19-10-2016 Powerwolf

[schema type=”event” evtype=”Event” name=”19-10-2016 Power Wolf” description=”support: Civil War By: Juho Karila & Laureline Tilkin-Franssens” sdate=”2016-10-19″ street=”Nosturi” city=”Helsinki” country=”FI” ]

The Holy Metal Mass came for a club tour in the Nordic countries for the very first time. 19 October was the date all sinners gathered to ask for forgiveness and enjoy Powerwolf at Nosturi, Helsinki. Both of us had never been to a club show of the band, so reason the more to join the celebration and witness for ourselves if these preachers are able to convert us to their religion.

The first band scheduled for the night was Civil War. Civil war is a power metal band hailing from Falun, Sweden. For most of us Falun probably rings a bell: the band was founded in 2012 by ex-Sabaton members. In terms of similarities between them and Sabaton is that they adopted the same lyrical themes: historical battles. They have two albums on their plate and a new album coming up in the beginning of November.

Civil War opened up their show with “USS Monitor”. For the rest of their set they treated us with 8 other tracks taken from both of their albums. Unfortunately they didn’t treat us with a taste from new material of their upcoming album. In general they performed well, playing very skillfully and they seem to be played into each other as well, interacting both with each other and the audience.  A bit of a downside is that perhaps the limited space, caused by the Powerwolf-props, prevented them from moving around the stage as they pleased, except for the keyboardist and the drummer. Other than that the atmosphere in the crowd seemed to be overall positive. Although the band should be a bit careful in declaring their guitarist Rikard Sundén as king of the sauna, as there were some competitors in the crowd who had already declared themselves king (we’re in Finland after all).

By Laureline Tilkin-Franssens

Civil War was a new curiosity and I had no idea what the guys had been up to since they left Sabaton so I was quite excited to get to see them. I thought I had prepared for the show well by embracing the battlegroup’s latest album: Gods & Generals but as much as I’d wanted to like the band, there was something that always seemed a bit off.

When we walked up the stairs to the venue and begun setting up our gear, I tried to look at the band like I had never heard of them before, which eased my mind a little. But I knew Sabaton and I knew the guys from their former band and they were always putting up a show, so my expectations were getting higher and higher as the showtime drew near. And when it begun, I found out that the problems I found in their album still existed on stage as well: sounding weak, vocalist not sounding convincing and a part of me wanted to like them but they just had lost their edge. What they would need is a more aggressive sound and output as a band, if you sing about battles and fights, you can’t just stand idly with your instruments.

As I looked around, I was surprised by the amount of fans the band had succeeded to gather around and there were a lot of their shirts to be seen. I felt kinda bad for the audience as the band was very immobile and inactive on the stage. Made me wonder if it was because the stage was divided by the main act’s props but I’ve seen bands being more energetic and handling stage-presence in even more crowded situations. Maybe they were having a bad day, I don’t know but you should still at least acknowledge your audience. This is not how you pull a gig.

By: Juho Karila

Setlist: 1. USS Monitor, 2. Saint Patrick’s Day, 3. Braveheart, 4. Gettysburg, 5. Gods and Generals, 6. Schindler’s Ark, 7. Bay of Pigs, 8. I Will Rule the Universe, 9. Rome is Falling

Civil War cleared the stage for the Heavy Metal Mass to begin. Powerwolf is a German power metal band formed in 2003. They are mostly recognized for their theatrical performances in their shows and a recurring theme in their music is religion. Nosturi transformed for the occasion from being our beloved traditional concert venue into a heavy metal church. The props and setting of the stage provided us the beginning of a magical evening. The congregation was ready for the mass to begin and thus Powerwolf to enter the stage.

With Attila Dorn as our preacher, the flock got a both entertaining and musically on point show. The show itself started off by the title track from their newest quite “Blessed & Possessed”. This was a great opener, but as all Powerwolf songs are really catchy, it wouldn’t have made a difference to begin with another song, any song would have served the same purpose. With almost a full house, the concert kicked off smoothly.

The setlist consisted out of a lot of gems from their repertoire, but also some newer songs. Some examples are eg. “Amen and Attack”, “Armata Stringoi”, “We Drink Your Blood”. With a total of 16 songs, we were treated very well. Because of the catchiness of the songs, it was very easy for the crowd to sing along. Falk Maria Schlegel has two purposes in the band, one is of course to play keyboards, the other one is to warm up the crowd. Attila Dorn is not only a talented singer, but also a great actor. This became really clear the moment we had to sing along, he showed us the perfect amount of craziness and how to really act as if we were possessed. A real preacher. The combination of them both, has a great effect on the atmosphere and provides us definitely with the memory of a special evening. The attention maybe goes mostly to these two, but the three remaining band members should definitely not be underestimated. Matthew and Charles Greywolf’s sneering guitar melodies in combination with Roel van Helden’s exceptional drumming, make this quintet what they are: a band that is simply meant to be together, as if they were born to play together. With the most incredible chemistry on stage. The band’s raw energy and pleasure is like a virus, that infects us to be shouting along all night long.

“All We Need Is Blood” was the harbinger of the unfortunate end of our mass. However it didn’t really end there, Falk Maria Schlegel and Attila Dorn engaged the audience into singing their outro “Wolves Against The World”with together them. The audience clearly didn’t want to say goodbye yet to our preachers of the night, after all we were all gathered there to celebrate metal as our religion and after the message was spread, we were able to go home devoted. Amen.

By: Laureline Tilkin-Franssens

By the time Powerwolf hit the stage, the previous disappointment had faded away from my mind. I had seem this wolfpack once before this year already, so I knew what to expect for sure. They were stunning before at South Park Festival in Tampere, but a club stage is alway more intimate. Our small chat with the band just hours before the showtime, had revealed that the band was eager for it too.

So the expectations were high and many seemed to agree that the time was due for a Powerwolf club invasion as Nosturi was nearly filled to the brim by metal hungry fans. And slowly they stepped up onto the stage, one by one, emitting cheerful shouts, gleeful screams and ecstatic squeals from the audience right before the first song. There was a sense of magic in the air as like the people would had gathered around for an unholy communion. The band sure noticed the eager anticipation and made sure to take a hold of everything by showing a complete opposite of an example than the support act.

Thinking of the technical aspects, having the audience woven in their grip, Powerwolf performed like professionals with never breaking the connection with the audience. they switched places and moved a lot, yet they did it so nimbly you could tell it was from sheer joy for being there for the night, instead of a routine. The stage-presence was so natural and whole performance was starting to resemble more of a spectacle than a regular show, which fascinated me due its being only to their charisma that had got everyone impressed by the stunning professionalism.

Powerwolf is quite an odd one because all of their songs are so spot-on that it probably wouldn’t really matter too much what they’ll play and the crowd would melt. And they sure knew how to utilize their strenght by choosing songs from throughout their catalog. It also makes it harder to guess, unless you know, which of those songs are the ones they play the most, but it doesn’t matter because they sure didn’t let it show in their wild play.

If you want to see a show that’s really energetic, more than just your band coming to play for you, ecstatic and immersive, you need to see them. The band always plays out to their audience and from their heart, they want to take an active role in creating the night a memorable one and they clearly show their fun too in the process. While some bands this theatrical like to bring their show alive with extra accessories, Powerwolf can show you that only it takes is a great variety of songs and lots of eagerness and pure enthusiasm to the thing you’re doing. Even Nightwish could learn from these guys, as the show surely was the best of 2016 so far.

By: Juho Karila

Setlist: 1. Blessed & Possessed, 2. Coleus Sanctus, 3. Amen & Attack, 4. Sacred & Wild, 5. Army of the Night, 6. Ressurrection by Erection, 7. Armata Strigoi, 8. Dead Boys Don’t Cry, 9. Let There Be Night, 10. Werewolves of Armenia, 11. In the Name of God (Deus Vult), 12. We Drink Your Blood, 13. Lupus Dei

Photos by: Laureline Tilkin-Franssens & Juho Karila