TURISAS & STARKILL
Tivoli de Helling, Utrecht [nl]
24 February 2014

By: Gur
Photos: Eline

The venue was loaded, and this on a Monday-evening. The Helling isn’t very big, but still…. It has been a while since Turisas was in the Netherlands with a headlining show. With an albums which is rather fresh, it’s finally time for a little ‘battle metal’.

With them on this tour is Centuria Media records’ fresh blood Starkill. You could watch them as the support of Amorphis as we did in December last year.
They blew everybody away there with their energetic show. This time it was totally different and that’s a shame, because I think they have the potential to become a big act. The sound was poor, and the use of the lights was minimal, this caused it to be rather dull. The enthusiasm of the guys on the contrary was fabulous and the audience could appreciate this. The crowd reacted nice to the band. The refrain of the majestic song ‘This is our battle, this is our day’ was shouted along fiercely. The band from Chicago wasn’t leaning on their debut-album only, they played new songs as well like ‘Winter Desolation’

After a short Turisas bursts out. The band is fabulous to watch, red/black colours everywhere, clothing, stage-setting and make-up. Singer Mathias Nygård is a real frontman and knows how to work the audience.
With a varied setlist with fortunately songs of my favourite album Battle Metal. On the records the songs loose some energy sometimes when they drop into quieter pieces, and they sound like songs from the musical ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’, but I couldn’t notice this anywhere live.
The quiet pieces were as so bombastic the venue kept filled with energy. In short a fabulous live-band, if you ever get the chance, visit a concert of Turisas once.

Setlist

Ten more miles (Turisas2013)
Take the day! (Suaf)
To Holmgard and Beyond (the Vangarian Way)
Rex Regi Rebellis (Battle Metal)
501 (violin intro)
For your own Good (Turisas2013)
Battle metal (Battle Metal)
No Good story ever starts with drinking tea (Turisas2013)
We ride together (Turisas2013)
Miklagard Overture (the Vangarian Way)
Stand up and fight (Sauf)
Rasputin (the Vangarian Way)