15-02-2009 Vreid

Supports: Iskald, Kampfar; Venue: Dynamo, Eindhoven (Tilburg)
By: Elvira Visser

On a Sunday evening it was time for some Norse Metal at the Dynamo club in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. There were three bands playing this evening and I actually only knew one, which is Kampfar. I wanted to see them for a while but could not. The venue was not that crowded and it took a while before the audience got a little out of their shells. I mean Iskald was the first band on stage, but when the were trying to connect to the audience it seems like we were all silent zombies. The band was founded in 2005 by Simon Larsen and Aage Krekling. Their music is inspired like many other Nordic bands by Norse Mythologies. On stage they have two extra musicians with them. On the album Simon Larsen also plays the keys and although they sounds nice on tape, it might have been nice to see them play a bit. The band’s performance was not that enthusiastic but the audience was very silent.

When the intro tune from Kampfar played people found their way to the stage again and it seemed more crowded. I think many people came to see the band as their merchandise stand already sold a lot. The band brings pagan folklore metal. The first time I heard their cd, which I received to review I thought how the hell am I going to write something about this. Black metal is not really my thing, but they surprised me in a very good way which resulted in me being here tonight. The idea and atmosphere you get from them on CD you get even more on stage. Their front man Dolk is very charismatic, knows how to act on stage. Mumbling, looking at the audience, demanding to clap, shout or just enjoy as long as you are there. His voice is quite sharp wish is in nice contrast with the melodic music. It is not one chunk of noise. These guys really lived up to my expectations, they were very good on stage and it was not weird that the crowd wanted more when the left the stage. As the band seemed to enjoy the gig themselves they returned with smiles on their faces. Saying something about being on tour and seeing the same people supporting them and what a great feeling it gave them.

The second head liner this evening was Vreid and for me it was better if they had swapped places. I mean the appearance of the front man is in such great contrast with Kampfar’s Dolk. Vreids singer Sture rather hides behind his long hair and does not move a lot on stage. I think that together with just an amazing performance from Kampfar they really had to do their best to impress me. The Norwegian guys from Vreid played most work from their latest CD “Milorg”. Ese and Hváll are the ones that keep the crowed occupied, walking around and interacting with the audience. Their metal is also a lot more brave then Kampfar’s and I think the audience needed to take a step back. After a couple of tracks I was used to their sound and enjoyed myself. They finished right on time for me to catch my train, so luckily I did not have to miss anything. This Sunday night with Norwegian metal was a good one!

More pictures of this gig available at photographicretentions.nl

Links:
Iskald MySpace
Kampfar MySpace
Vreid MySpace
Official