Author: Sebastijan Videc
Photos: Jerneja Jerak
Location: Ljubljana / Gala hala / Slovenia
Concert date: October 1, 2014
Attendance: 350
Ticket price: €22.00
On the first evening of October this year, it looked like a storm was about to roll in over the capital, as German veterans Brainstorm and Scottish pirates Alestorm put their music on show at Gala Hala, with young Australians and Canadians keeping them company. Interest in the gig was huge, so the hall sold out, and out front there were quite a few disappointed faces hoping to get their hands on a spare ticket. Naturally, that kind of interest came with big expectations.
Norway – Troldhaugen – a small village a few kilometers south of Bergen, birthplace of composer Edvard Grieg. Australia – Wollongong – a smaller town a few kilometers south of Sydney, where Troldhaugen was born again. This young Australian band, who for reasons unknown to me named themselves after Grieg’s birthplace, were visiting Slovenia for the first time. Sadly, following the (bad) Slovenian habit, only a handful of people caught their totally off-the-wall, out-there set. I can describe the show, and the Australians’ music itself, with just one foreign word – MINDF*CK! The guys are technically well schooled, and their frontman Reventüsk turns into a madman onstage, fitting for the first four letters of the band’s name. Lyrically, Troldhaugen are steeped in trolls and other monsters anyway, and on their latest record they even took on Mexican themes. The theatrical show reminded me of Vulture Industries at this year’s Metal Days, more in its craziness than its theatrics. You can’t pin a genre on their music – it swings from one extreme to the other, and between them, in total chaos. Those twenty or so people got a circus act with progressive elements, and there was no shortage of clowns onstage (though without makeup), nor stilts and plenty of dancing.
After a short break, Canada’s Crimson Shadows took the stage. The band, from Toronto and active since 2006, had their breakthrough last year in a metal battle run by the biggest metal festival in the world, Wacken. Winning that competition landed them a deal with Napalm Records, followed by the album Kings Among Men, released a month ago. The fact is that the power and melodeath metal scenes are pretty saturated, so the Canadians decided to merge the best of both genres and hope for a breakthrough with a sort of unique crossover. Whether they’ll make it, now under the wing of a big label, is a matter of time. I have to admit that Jimi’s melodic death metal vocals match the power metal melodies perfectly, as do the combos with the clean vocals sung by guitarist Greg, but sadly the musical foundation itself is pretty generic power metal. The show was full of energy, helped along by a bigger crowd, though you could catch a few playing mistakes here and there. Crimson Shadows are definitely a band to keep an eye and an ear on in the future, since with a bit more mileage they can still surprise.
Already a few days before the gig, the organizers were warning on social media that tickets were almost gone and that anyone interested should grab the leftovers in presale ASAP. If the first band played to a tiny crowd and the second to a solid one, then Brainstorm properly filled the hall. No surprise there, since compared to the Australian and Canadian relative newcomers they’re real veterans, with beginnings going back to the late eighties. The sturdy Germans know how to put their long musical and live experience to good use. A mighty heavy metal machine ground down all the doubting Thomases that night and converted those who hadn’t believed in them. Charismatic and truly excellent frontman Andy B. Franck didn’t give anyone a moment’s rest, demanding participation from everybody, whether singing, clapping, shouting or whatever else; though it has to be said that with the positive energy radiating off the stage, he hardly had to try that hard. Evidently nine years away from our club stages was way too long, and they closed the show with a promise that we’d see each other again soon! And one last thing – I’ve never heard sound this good in this hall before, the kind Brainstorm had – top-notch, no matter where you stood.
If Brainstorm properly filled the hall, then at Alestorm it was bursting at the seams. The old, and above all the young, filled every corner, and the heat in the hall (combined with alcohol fumes) climbed to boiling point. With the (temporary) hiatus of German veterans Running Wild, the Scottish merrymakers filled the void in pirate metal, a genre those very same Germans kicked off in 1987 with the cult album Under the Jolly Roger. Besides the band name, the backdrop featured artwork from the cult computer game Monkey Island, and the monkey link didn’t end there, since a monkey kept charismatic frontman Christopher Bowes company onstage. With the opener Walk the Plank, the mostly young crowd completely exploded, trash cans rose above the sea of hands, and it seemed like a whole new kind of fun had been invented – trash bin crowd surfing. Fast tracks laced with Celtic melodies may not be the peak of musical creation, but let’s face it, not all music has to be. The fact is it’s insanely catchy stuff, with melodies you start whistling without meaning to, and when you combine that with an extremely energetic show, it’s hard to resist the rhythm. And that’s exactly what makes Alestorm great. Remember their Metal Days 2013 set, when a crowd of several thousand heads rowed in unison beneath the big stage? Of course we didn’t escape the rowing at Gala Hala either, and the partying carried on and hit its peak with the very last song, when Christopher threw himself into the crowd, which carried him by hand right out of the hall, where, all smiles and obviously in great spirits, he took photos with his fans. Arrrr!
Setlist
ALESTORM:
1. Walk the Plank
2. The Sunk’n Norwegian
3. Drink
4. Over the Seas
5. Shipwrecked
6. Magnetic North
7. Back Through Time
8. Nancy the Tavern Wench
9. Midget Saw
10. Pirate Song
11. Surf Squid Warfare
12.Keelhauled
13. The Huntmaster
14. Wenches & Mead
—encore—
15. 1741 intro
16. 1741 (Battle of Cartagena)
17. Wolves of the Sea
18. Captain Morgan’s Revenge
19. Rum
BRAINSTORM:
1. Highs Without Lows
2. Shiver
3. Firesoul
4. Fire Walk with Me
5. Worlds Are Comin’ Through
6. Hollow Hideaway
7. Falling Spiral Down
8. Doorway to Survive
9. Shiva’s Tears
10. …And I Wonder
11. All Those Words
12. How Do You Feel
Photo Gallery
