By Avinash Mittur
April 2nd 2013, House of Blues, West Hollywood CA: For the past few years, Paganfest has annually provided a full night of folk, viking and occasionally pirate-themed heavy metal to audiences all over the world. This year was no exception, with both international and domestic acts coming together to give crowds a great night of music. On this third date of the Paganfest tour, Ensiferum, Tyr, Heidevolk, Trollfest and Helsott stopped by the House of Blues in West Hollywood. Thanks to a packed and cheery crowd and strong performances from all of the acts, a grand time was had and the show was a success across the board.
Sadly, due to an interview with Sami from Ensiferum, I was forced to miss a homecoming performance from LA’s own Helsott. These guys gave a killer performance a month or so ago at the Turisas show at the Key Club, and I was genuinely bummed to have missed them this time. Their music is a perfect fit for Paganfest, and seeing them stop by home on this tour would have been a total joy.
I did arrive in time to catch Trollfest however. A set of solid folk metal was what I expected from these guys, and they certainly delivered in that regard. What I didn’t expect was a group of Norwegians dressed as bees and a dedicated saxophone player. Drekka Dag’s sax lines often provided a very interesting complement to Mr. Seidel’s riffs, though Manskow’s accordion was tough to hear more often than not. The mix of death metal and folk instruments may be a fairly common thing these days, but it was just a bit too disparate for my tastes. The band’s performance was lively enough though, and a circle pit was already well underway despite the early start. Though their music wasn’t exactly my cup of tea, the audience seemed to appreciate Trollfest a great deal and the band proved to be a solid fit for the Paganfest tour.
After a pleasantly short wait, the Dutch warriors Heidevolk delivered a very fun and entertaining set to the already packed House of Blues. The band’s two vocalists, Mark Splintervuyscht and Joris Boghtdrincker (I am eternally grateful that I do not have to pronounce these names) proved to do fantastic jobs, both with their singing and their stage presence. Mark handled the bassy low vocals while Joris took the higher lead lines; the two harmonized beautifully. Their tandem singing added a very layered and studio-quality sound to the live vocals, and the assistance from Heidevolk’s axemen on backing vocals only helped strengthen the wall of voices. There was always a body mobile while Heidevolk were onstage, and the songs were a great deal of fun. The only misstep was when the band had the crowd sing an overly long melody. It would start off nice but quickly fall apart into nonsense. Choosing to repeat it about four times was just silly. Otherwise this was a very fun set, and again a great addition to the pagan theme of the night.
The first of the two headliners, Tyr from the Faroe Islands, were next to take the stage. Right away the pit burst into action and guitarist Terji Skibenæs and bassist Gunnar Thomsen were running back and forth between their stations. Gunnar was always headbanging and pumping up the crowd while singer and guitarist Heri Joenson would perform his vocal duties and stick to his mic. Terji’s stage presence was strong, but there were really a few too many bum notes during his solos. Heri’s occasional solos would be flawless, only highlighting the discrepancy between the two. Despite that issue, Tyr boasted a much beefier and aggressive sound live compared to their studio records. ‘Hail to the Heathen Hammer’ for example sounded much heavier and more immense at this show (with the crowd ably providing the titular refrain) when compared to its studio counterpart. ‘Flames of the Free’ from Tyr’s latest record, The Lay of Thrym, was another high-octane highlight with the pit in full flight. All of the tracks took on a new level of energy in the live setting- Tyr are clearly a band most comfortable onstage, and so Tyr fans who want to hear these songs at their greatest potential are absolutely encouraged to catch the band live. Sadly their set came to an end after a very short 45 minutes. The audience seemed to have wanted more, and I certainly did as well.
Just before 11 PM Ensiferum scrambled onstage to their intro tape, ‘Symbols’ and went right into a new number, ‘In My Sword I Trust’. The fun really kicked in with ‘Guardians of Fate’ though, and the crowd flew into a frenzy for the thrashing tune. From there on in the set was nothing but an adrenaline rush. Petri Lindroos and Markus Toivonen’s guitars were a bit too low in the mix during the first couple of tracks in the set, but the issue was soon fixed and the sound remained great for the rest of the show. Markus and bassist Sami Hinkka were usually engaging the crowd while Petri remained fixed at his station. Drummer Janne Parviainen gave a dead-tight performance for the seventy five minute set, his poor cymbals were given a total beating by the end. The nonstop headbanging offered from Petri, Markus, Sami and keyboardist Emmi Silvennoinen was downright astounding (Avinash’s Law #1: All European metal musicians were born with vertebrae made of steel).
The highlight of the set easily had to have been ‘Twilight Tavern’, which saw the crowd pumping their fists and singing along for the chorus again and again. It was a bit weird hearing the female vocals piped in through a backing track, but the energy and fire shown off by both the band and the audience more than made up for it. Sami was given a chance to show off his chops with a short, but truly sick solo before ‘One More Magic Potion’- the guy was slapping and popping like it was nobody’s business but his. I’d honestly be amazed if Sami didn’t worship at the altar of Larry Graham, that’s how funky his playing occasionally was. Sami even got the chance to pump up the crowd before the encore with an ascending line on his six-string bass, and the guy was always right in the fans’ faces when he could help it. The encore was made up of the obligatory ‘Battle Song’, but the band also added a fun jam of the William Tell Overture which fit the battle theme all too well.
Ensiferum Set List:
1. In My Sword I Trust
2. Guardians of Fate
3. From Afar
4. Burning Leaves
5. One More Magic Potion
6. Retribution Shall Be Mine
7. Tale of Revenge
8. Lai Lai Hei
9. Treacherous Gods
10. Twilight Tavern
11. Iron
Encore:
12. Battle Song
All in all, this year’s edition of Paganfest was nothing but a great night of folk metal. None of the bands felt a bit out of place, and the fans turned out in respectable numbers to show their love. While I would have enjoyed somewhat longer sets from the two headlining acts, it’s hard to argue against the sheer amount of solid heavy metal offered by this show. Fans who appreciate only one act on the bill may want to wait for an inevitable separate headlining run; none of the sets offered are bound to fully satisfy any hardcore fans in attendance. For those with a general interest in folk metal or an appreciation for many of the acts on this year’s Paganfest however, this tour has a genuinely wonderful few hours of music to offer and is an all-around fun night of heavy metal. Kilts, woad and bumblebee outfits not included.
Related:
Ensiferum interview