Venue: Cvetličarna MediaPark / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: October 18, 2011
Attendance: 600
So, on the eve of the forecast snowfall and traffic meltdown in Ljubljana, the Viking/warrior caravan Heidenfest rolled into Cvetličarna. This battle-painted caravan of folk metallers came to show us whether it’s still worth going to gigs like this, or whether folk metal has already said everything it had to say and is about to start dying off at speed in the coming years…
A decent crowd (mostly young) had gathered in front of Cvetličarna, along with a few creatures dressed in the skins of dead animals, whom the organizers surprised with a “wellcome” mead, while right on schedule the Icelandic outfit Skalmold took the stage, presenting their one and only (concept) album so far, Baldur, which tells the story of the brave (are there any other kinds?) Icelandic Viking (surprise!) Baldur. The six guys, who cut their teeth in various bands on their home island before forming, have a problem that’s practically symptomatic of the folk-viking-battle metal scene. Namely, the bands that years ago started drifting away from the jolly beer-folk-black metal of the Finntroll or Trollfest variety take their music way too seriously (apparently they haven’t noticed that the real Vikings are already in Valhalla, while they, in their “warrior” poses, are just funny…), even though it offers nothing new. So in their half hour, which was all the time they had, the guys briskly played a good half of their album and tousled a few drunk teenage heads (which would have gotten tousled for Saša Lendero backed by metal riffs, too), while everyone else was left mostly cold by their slow, epic metal, which is (supposedly) based on Icelandic poetic forms. You can’t accuse the guys of not trying, but they’re definitely not the pioneers of a Viking metal revival.
Next up on stage were the Norwegian party animals Trollfest, and the crowd, which by now had practically filled the place, threw itself into a mad dance of wild trolls with them, generously fueled by beer and schnapps, with a soundtrack of cheerfully drunken black metal beefed up with saxophone, accordion and lute. These guys don’t take their music seriously. Their main job is to entertain the crowd, get wasted after the show and try not to puke (which, judging by the state of their clothes, they probably fail at more often than not). They sawed through a cross-section of their rather extensive discography, put a bit more emphasis on this year’s record En Kvest for Den Hellige Gral, gave the crowd a proper workout and cranked up the temperature in the hall, and to close out their set, all of us in the hall sang the chorus (woof-woof-woof) of their world-famous ditty about puppies.
So the crowd was ready for a somewhat more serious performance and approach from the Russian brothers Arkona, who from the first second, under the firm command of singer Maša, led us on a march across the expanses of Mother Russia and stirred up memories of glorious bygone days in our tender Slavic souls. Live (probably thanks to the singer’s charisma and truly unbelievable vocals) they’re far more interesting and dynamic than on record, so they had the biggest crowd of the night and also threw the biggest party. Nothing else to say. When the band is in form, the atmosphere is right and the sound is suitably loud, there can only be one result. And Arkona were definitely the highlight of the evening.
The drunken Scottish pirates Alestorm, who put out their third record this year, one that doesn’t stray a millimeter from their drunken-pirate metal blueprint, played a solid set. They were “happy” (drunk), the crowd was too, everything clicked, though it’s true the guys are getting a little monotonous, and they’ll have to think hard about whether they’ll become a mere caricature of the youthfully energetic band that set out to conquer the metal world a good five years ago, whether they’ll bring something new to their music, or whether they’ll just break up (“drink themselves away”).
The warriors Turisas, standard-bearers of the second wave of warrior-folk-metallers, who probably found the drunken approach of early Finntroll a bit beneath the level of their glorious past (but guys, the damn thing about the past is exactly that it’s over…), took their red-and-black act, staked out and defined back in 2004 by the title of their first album “Battle Metal”, as seriously as true warriors on a campaign who don’t so much as glance at women should (even though for more than half the show they stubbornly ignored a young woman partying on the crowd’s shoulders in nothing but her bra – yeah, sweetheart, not every woman is fit to be impregnated by real Nordic warriors… or maybe women just don’t interest them…?). They played their biggest hits, promoted their latest album “Stand Up And Fight”, the crowd followed them faithfully into the march, and at the end they urged us to stop by the merch stand, puffed themselves up a bit more (screw it, half the victory is scaring off your opponent) and then marched off the stage, while we marched off to the bar.
Finntroll attacked last, and they’re no longer a drunken, jolly band either, one whose music is full of surprises and crazy ideas, and who knew how to play black metal so charmingly that even the biggest Satanist and/or nihilist got misty-eyed and ran to the fridge for a beer or three. They’ve also replaced practically every member since the start of their career, so on stage they’re no longer a wild horde of bearded trolls but real sweethearts for wet teenage girls and role models for young metalheads who are only just toying with the idea of how, over the years, they might soften their uncompromising attitude and contempt for the world. By this point in the night the crowd was pretty tired and thinned out for their set, which is a shame, because they showed how to enjoy the music, get people partying and how a band can (to a certain degree) still be taken seriously while partying onstage to the point of oblivion. Definitely a band that all the aspiring teenage metalheads should study inside out, rather than running out of steam somewhere in the middle of the night. Their music is still black metal backed by keyboards, accordion and rhythmic extras that make people happy, and that’s ultimately the job of folk metal in all its possible derivatives: fun and beer.
If we draw a line under the evening, we can say that folk metal is actually trapped within the boundaries it set for itself, that it usually only wins new fans among a young crowd for whom the genre is a valve for “weekend boozing”, while the new bands show no ideas or will to bring their own spin to the overchewed formulas… sad. That’s probably also why they show up around the world in the form of little festivals like this, since (with a few exceptions) they’d struggle to draw a decent crowd on their own.
photos: Nina Grad
Setlist
FINTROLL: Avgrunden öppnas (intro) 1.Manniskopesten 2.Kitteldags 3.Nattfödd 4.NedgÃ¥ng 5.Solsagan 6.Slaget vid blodsälv 7.Midnattens widunder 8.Under bergets rot 9.Insects Play 10.The God That Failed 11.Trollhammaren 12.Rivfader —encore— 13.Jaktens tid 14.SegersÃ¥ng TURISAS: 1.The March of the Varangian Guard 2.One More 3.The Great Escape 4.Stand Up and Fight 5.Sahti-Waari 6.To Holmgard and Beyond 7.Hunting Pirates 8.Rasputin 9.Battle Metal ALESTORM: 1.Back Through Time 2.Shipwrecked 3.Wenches & Mead 4.Captain Morgan’s Revenge 5.The Sunk’n Norwegian 6.Wolves of the Sea 7.Death Throes of the Terrorsquid 8.Keelhauled 9.Rumpelkombo
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