Sara Hammerzmith

So, off from Zürich I went around 12, having Monika accompanying me halfway. I was starting to get sick due to the long queueing that went on yesterday in the cold rain, but what am I if not a warrior and keep going despite whatever illness I have. OK, if I had a superbad illness that would be incredibly contagious, then perhaps but a common cold? Never.

Arrived alive and well in Pratteln, I head over to my hotel and then out and about to catch something to eat. I heard it can be good to eat. Got back to the hotel, got ready for the show and walked down to the venue. I’ve been here before, so it’s relatively easy for me to just find my way around.

I arrived around half an hour before Elvenking hit the stage. From what I understood, this is a co-headline tour and they take turns being the “headline” band, so for this evening, of course, Elvenking was first. I had kind of hoped – and no offence to them – that Brothers of Metal would be first in case the sickness got worse. But oh well, I survived worse stuff.

Elvenking

So, right on scheduled time they started, and came out with a raging energy. I’ll admit that I don’t know much about this band prior and never found the time to properly check them out, so I regret to inform that I can’t do a proper rundown of them, BUT, I did, however really enjoy them!

They put on a good and energetic show, although you could relatively early tell this was a primarily Brothers of Metal kind of audience. Thank you, Elvenking!

And then the wait began, and soon enough, the intro started to roll…

Brothers of Metal

They all came on stage, and announced “The Death of the God of Light” and they all rushed on stage and opened up this show in the most energetic way possible.

Straight up after this intro, the thunder and flutes came out of the speakers, witnessing that “Njord” was about to be next on the list, so from one death straight into an adventure we went. Very well recieved, and a perfect execution from the band themselves. The audience was, as already stated, clearly a Brothers of Metal oriented one, and then “Prophecy of Ragnarök” came on. This song is all the rage, isn’t it?

And I say it again – if one can windmill through the entire song of that, one truly is a metal warrior, am I right or what.

“Tyr” was next on the list, letting us pay tribute to one of our Gods, before paying tribute to ALL of them in “Gods of War”. And this song too, is all the rage. This band is all the rage, I’d say. “Brothers Unite” from the new album followed tune, and I just love how they switch to Swedish in the midst of it.

And again, the flawless and energetic execution always gets me. These are some well talented and skilled musician, nailing everything from start to finish without even backing down on the energy they radiate, which reflects back onto them from the crowd. Without energy on stage, it’s hard to get it from the crowd as well, you know?

Everyone on stage sat down except from the speaker, who started to go over the tales of “Concerning Norns” before they played probably their most popular song “Yggdrasil”. And this song still gets to me, every time. It really is, the best metal song ever written. At least that’s my current feeling anyway.

“Chain Breaker”, the little odd one on their recent album “Emblas Saga” came next. It surprised me a bit, but I don’t even complain. They asked prior if we knew how wolves sounded, and it took some time for the audience to get it, but they became quite the wolfpack!

Party time is up as “The Mead Song” was next on the list, and sitting down and jumping up NEVER gets old. Ever. Party through and through. The primary speaker on stage made some jokes about it being only one song left, when in reality, he meant the song “One”. And you know..

There are many songs were Ylva shines, and she always does. But she shines just a little extra in this song, and if she isn’t just the greatest, I don’t know who is.

Party time again as “Defenders of Valhalla” came next on the list, and the whole room was in one giant party. Sadly, all of it was about to come to an end with “Siblings of Metal” and “Fire, Blood and Steel”.

And this show was nothing but PURE amazingness. Seriously. This was perfection beyond anything else, and I’m so happy that I fit all of this into my tourschedule. So far, this might actually be the highlight of the tour. And it can be hard to beat that.

After the show, I headed back to the hotel and pretty much just crashed.

Tomorrow, back to Zürich and onward to other endavours.

// Sara

This entry was posted on January 28, 2020 at 7:25 pm and is filed under Concerts, Music, The Great Tour 2020, Uncategorized with tags brothers of metal, the pagan thor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.