Photo’s: Maarten de Boer

On a cold Saturday afternoon I get over to the city of Arnhem for a blackmetal event. No, not directly where you readers expect me to be, but the headliners for this evening are MoonsorroW and Primordial, and this makes it really interesting to take a look. Especially because Primordial is one of my favorite bands and MoonsorroW is the favorite for years.

At half past two the first band kicks off, Thulcandra. At first I’m looking for some contacts and then I read a bit about Scottish Fairytales, about the band I can be really short. It’s blackmetal, raw and screaming blackmetal, as you expect on this festival, so it’s not really my thing.

After the gig I find Gerard, and together we watch the second band, Fen, a bit more atmospherically blackmetal, the sound is quite nice though it doesn’t really moves me. The podium presentation was terrible. After Fen Tulus follows up, a band who I like just a bit better, mostly because of their podium presentation, this was pretty good and so was their sound. Fast songs where played quick after each other. Finally the crowd moved their heads a bit more and there was something we can start to call sphere. But still we descided to get a döner because we stood there for quite a while, and we certainly didn’t want to miss the next band.
Moonsorrow
So we returned in time to see the best part of the evening, MoonsorroW.
These Fins played a different setlist than they use to do. But with every show I watch, they really touch my heart. As usual they opened with Tähdetön. The crowd was a bit surprised with this sound, because MoonsorroW isn’t blackmetal at all. In my opinion at this point in the show the keyboard wasn’t loud enough in the mix and this stayed all the way to the end. But MoonsorroW just continued with their next song, Taistelu Pohjolasta if I’m not utterly mistaken, but my Finnish ain’t that good. This is one of the songs they don’t use to play and I was really happy that they finally brought these one up.
Then they brought us a song about somewhere where it would be far to cold for all of us. A song where I would stand Wintersun alike with my eyes closed loving every note played. Jotunheim.
Wow, what a wonderful song this is! But I miss the keyboard even more in this song, fortunately this was made up with wonderful guitars and Villes awesome vocal work.
The final song was the land of the dead, Kuolleiden Maa, which is the best finishing touch on every concert!
Alright, I’ve seen MoonsorroW giving better gigs, but that’s only because of the keyboard and the very lazy crowd.
Score: 7/10

After MoonsorroW it was up to Aura Noir, an old timer in the blackmetal, but where I expected everyone to go insane, everyone stood ground and watched.
Never the less, they played really good. Though the volume was way to loud which forced me to move to the back off the building.

Primordial
Then it was time for Primordial to finish my evening, there would be another band afterwards which I didn’t really had to see. About Primordial I can be really short, WOW!

One way to give awaying an amazing gig, start off with No grave is deep enough and end with Empire falls. With in between a setlist including masterworks like, Heathen Tribes, As Rome Burns, Bloodied yet Unbowed and The Mouth of Judas. The sound of these Irishmen was perfect and the frontman was intimidating as always. Intensely enjoy the entire performance, and now I can only hope that these gentlemen would be so polite to visit our region soon again. The only negative thing I can think of this performance was, once again, the very lacks response of the crowd.
Score: 9/10