Alphayn / Interregnum / Knaat / Dystersol 12.10.2019, Viper Room Vienna

On the 12.10.2019 the Event – Management Team of Volk Metal Jacket invited us to a headliner show of Alphayn with the supports of underground sizes like Interregnum, Knaat and Dystersol. The show took place in the holy halls of the Viper Room, one of the most established Metal locations in Vienna and finally the doors opened at 19:00. To describe the Viper Room in few words, it is offering two floors, while the concert hall is located in the lower floor of the venue, offering you enough space for around 250-300 people, space for offering merchandize, a nice bar and of course a stage equipped with all light and tone technics you need.

Dystersol ( Aflenz (AUT) //  Former: Folk Metal / Later: Modern Metal )

Dystersol was founded in 2013 in Aflenz (Austria) and already released two full length albums, namely “Welcome the Dark Sun” in 2014 and “The Fifth Age of Men” in 2018 and are signed at the Label WormHoleDeath based in Italy. While their first album had a lot of folk influences, their second release can be considered as a pure Modern Metal Album. Dystersol were delivering us a solid show and the songs “Winterking” and “Down to Nothing” had been my personal favorites. With having Dystersol as an Opener of an Event like this, you can do nothing wrong, as the guys out of Styria delivered a very strong start into a long metal evening.

Knaat ( Munich (GER) //  Pagan Metal / Folk Metal )

What to say about those 6 warriors out from Bavaria. After a short Intro to their first song “Die Lichtung” a set full of entertainment began. In my interview with them, they told me that a lot of people consider them as a real good “live band” and I can really say that they did not exaggerate. It was my first show of Knaat and they got me from their first riff they played. After performing four songs of their Debut “Die Lichtung”, including of course their most famous song of their first release “Unter heiligen Hufen” they started playing as well some songs from the new album. With “Kräuter im Arsch”, “Holzaar” and “Kraudmo” I had personal the feeling that they had the crowd fully under their control. It was really amazing to see and to hear the difference between the styles of the old and the new songs. Equally which style you prefer you can say that Knaat delivered a show, which was satisfying all of us. The small set was ending up with the song “Spielmann” and I can really only recommend everybody who have the opportunity to experience them live to do so. They have a great show and are entertaining as hell!

Interregnum ( Graz (AUT) //  Former: Pagan Metal / Later: Melodic Death / Death Metal )

Interregnum from Graz was already founded in the year 2006 and are counting to the pioneers of the Pagan Metal Scene in Austria. They already released 2 full length albums, “Bloodlust” in 2008 and “Asenzorn” in 2015. In their set-list for this particular show, they were only playing new songs of their upcoming release (no release date announced so far). What is clearly to say is that Interregnum refined their style and was presenting us that evening melodic death, sometimes nearly pure death metal combined with German growls, I guess still mainly about the Viking area or Historical times. I only could hear out track names as “Heldenlieder” (Songs of Heroes), “Des Menschen Bürde” (Burden of Men-kind) or “Eisenpfahl” (Iron Pile). The harshness of their songs were blowing me away. For sure nothing for fans of Melodic Folk Metal, but everybody who sometimes like a punch of good Underground Death Metal should follow up, what Interregnum will hopefully present us in the near future.

Alphayn ( Vienna (AUT) // Pagan/Folk Metal )

Finally at 23:00 the local main act Alphayn conquered the stage and started with “Alarich” their Headliner show. Alphayn presented us a very good mix of their two albums “Heimkehr” 2014 and “Wanderschaft” 2018. For me personally the highlights had been the performances of the songs “Heute Nacht” and “Solverschlinger”. Without no doubt Alphayn has the gift to put themselves into scene and to strongly interact with the audience.

Their kind of “Celtic Warrior Paint”, their “Outfits” combined with this special kind of “music” is just the perfect match. In the middle of the set they also surprised us with a new song called “Fafnir”, which will be released on the next album. Overall Alphayn’s show had no weakness at all and in the end, the time was flying by too quickly, so that their 60 minute set reached the end with “Der Sonne entgegen” and with one encore song “Heimkehr”. However the fans had been hot and demanded more. Alphayn decided to play again “Der Sonne entgegen” and the singer Chiara joined the audience off stage having a strong interaction with the crowd. Alphayn just delivered us a beautiful evening with a tinnitus and a little pain in the neck, which will at least last for three days. Thank you J

Shout Outs to the Event Manager!

What the Event Managing Crew “Volk Metal Jacket“ presented to us that evening can’t be taken automatically as granted. “Volk Metal Jacket” is a small Event Managing Crew from Graz, which is really trying to support the Independent and Underground bands in giving them a stage for fair conditions. Of course “Volk Metal Jacket” is not only supporting Folk Metal bands, but are giving you a wide variety of great bands reaching from Hard Rock/Heavy Metal over Death up to Black Metal. If you live in Austria, Slovakia, Hungary or Slovenia I can recommend you to check out the events of “Volk Metal Jacket” on their homepage listed below. Please note the next Folk Metal Event already stands for 2020 when “Volk Metal Jacket “will present us Furor Gallico, Tulsadoom, Dvalin and Nemoreus again in the Viper Room in Vienna. For sure I will be there.
( https://www.facebook.com/VolkMetalJacket/ )

Review and Photography by Juergen