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As much as I enjoy the Scottish summer (it’s marginally less dark and cold than usual) I always welcome the incoming colder months. There’s always a bit of a gig drought during the warmer season as bands are off playing festivals etc… The last gig I attended was Kiss (on their “last” ever tour. The last tour before the next one possibly) way back in July. Now that winter is fast approaching my gig calendar seems to be filling up again and the first gig to break my dry spell is the unicorn loving Anglo-Swiss symphonic power metal band Gloryhammer.
The venue tonight is the Church in Dundee. Like many church buildings in Scotland, with the decline of church-going, it has been re-purposed. While some of these former places of worship have been modified to house bingo halls, restaurants, private houses and the like, it’s great to see that it’s now a music venue. So it’s a couple of new experiences for me tonight. I’ve never been to a metal gig in a church before and I’ve also never been to a gig in Dundee before. Most bands play only Glasgow or Edinburgh if they come to Scotland. It’s nice to see something in Dundee for a change although it might have been more appropriate for Gloryhammer, given their debut albums title, to play in the kingdom of Fife.
First up tonight is Italian metal band Wind Rose. Unfortunately due to a misplaced press pass sheet by the venue I missed a good portion of the bands set. I noticed many in the crowd did too as the queue of fans were still coming into the venue as Wind Rose were playing. When I finally made it in the band were already in full flow with the crowd jumping, chanting, and head banging along to their brand of upbeat folky metal. Looking like extras that have just stepped off a Game of Thrones set, clad in furs and armour, they enthusiastically run through a set full of crowd pleasers such as “Drunken Dwarves”, “The Breed of During” and the gloriously silly “Diggy Diggy Hole”. Singer Francesco Cavalieri, an imposing dwarfish looking figure with huge shoulder pads, leans over the crowd and encourages them to sing along at every opportunity. The sound in the venue tonight is very good and band finish off their enjoyable set of feel good party drinking anthems with “To Erebor”. Good fun band and a great start to the night.
If I’m honest then I have to admit that it’s special guests Beast in Black that I’m really here to see. I’ve listened to Battle Beast since their debut album and when guitarist, and songwriter, Anton Kabanen broke away to do his own thing I was happy to hear that the resulting music was every bit as good as his previous band. After a triumphant and cinematic sounding intro tape, that wouldn’t have sounded out of place in a Conan movie, the Finnish metal band hit the stage. “Cry Out for a Hero” from the new album “From Hell with Love” is a great opener to start the gig with. Guitarist Kasperi Heikkinen and bassist Mate Molnar are all smiles while knocking this one out. Singer Yannis Papadopoulos jumps around the stage and his vocals are just incredible. He has such range and control and manages to produce a studio like performance even while hopping around. Unfortunately founding member guitarist Anton was ill and couldn’t play tonight. Even with one man down their performance is still phenomenal. I was particularly impressed by Kasperi’s blistering but melodic guitar solos. As technically challenging as they looked he still never played a bum note, absolutely flawless, and his sound really cut through the mix. While the insanely catchy song melodies probably have more in common with Abba than the likes of Slayer somehow it still works very well. The energy from the band is infectious and they have the Dundee crowd singing and jumping along. There are no weak songs in this set tonight, every one a future classic, so it’s difficult to pick a favourite but the biggest crowd reaction seemed to be for “Sweet True Lies”. Fantastic set from these guys and I hope to see them do a headlining show of their own some day.
I’ve seen many bands over the years. I’ve heard many intro tapes and I’ve seen many opening videos and gimmicks. I have however never seen a gig starting with a cardboard cut-out of Tom Jones in front of a mic stand with “Delilah” playing in the background. Tonight I have. It’s an unusual start to to a gig but it probably sets the tone for the silliness to come. Gloryhammer don’t seem to be a band that take themselves too seriously and it’s a surreal sight to see so many metal-heads swaying and singing along to the crooning tones of Mr Jones.
When the band finally hit the stage, dressed in fantastically ridiculous outfits, unfortunately the sound which has been crystal clear for the previous bands seems to have muddied up slightly. To my ear it sounded like the volume had been pumped up a bit at the expense of musical clarity. They still sounded good but just not as clear as they could have. The crowd however seem to be loving it and sing along with singer Thomas Winkler who appears to have dressed up as some kind of comic book character for the evening. Possibly a cross between an elf, the green lantern and the green goblin. Dressed in a green cape and silver trousers he has the kind of stage presence that’s difficult to miss. He has fun chatting to the crowd between songs and entertains us with stories of his hammer hitting goblins in space and other such nonsense. Thomas gets his massive hammer out as often as he can and at one point enjoys a mock battle with the keyboard player (who’s dressed as some kind of dungeons and dragons inspired wizard).
By the number of Gloryhammer t-shirts, and unicorn face masks, in the crowd it’s obvious that they are the main draw tonight and the music inspires multiple crowd surfers. Thomas encourages the fans to bring him beer and it’s an amusing sight to see surfers carry drinks over the heads of the audience and hand it to the band. Regrettably they all seemed to buy Red Stripe. Red Stripe!!! C’mon they did sell Guinness at the bar guys.
The band play through a set of entertaining cheesy nerdy power metal silliness where every song is an anthemic fist banging sing-along. If you’re a Gloryhammer fan then you would have loved it. Personally, as good a show as Gloryhammer put on, I still enjoy the music of Beast in Black more so I’d have to give them the edge this evening. All in all though a great night though.
Review – Martin Patterson
Images – Lara Vischi
