Concert Review - Alestorm, TrollfesT, Gypsyhawk, Fallen Martyr - 12/4/13 at Soundstage, Baltimore, MD

Alestorm is one of my favorite bands to see live, so I was pretty stoked to see them doing a headline North American tour. The show was the night before my brother's birthday, so it was supposed to be a birthday celebration for him, too, but he ended up not being able to make it.

At first I was disappointed about the line-up - compared to Finntroll's stellar line-up, Alestorm's seemed especially lame. I had seen TrollfesT at this year's Paganfest, and while they were decent live, I still can't get into their chaotic, brassy sound. I wasn't too familiar with Gypsyhawk but what I'd heard about them - slow, stonerish - didn't make me want to find out more. But the uninteresting openers turned out to be a boon - it meant I didn't have to change my work hours at the library. After working at the library and getting changed at S's place (and scarfing down a burger) we headed to Baltimore.

We got there just as the rotund singer was setting up a wall of death for "Rundt Bålet." The floor wasn't that full, but a solid number of people lined up and the ensuing pit was actually pretty intense. The song itself featured a catchy polka melody played at a wild pace, which I have to admit got me bobbing my head and looking a little enviously at the pit. We saw the singer of Alestorm on floor taking part in a jig, and I felt happy knowing this crowd knew how to do a proper folk pit. Then TrollfesT ended their set with "Helvetes Hund GARM," where they had everyone bark like dogs. There were about a zillion people on stage - including people playing with a vacuum cleaner and a broom, a girl twirling an umbrella, Alestorm's singer with a tambourine, and other band members with maracas. Like last time, TrollfesT ended up being bearable, even kind of catchy, live; I didn't mind being there for their last two songs.

Not too long afterward, Alestorm came out. They didn't seem very loud, yet they seemed to be overwhelming the speaker system - they sounded fuzzy and feedbacky for the more intense parts, such as in "The Quest" and in "Death Throes of the Terrorsquid." The melodies and vocals were nice and clear though. Th pit was energetic, even a little too rowdy - the headbanging line was stumbling about during "Nancy the Tavern Wench," and there was moshing during the chorus of "Captain Morgan's Revenge."

They started out with "The Quest," which is not a song that I'm super familiar with, so I hung back. Then they launched into "The Sunk'n Norwegian" and I had to go jump around in the pit for the chorus. They played a new song, "Surf Squid Warfare," which was all right, with some fun melodies and a kind of slow chorus. I thought it might end up like "Leviathan," another song with a slowish chorus that I didn't dig too much at first, but ending up being one of my favorites. They did play the "In the Navy" cover as expected, which was fun. During "Terrorsquid," local Ethan Looney ("Admiral Derek") got onstage to do black metal vocals, which sounded great. There were a couple instrumental interludes. Besides the volume issues, Alestorm sounded great and delivered a great time. At the end of "Rum" (the last song of the encore), the singer jumped onto crowd declaring "Take me to the bar!" He got as far as pit, the crowd wavered, and then they pushed him back to stage.

Overall it was a fun time. I had been worried about the pit, because the pits at folk metal shows seem to be getting more brutal and less folky recently, but this one was pretty good. There was a guy trying to run the pit who did a pretty good job at getting people to mosh and jig in the right places. The pit was rather more open than I like, since in a pit with a lot of open space it's easy for a small person like me to get knocked down, so I didn't go in as much as I would have liked. Still, it was certainly fun enough, and Alestorm sounded great and had good energy.

Afterward we managed to spot the singer of Alestorm on the floor again, shook hands and took a photo.

Next show: Finntroll, Blackguard, Metsatöll, take 2, on Monday in Frederick (also my brother's birthday fiesta, take 2). With local openers Burning Shadows, Demiz, and March to Victory! Looking forward to an awesome night.

Epica, Alestorm, Insomnium, System Divide, Blackguard - 10/23/12 at Howard Theatre, Washington, DC

Never mind my previous paeans to Alestorm and Blackguard - the band I was most excited to see at this show was Finnish melodic death metal band Insomnium. I've been smitten with them ever since first hearing the song "Weather the Storm" with its sweeping melodic riffs that make my soul ache with their tragic power, and once I read the poetic lyrics, so full of melancholy determination, my love for them was cemented. I didn't think they were well enough known to leave Finland anytime soon, though, so I was thrilled to hear that they were touring. (Around the same time I found out that another favorite unknown band from Finland, Swallow the Sun, would also be touring, but through a lack of planning I missed their show :( S went though.) And of course, getting to see awesome bands like Blackguard, Alestorm and Epica along with Insomnium only made the deal even better.

Actually, Blackguard wasn't originally on this tour; a band called Destiny Potato was on the original bill, but at the last moment I suppose they canceled, and Blackguard was added instead for six shows before they head off to Europe to support Kamelot. They sounded good, with the same energetic stage presence and sound that they brought to their headline show two weeks ago. There was a technical issue at first, making them sound way too quiet, but that was quickly corrected and their epically fast guitars and vocals blasted into the crowd. In the second or third song, Paul, the vocalist, called for a pit and four or five people (including me) enthusiastically obliged. They played their new song, "In Dreams," and it sounded a bit more polished than last time; the folk melodies were less evident, but the riffs were stronger. Otherwise, they only played songs from Firefight (nothing from their folk metal days), and they didn't play my favorite song from that album, "Sarissas." Still, it was a fun time - a good warm-up for a night of epic metal.

Luckily for such a crowded evening, the show moved along smartly right on schedule, and Blackguard was soon followed by System Divide, a band that's hard to shove into a genre box. I had never heard them before, having been too busy listening to the other four bands the week before. One of the singers introduced them as being "from everywhere" and the other vocalist later explained that they came from Israel, Holland, Belgium, Washington DC and New York. (And when we spoke with her later at the merch table, she said several of the members were new to the band, and they only got together for three days to rehearse before the tour O.o) They had a very strong bass, to the point that its drone and/or thunder sometimes drowned out the vocals, guitars and even drums. The male vocalist provided harsh screaming extreme metal style vocals, while the female vocalist did clean vocals. Her vocals sounded a little weak to start, barely audible, but got better as the set went on. They had some poundingly heavy grindcore moments - this is the first time I've heard grindcore with clean female vocals, so that was something fun to hear - and a distorted industrial-like intro to one song. They were interesting to listen to; I particularly enjoyed the grind segments. It's a great type of music to hear live, although hard to listen to properly at home. There were a few pits for them - I think I got pushed into the circle pit by a certain someone, but there were too few people and so we were full out running around the pit, and I was afraid I was going to slip on the drink-slippery wooden floor.

 Me and Miri Milman, vocalist of System Divide. 

I know, I look truly ugly in this pic, but also truly metal methinks \m/

We hardly had time to chat and take some pics with Miri before Insomnium took the stage. They were quite a change of pace from the other bands - not as loud, hardly moving on the stage other than to headbang (shoegaze melodeath? Actually my favorite moment in the "Weather the Storm" video is when they all headbang together), and with a much calmer vibe (no moshing). They sounded good, their beautiful melodies and soul-filling riffs moving everyone on the floor, but I kept waiting for them to play "Weather the Storm" and was ultimately disappointed. Perhaps to my detriment, I possibly worship this one song too much and don't pay enough attention to their other songs. They also only played five songs, which seemed surprisingly few, less than System Divide. Still, I was satisfied to have seen them, and to meet their vocalist and tell him how much I love that song. (I talked to him while waiting for Epica's encore, and trolled him a bit, asking if they would come back some other time and play "Weather the Storm" :P He commented on my Swallow the Sun shirt, saying that they are great friends with "those guys" :) )

Then the pace picked up again as pirate metal band Alestorm took the stage. Their songs are full of salty dancing or drinking melodies with piratey lyrics, and they're my favorite band to mosh to, thanks to the jig-filled folk pits. The singer looked pretty rough as he wandered around the stage before set, but he seemed to rally - he looked much more energetic once they started, and his voice and keyboard sounded great. They played some songs they don't usually play live, like "Leviathan" and "Death Throes of the Terror Squid" (the vocalist said they were no longer a pirate metal band, but a "squid metal band"). I particularly enjoyed the "Terror Squid" due to its black metal sound - I was right in front of the stage for that segment, and the fast rumbling guitars were shaking the floor. There was a large TV screen on either side of the stage, which I thought just showed the band playing, but S reported that during "Leviathan," they also showed shots from a Pirates of the Caribbean fan video, and during "Terror Squid" I spotted segments of the official video for that song, which does feature the band playing on a snowy mountain in true black metal style. In the vein of less played songs, they also played "Pirate Song," which I didn't think was a good choice - the melody isn't that catchy and the riffs aren't very inspiring. I'd rather they had played "You are a Pirate" or "Wolves of the Sea." They did play their classic "Captain Morgan's Revenge," which was great since they didn't play it last time we saw them, and we had twenty or more people with their arms over each other's shoulders doing a jig - I was in the center cause I started it. Overall though, I was a little disappointed in the experience, because there was less dancing and arms-over-shoulders-headbanging than at previous Alestorm shows, and more of just a brutal mosh pit. It was still fun, though.

Oh that's why he was feeling better.

I could probably have gone home after Alestorm and been happy (and exhausted), but since we were already there and an amazing band just happened to be coming up next, we stuck around. I do like Epica, but for whatever reason I can't seem to get into them as much as I should - perhaps it's just that I'm not often in the mood for gothic/symphonic metal these days. They do (and did) put on a great show, though. They were loud and heavy, and Simone's vocals were clear and lovely. I thought they'd play a lot of songs from their new album, but there were actually only a few - still, they only played one song that I know really well ("Unleashed"). There were a couple pits toward end of the set, but I was way too tired to take part. Other people seemed tired too - the pits were small and short, and the crowd thinned considerably before the encore. Once again, they showed snippets of music videos on the TV screens - official videos for "Unleashed" and a couple other songs, and a least one fan video. I had feminist thoughts in mind and noticed that Simone was very conservatively dressed for a gothic female vocalist, and wasn't sure what to make of that. In spite of being tired, I did enjoy their set - they sounded good, and their songs are so epic that even though my head was starting to hurt, I was headbanging right up until the end.

 Epica. Hey look, Mark has a wind machine.

This was a solid show, with the great performances that I expected from the four bands that I knew, and a nice surprise in System Divide. It was an eclectic mix of bands, but I for one didn't mind as I liked most of them. I thought it was nice to have some variety, and also a chance to rest from the more energy-requiring bands.

Photos by Steve Wass

Next show: Probably Dethklok with All That Remains, Machine Head, Black Dahlia Murder, Nov. 2 - although I may go to a show next week with a friend, we shall see.

PS. This was my first visit to the Howard Theatre, and it seemed like a super swanky place to have a metal show - high ceilings and marble in the foyer, impeccably dressed hosts/hostesses (I think I gave a weird look to two hostesses who greeted us as we went into the bar area, because I'm not used to people welcoming me to a metal show, and I hope they didn't get a poor impression of the metal scene from other surprised people like me), tables and sit-down food service near the bar, posh bathrooms, a WATER FOUNTAIN (every venue should have one of those). The only poor thing about it was the location - near Howard University, so a horrible trek by metro or an infuriating drive through DC to very limited parking. Still, I would go there again. Just for the water fountain.

PAGANFEST - Turisas, Alestorm, Arkona, Huntress, Deranged Theory, Yesterday's Saints, Fallen Martyr - 3/29/12 at Sonar, Baltimore, MD

Ok, finally touched this up - as in, finally wrote it in complete sentences.

This was probably the biggest show of the year for me - three awesome folk metal bands in one night. It was a lot of fun, although there were a few points where I was disappointed. Mostly organizational things; the actual performances were great and I had a good time.

We got there during the second band's set - just after 8pm. We had judged that getting there around 8 would get us there just in time for Huntress (the fourth band and the first of the official Paganfest bands). It turned out the show was running way late. For a show with seven bands, that definitely cut my enthusiasm a lot - it meant sitting through several not as interesting bands hoping I wouldn't get hungry before the fun started, and a really, really late night on a week when I have no days off.

But anyway, enough of the whining, in spite of the annoying lateness, I did have fun, so here's my review of the bands:

We missed Fallen Martyr entirely. S thought they had cool shirts though.  (As I go to post I realize we have indeed seen these guys before since I already have a tag for them, so if you want to know about them, click on the tag at the bottom of the post.)

We arrived in the middle of Yesterday's Saints' set. They were loud, but not every interesting. The singer had a nice voice though.

Deranged Theory was the last of the openers (we perhaps cheered a little too heartily when they finally cleared the stage, no offense to the band, we were just getting a little impatient). They had some headbang worthy melodies and riffs, reminiscent of Iron Maiden at one point. S disapproved of the singer's vocals, but I thought he sounded all right. Perhaps a slightly deeper growl would have been better. But still, I enjoyed their songs, and S was amused that many of them were about video games, like Castlevania.

Huntress had a strong metal sound, but I find the vocals kind of bland - at least, that was my initial impression of them. "Eight of Swords," their single, is not a good representation of singer's vocal range - she can growl like Masha (of Arkona) and also has a lovely clear high singing voice. S compared her to Doro. She had an..eye-catching outfit that helped to keep attention on her for the whole set.

Arkona came out blasting with "Pokrovy Nebesnogo Startsa", which I have always considered a great moshing song and was really looking forward to hearing and moshing to. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the pit, because I was too far back; the pit was right in front of stage. I got in on the second song though. The pit was big and brutal, with a lot of big lumbering drunk guys, so I didn't go in as much as would otherwise. They played a really short set, about 5 songs, with no time wasted on talking. They sounded good and heavy to me, but S thought they didn't sound as good as on their recordings. Perhaps the sound could have been clearer, I dunno, I was mostly thinking about the pit, and wishing that the pit was better. Masha called for a Wall of Death for Stenku Na Stenku but the moshers ignored her or didn't hear (but at least they were folking). I didn't quite feel like being pit boss and making it happen. Maybe next time.

Alestorm sounded great, and the pit was a blast - besides the usual shoving, there was lots of jigging and headbanging circles. I sort of got my right side abraded off by a guy in chain mail. In contrast to Arkona, Alestorm got a really long set - the singer kept saying how no one was telling them to stop so they would just keep playing. They didn't play Captain Morgan's Revenge, which was disappointing, but on the other hand, we got to hear a bunch of other songs that aren't played as much.

Turisas came out strong with "March of the Varangian Guard." They followed it with "Take the Day," the second song from new album, and I wondered if they were going to play the whole album. But that was not to be. The third song was "To Holmgard and Beyond", and I started looking for pit. On the next song ("Dnieper Rapids") I started a pit. People did not seem to realize that one could mosh to Turisas. (Someone called me a warrior maiden for starting /constantly being in the pit.) Then, the music slowed way down, with slow paced solos from Olli and some slow paced songs. A lot of the crowd drifted away, dunno if it was because of the late hour (well after midnight) or because of the slow songs. Netta (accordion player) is not with band anymore, and I noticed that some parts sounded a little odd, so I wondered if they replaced the accordion parts with keyboard. I missed the accordion sound. Toward the end, the set picked up again; Turisas saved the best for last, with "Stand Up and Fight" and "Battle Metal" at the end.

I had fun, although besides for Alestorm, I didn't have the epic folk pit experience I was hoping for. I also expected more of the pirate/Viking (Varangian) rivalry, and perhaps more songs from Turisas. It would have been great for if they could have pulled out "Rasputin" or "Those Were the Days." If not at Paganfest, where else? But still, for folk metal fans, these 3 bands in one place is not a show to miss.

The Agonist, Blackguard, Alestorm, Kamelot - 8/27/11 at Jaxx, Springfield, VA

We braved Hurricane Irene to go see this show and I'm glad we did. Actually the hurricane wasn't that bad - we were so far inland that all we got was a lot of rain, a little wind, a few downed branches and a lot of flying leaves.

We got there near the end of The Agonist's set, in time to hear "Thank You Pain" and one other song. The Agonist is a death metal band, which sounds like you take Arch Enemy style vocals over really fast, thrashy guitars. Their vocalist is pretty amazing, but they lack something in the guitars - more melodies or epic riffs. But they sounded better live - really heavy, and Alissa's clean singing voice (which I don't like as much as her growls) seemed deeper and more fitting with the music. I would probably have enjoyed the set although I don't know if I would have gone on the floor.

Blackguard, a self-described "epic metal" band from Montreal, was next. (This is the first time I've heard a band refer to themselves as "epic metal." I guess it's a new genre for those bands that just sound EPIC without really fitting into death, power, symphonic or folk metal?) I was pretty pumped from their headlining show three days before, although S. and I were a little worried that they would play the same exact set. (They almost did. They didn't play "Fear of All Flesh" this time, that was the only difference.) They did play "Sarissas" again and this time the pit was awesome. The crowd was a little lax though - for the first few songs, they didn't start to mosh until Paul (vocalist) gave the signal. S.said they sounded better at the headline show; I didn't notice any difference. I think I was too busy moshing, and thinking about folk pits, to critique their sound - perhaps not something I should admit on a music review blog! But I am honest to a fault :D

Then came Alestorm, which topped Amon Amarth as the best concert experience I've ever had. Alestorm is what I would call a "pirate metal" band from Scotland. They use a lot of jig-like melodies but are also VERY heavy. To my glee, the singer looked just like he does in the video for "Keelhauled" - frizzly black hair and a ragged white shirt, the image of a pirate. Their performance was excellent - they didn't suffer from the problem a lot of folk and melodic metal bands have, which is that the heaviness drowns out the melodies. Their melodies came out loud and clear, even in the heaviest segments. But the best part of the experience was the crowd. Wild crazy pits for nearly every song. Jigging and headbanging together in a line for "Nancy the Tavern Wench" and "Captain Morgan's Revenge." I even almost got S. into the pit for "Wenches and Mead" and saw (and participated in) a fair bit of jigging in the pit. My watch broke and I got thrown face first onto the floor (by someone that was trying to help me up from a fall just before that no less XD) but it was worth it. Until I go to Wacken or see someone like Megadeth up close, this holds the title of BEST SHOW EVER.

(Side note: Sometime during this concert, I figured out how to mosh with minimal pain from my epic long hair. Luckily, it tends to get stuck between people rather than on people - so when it gets stuck, what I have to do is stop, wait a moment for the people to move apart again and then I can continue. mwahaha.)


"Rum" video. It's not very clear but only one I can find from this show :( I was somewhere in the middle for this song but you can't really make anything out. It's funny how mosh pits look so slow on video, when they feel so crazy at the time XD

I was pretty wiped out after Alestorm, but somehow I stayed standing during Kamelot. They were great, even with Fabio Leone from Rhapsody of Fire as the singer (their singer Roy Khan left the band earlier this year). Anyone who is wondering whether seeing the show is worth it without Roy, I would say YES! Definitely go. You will not be disappointed. Fabio has an amazing voice. (Caveat, though: I haven't followed Kamelot that closely, so the difference wasn't as noticeable to me as perhaps a more diehard fan.) But S., who has listened to Kamelot a lot more, also approved of Fabio. They also had a few special guests including Simone Simons of Epica and the singer from Amaranth.

All right. This is about a week later and I'm finally recovered from the this concert (although a little sore from industrial club dancing two nights ago). Next concert coming up will also be killerrrrr because it is Arch Enemy, DevilDriver, Skeletonwitch and CHTHONIC this Thursday at Ram's Head Live, Baltimore. CHTHONICCCCCC!!!!!

There should also be a book review soon because I have finished reading Tuomas Karhumieli...But when will I have time to type it up???