Location: De Baroeg, Rotterdam
20 November 2011
Photography: Metalshots.com (1st day of tour in Mullheim, DE)

With all the big Rock the Nation tours going around lately, one should almost forget there are also some smaller tours dwelling around. Black Trolls over Europe is one of them, a tour which has his third edition already. And also this time there a big range of different folk, and there are no less than 6 bands getting the opportunity to let us get to know their music.

Cruadalach
At our arrival, there appeared to be a lot shuffled with the timetable, so we got Cruadalach at First instead of Chain of Dogs. It also started somewhat later as planned.
So Cruadalach was the First band to perform today. On CD it doesn’t appeal to really, but they appeared to be nice to see live. These Czech band plays a kind of straight folk-metal, with the use of violin, cello, and all kinds of flutes. With 8 people on stage, it became a little crowded on the small stage of the Baroeg.
Singer Jan helped out here, he’s could mainly be found in front of the stage between the audience instead of on stage. The engergy of the vocalist has his effect on the people already there, soon there was a lot of headbanging going on.
All in all a very good performance of this highly energetic livband!
Score: 4/5

Chain of Dogs
It was up to Chain of Dogs to defends our Dutch pride in this tour. And I can be short about this they did this very well! De band took off with ‘Good to go’, so we knew where this was heading to. This energetic mix of folk and metal, was highly appreciated with the audience.
There was again a lot of headbanging by the small audience. The band played eager and managed to pull the listeners in the music, by a contest ‘to sing the loudest’ at the song ‘the hobbit killer.’
Very nice band, and it clearly shows Dutch band aren’t the less compared to other bands from all over the world!
Score: 4/5

Waylander
Waylander was the band I looked most forward to personally. This soon appeared to be a disappointment. Despite playing a tight set, it was all very washed-out. A pity, because on CD they sound nice.
Score: 2/5

Odroerir
Odroerir was a little bit out of line with the rest of the bands. All the others choose to play the heavier side of folk, more like metal, Odroerir takes it a lot easier. A typical form of German folk was played.
They played well and the sound was fine, they were very enthusiastic on stage, but there was something missing. Because of the fact it was all a lot less heavy compared to the other bands it all seemed a little washed-out. They could use a little bit more spirit. Some songs were also much too long, which wasn’t helping the performance.
Biggest trump of this band is the polyphonic singing, which was very nice, because of the good sound they had.
In short: it was a decent performance of these Germans, despite the fact they were a little bit esoteric. With a little bit more spirit this should become a nice live-band!
Score: 3/5

XIV Dark Centuries
XIV Dark Centuries is a band I’ve seen before, but always as a support for Heidevolk. They couldn’t entertain me then, but today was different!
The band played their melodic Black/Folk-metal extremely tight, and enthusiastically. The vocalist excused a lot for his voice between the songs, according to him it wasn’t good because of him being ill. This wasn’t noticeable in the songs, he roared the roof off.
XIV Dark Centuries was the surprise of the evening for me. A sound performance, fine and varied songs and a fine sound. I’ll keep an eye on this band definitivily!
Score: 4/5

Suidakra
Suidakra was the last band today. Because of the fact the start was around noon at 8.30 pm already.
The band had to settle with only a half full hall. Despite of giving the full 100% and the singer often ending in almost a split playing guitar. There was a lot of contact with the audience, which wasn’t answered alway very determined.
Despite of their tight playing, the songs didn’t come out well all the time. This was mainly due to the frequent use of samples, which were lost in a wall of sound. This caused the songs to sound less melodic and approachable.
Although it was rather quiet at this evening, I look back at a very good edition, with a great variety of bands.
Score: 4/5