By Mikkel Gaardsted Jensen
This week’s Saturday evening brought the last and 17th show in 17 days of the Heathen Crusade tour to Markthalle in Hamburg, Germany. How this show wasn’t sold out is beyond my comprehension and a huge mistake missing by those who didn't show up.
Der Weg Einer Freiheit:
Der Weg Einer Freiheit delivered an audial and visual raping of the soul. Intense blast beats and heavy guitars vigorously rolled over Markthalle with no intention of leaving any human unimpressed. This is the way to get the crowd ready for the bands to come. Splendid show and musicianship was the motto of this evening. The brief breath catching moments during their show were during the beautiful melodic passages both between and in between the songs. Solid show!
🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺 out of 6
Setlist:
Einkehr
Skepsis, Part I
Zeichen
Requiem
Aufbruch
Moonsorrow:
“Warning! This review is heavily biased!”
Moonsorrow is a band that tells you a story through their music where you won’t have any need to translation of the songs into English/whatever to understand the context of it all. During most of the change over, the PA-system played some sort of Finnish drunken gibberish on loop, that must have been done to invoke the true feeling of what is to come; despair and depression. The band clearly wanted to focus on the gloomier songs of Moonsorrows repertoire.Not a single song of their two first full lengths, Suden Uni and Voimasta ja Kunniasta which definitely aren't as dark as the latest albums weren’t present of the setlist. Kivenkantaja from the same named record and third full length from 2003 were present. the From Pimeä to Mimisbrunn and to the end of all, Kuolleiden Maa the room was filled with total despair.
Moonsorrow is a band that has mastered the arts of delivering songs to perfection, include the audience and lighting the room, while still maintaining the underground feel of a DIY show, something that isn’t seen in many other bands. I personally get the feel that this band, becomes better and better with age, and I can’t wait to see what is to come for Moonsorrow in coming years.
After this demonstration I have trouble seeing how Primordial is going to keep energy this elevated. It will be a challenge.
ᛟ ᛟ ᛟ ᛟ ᛟ ᛟ out of 6
Setlist:
Pimeä
Ruttolehto incl. Päivättömän päivän kansa
Suden Tunti
Kivenkantaja
Mimisbrunn
Kuolleiden Maa
Primordial:
After a
short changeover Primordial entered the stage to a visibly drained crowd that
surely needed some help to get back on the horse and keep the energy going. Sadly,
it took more than half of the set to get people going again and by that time there
was a visible amount of people had left for the bar, the balcony or perhaps even
gone home. Sad to see. Nevertheless, Primordial delivered like they always do,
pure aggression and tales of the worst sides of man. I personally looked really
forward to seeing Primordial again, but I was also visibly drained after
Moonsorrows show, I on the other hand decided to stay through the whole show,
because it is Primordial after all and the last part of the show proved why I
was right staying. Primordial is one of a kind, no one sounds like them and they
are the masters in what there are doing. I fondly remember their first indoor
show in Denmark back in September 2016 and I always hope their shows will come close
to the feeling of that night. This, sadly wasn’t one of them, but it won’t keep me from going to another of
their shows in the future. Hail to Ireland!
⚰️⚰️⚰️⚰️ out of 6
Setlist:
Nail Their
Tongues
Gods to the
Godless
Exile
Amongst the Ruins
No Grave
Deep Enough
To Hell or
the Hangman
As Rome
Burns
Stolen
Years
Traitors
Gate
Upon Our
Spiritual Deathbed
The Coffin
Ships
Heathen
Tribes
