammerFall, Rhapsody (Of Fire), Edguy, Sonata Arctica — were nowhere to be seen this time, with the exception of two senior citizens who probably should have been home babysitting their grandchildren rather than anything else, and who happen to be responsible for this Rockline.si piece. Times have changed; a new army of power metal devotees demands higher standards of stage ceremony, while the genre itself remains, as far as its musical direction goes (beyond the studio refinements), essentially unchanged. The difference is that success for new bands in this genre now requires that the music be backed by some kind of story — conjured by a vivid imagination or Game of Thrones inspiration, whatever it takes — as long as it ignites something, and as long as the stage design and the performers can then bring it to life convincingly. That is exactly what Gloryhammer have been doing all along, and what Visions Of Atlantis have been pulling off very successfully these past several years.
Moonlight Haze kicked off the evening at seven o’clock. In a good half hour they presented their fresh studio album “Beyond”, which has been pulling in very, very strong reviews from music critics. The two new tracks they opened with immediately — the title track, then Tame The Storm — confirmed that the band is gaining ever more visibility on the international stage. A healthy chunk of the crowd was actively engaging with them throughout the set. The band has put out four albums in a relatively short time (the latest this year), and the performance confirmed that Moonlight Haze already have some serious mileage under their belts — the guys and girls delivered in full, with confidence and tight chemistry. The cherry on top was the vocal performance of singer Chiara Tricarico, who wowed with her explosive voice. The band had very little room to move (stage depth was tight), and for a while you had to hunt for the drummer, who was tucked all the way to the far left from the audience’s perspective. Sonically, too, the band passed their first Ljubljana test with flying colours.
Visions Of Atlantis were also playing Ljubljana for the very first time! By rights, given their track record, they should be headlining — but then again, even HammerFall stopped worrying long ago about being invited onto Sabaton’s or Powerwolf’s headline tours. The band spent years grinding their way forward with stubborn dedication, and over a quarter century have strung together ten albums. The real breakthrough to wider international popularity came relatively late — driven above all by the arrival of charismatic, magnetic French vocalist Clémentine Delauney. A few years back, Visions Of Atlantis reinvented themselves as a pirate garrison, and with cleverly crafted new music and a fully integrated stage concept, they broke through and grew into one of the central acts embraced by the new generation of power metal fans — joining, in their own way, what you might call the new wave of power metal alongside the veterans who got there first. They are phenomenally hardworking. Non-stop on the road. Next spring they already have European dates lined up with Warkings, and this summer is loaded with festival slots. The stage became a pirate ship’s deck, the crowd its crew. Visions Of Atlantis drew a room full of devoted fans who breathed as one with the band for 50 minutes. The excellent performance, great sound, and of course the theatre of the male-female vocal partnership helped enormously — duets handled by Italian vocalist Michele Guiatoli (actually practically our neighbour from Gorizia, who fired the crowd up with a few words in Slovenian) and the aforementioned, utterly infectious Clémentine. The duo works brilliantly. It really is that pairing that holds the atmosphere of their shows at an exceptional level throughout. The waving of an enormous flag during the concert, full pirate regalia with proper pirate props, and a very well rehearsed, finely crafted set — the band played mostly material from the current album “Pirates II – Armada” and its predecessor “Pirates”. There was of course plenty of toasting with beer; mid-concert, guitarist Christian also took a swig from a hip flask someone handed him from the front row. During Pirates Will Return the entire venue was rowing together. With powerful songs, an immaculately staged show (scenery, props, and full stage pomp included) and a frontwoman like Clémentine leading the charge, Visions Of Atlantis have a very bright future ahead of them. The performance itself was thoroughly convincing, and I’ll say it plainly: Visions Of Atlantis effectively stole the show from the headliners, who can thank their legions of fanatical devotees for keeping them afloat.
Nothing went wrong during Gloryhammer’s set, though. Carried on the wings of their rabid fans, the band unleashed a fresh concert cannonade, and the energy in the room — the chain reactions, the detonations going off one after another — worked exceptionally well. The fanaticism was off the charts. And once again, there was the inflatable unicorn, sailing from one side of the hall to the other. Some absolute maniac had even brought a woolly unicorn, creating non-stop additional chaos in the crowd (at first glance it looked like he was draped in a freshly skinned sheep). Kitsch on stage, kitsch in the hall. Kitsch absolutely everywhere. You get the feeling the music has been pushed into the background — fair enough, says the old-school gentleman who struggles to keep up with the new times. Every track belongs to a chapter of a story whose protagonists are four intergalactic warriors who, for an hour and three-quarters, materialised in Kino Šiška. The Evil Goblin naturally stormed the stage. With a saxophone, no less. Angus McFife dutifully wielded his enormous hammer. The stage set is outrageous. The band handles it masterfully. Everything feels absolutely real within this very particular parallel universe. Absurdity at every single turn. The crowd knows every lyric, every gesture. Standing there watching it all from the side — as an outside observer — you genuinely feel a kind of awe. A fully convincing performance in every respect. Angus McFife V — Sozos Michael, the Cypriot who replaced his predecessor Thomas Winkler some time ago — has completely grown into everything Gloryhammer demands of him. He delivered another top-tier vocal performance, owning every inch of that stage. The band played all three of their newest singles (Fly Away, He Has Returned, and On A Quest For Aberdeen), worked in three tracks from the current “Return To The Kingdom of Fife”, and of course seasoned everything with the essential crowd favourites that their fans had come for — which is how Sir Proletius ended up having a close encounter with the flying unicorn, swiftly removed from the stage by a tech and whisked backstage. The toy was returned to the crowd before the final song. In perfect context, naturally — the band closed the night with the invasion of unicorns (The Unicorn Invasion of Dundee).
And through it all? You catch your own thoughts drifting back to 2001, when you were standing in the front row at a concert and half your current age. Somewhere back there… say, in Graz, at a HammerFall, Virgin Steele, and Freedom Call show. Ahh, where did all that go? But no matter. Metal is here. And metal has stayed. Power metal specifically — even if it’s a musically “old-fashioned” subgenre by today’s standards. Even as trends have shifted hard toward extremes — brutality, every conceivable fusion of metal subgenres, and jaw-dropping technical proficiency as the benchmark for modern heavy metal — power metal remains exactly where it always was. Right up there, in plain sight. Its genericness is compensated by kitsch and glitter and well-placed fairy tales. Gloryhammer are the standard-bearers of this new era. Firmly plugged into the current galactic pulse of the power metal scene. How far they can still climb after four albums may be too early to say — but the army of devoted nutcases is real, and the compass needle is pointing up.
Author: Edita Klemem & Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Moonlight Haze – setlist:
1. Beyond
2. Tame The Storm
3. The Rabbit Of The Moon
4. Chase the Light
5. Awakening
6. D. N. A. (Do Not Apologise)
7. We’ll Be Free
8. Outro
Visions Of Atlantis – setlist:
1. Master the Hurricane
2. Clocks
3. Legion of the Seas
4. Tonight I’m Alive
5. Hellfire
6. Pirates Will Return
7. Melancholy Angel
8. Armada
Gloryhammer – setlist:
1. Delilah (orig. Tom Jones) – taped intro
2. The Land of Unicorns
3. He Has Returned
4. Fly Away
5. Angus McFife
6. Questlords of Inverness, Ride to the Galactic Fortress!
7. Also sprach Zarathustra (Johann Strauss) – taped intro
8. Wasteland Warrior Hoots Patrol
9. Gloryhammer
10. Fife Eternal
11. Masters of the Galaxy
12. On a Quest for Aberdeen
13. The Siege of Dunkeld (In Hoots We Trust)
14. Keeper of the Celestial Flame of Abernethy
15. Universe on Fire
16. Hootsforce
17. The Unicorn Invasion of Dundee
18. The National Anthem of Unst – taped outro
