Performing: In Vain, Solefald, Vreid
Location: Ljubljana / Gromka club (Metelkova) / Slovenia
Date: Thursday, April 11, 2013
Going in without knowing any of the bands, I’d have expected something totally different from a gig the promoter advertised with a goofy poster of Mexican mariachis. But no, there was no Antonio Banderas on stage, much less the unforgettable trio from the cult Beastie Boys video Hey Ladies. As part of the Fire Walk With Me tour, three Norwegian bands stopped by Gromka last Thursday, two of them for the first time ever in Slovenia, while the tour’s headliners Vreid are already good, always welcome old acquaintances on our stages.
At an academic quarter past ten, In Vain were the first on stage, and to my great joy they’ve finally dragged their lazy asses onto a more extensive European tour. I’ve had this Norwegian progressive black/death metal band stuck in my head and ears ever since their phenomenal debut The Latter Rain (2007). With it the band set the bar high, but with the follow-up Mantra (2010) it seemed the debut had been just beginner’s luck. The recently released Aenigma turned the quality curve back upward, and brought the Norwegian seven-piece to our parts for the first time. In Vain delivered a grand, epic musical picture of all three albums, which proved their masterful sense of songwriting. Epic-length tracks in which In Vain easily strung together a whole palette of moods and musical genres managed to suck in the crowd, sparse as it was. Special praise goes to Sindre Nedland, who delivered a great performance, made real contact with the audience, and gave us a varied, top-notch vocal display, with catchy clean vocals as well as brutal, raw ones. Sindre had real charisma, but the same is hard to say about the band’s mastermind Andreas Frigstad, solid black metal screaming notwithstanding. With his lazy strolling around the stage and quasi-evil glares, he came off even worse than Tim “Ripper” Owens’ boxing. Still, In Vain pulled off their forty minutes with distinction, the Aenigma tracks already sound crushing and convincing live, and especially impressive were the complex, dynamic epics from the debut Det Rakner, October’s Monody (with an unforgettable “Nick Cave” bit) and the titanic closer with The Titan.
The real letdown came next with Solefald, or rather a “tribute to” band. The only two permanent members of Solefald, Cornelius and Lazare, stayed home (Lazare) or reportedly came down with food poisoning (Cornelius). Sadly, the guys are backed on tour as a session band by none other than In Vain, who played a shorter set anyway, which was certainly a nice gesture, but it would’ve been better to skip it. The artsy-fartsy avant-garde black metal was pure torture for the ears, and what made the whole thing even worse: the bassist’s wimpy swaying, which I’d expect more from bands like Coldplay, and lyrics that in some philosophy-department circles would probably be labeled genius, the kind that guys and girls with slicked-down tufts of hair and the obligatory thick black-framed glasses would doodle in their notebooks. Let me demonstrate a few examples of this silliness: “Coco Chanel – welcome to hell/Let me out of my prison cell”, “The truth as it was told to me by Calvin Klein”, “The USA don’t exist/Again I’m pissed.” I’ll allow that a “tribute” band without its real leaders sounded bad, but I’m not exactly dying to try my luck again.
The bad taste of the “Solefald” horror was washed away by Norway’s Vreid, who rose from the ashes of the cult Norwegian band Windir after the tragic death of its frontman Valfar. But over the years Vreid have become much more than a Windir “offshoot” and built an excellent band with its own identity. The band recently released its sixth album, Welcome Farewell, which only confirms their move away from their black metal roots and the colorful evolution of their already rich music. Vreid marched onto the effective stage, dressed up with vignettes from the new album’s cover, to the epic sounds of the single The Ramble, which painted a picture of Norwegian folklore right from the start. Charismatic frontman Sture easily stepped to the front and, in the obligatory uniform with the Norwegian flag on it, commanded his Vreid army forcefully and effectively. Newer Vreid put a strong emphasis on melody, which colors their take on black metal with heavy rock influences, further deepened by almost folkloric, “polka” moments that even the Oompa Loompas would dance to. A fine example came right after in the excellent The Reap, with its infectious riffs and chilling solos. Vreid’s lyrics touch on themes that could be roughly split into three parts: on the first records, themes of evil and darkness close to classic black metal, the band’s middle period strongly marked by lyrics about Norwegian folklore and even more by lyrics about World War II and the fight against the occupier, and on Welcome Farewell Vreid again reach for more fantastical, mystical elements. That’s exactly the picture Vreid painted for us, taking us into the dark Norwegian forests with, for example, The Reap and Welcome Farewell, into epic black metal riffing with Songen at Fangen and Raped By Light, and with Alarm into the ranks of the Norwegians who stood up against the German occupation during World War II. The Norwegians have found a great niche of black metal mixed with rock ‘n’ roll rhythms and the occasional thrash metal influence that is unique and at the same time damn catchy! On stage, led by guitarist and vocalist Sture, Vreid were the pure definition of their name, which translates as wrath, and despite a great performance (or precisely because of it) I badly missed a few more songs. Jarnbyrd or Under Isen from the album I Krig would have fit in nicely, but Vreid completely skipped it this time. Still, the Norwegian wrath-bringers easily washed away the bad taste of the dismal middle of the night, and at the same time played one of the better gigs of the year so far here.
author: Rok Klemše
photos: Nina Grad
Vreid setlist:
1. The Ramble
2. The Reap
3. Songen at fangen
4. Welcome Farewell
5. Arche
6. Alarm
7. Sights of Old
8. Raped By Light
9. At the Brook
10. Pitch Black
